Last Sunday, at the beautiful Mansion at Rosecliff in Briacliff Manor, BriCA–the Briarcliff Council for the Arts–had its inaugural program. Not only am I happy to be one of the members of the committee, but I am very pleased to say that I was part of the event. An impressive audience of about sixty friends and neighbors showed up, and there was a little something for everyone. Musically, we were first entertained first by the Lubin Singers, a group of high school singers from Briarcliff, and then during the program, by the most impressive Steven Santiago, also known as Opera Steve, who employs his powerful voice in an operatic style backed by hip hop beats. He sang two of the all-time can’t-miss hits, O Solo Mio and Santa Lucia, beautifully accompanied on guitar by Uly Millan. For devotees of the visual arts, local artists Paula Blum, Bob Fine, Diane Avra Kahn, Wendy Kessler-Effron, Gene Levine, Phyllis Neider, Don Penny, Bill Sharman and Roberta Socolof showed their paintings, sculptures and photographs. And for the literary minded, my friend Ben Cheever read from his book Strides, and I read from The Coup. It was a lovely event, and people seemed to really enjoy themselves. To my fellow committee members–Laura Mogil, Elsa Rubenstein, Paula Blum, Zen Eidel, Sharon Hussey, Wendy Kessler-Effron, Phyllis Neider, Elsie Smith, Roberta Socolof and Sara Vescio, who all worked so hard to get this organization and this event off the ground–I say thanks, congratulations and hurrah! Let’s do it again next week!
Pictured: Opera Steve, me, Ben and Uly. For more pictures of the event taken by Bob Rubenstein, click here.