Arts

ARTS UPDATE

By Raegan Russell, Director of Visual & Performing Arts

The spring trimester wrapped up a full year of live performances in the Patricia Baldwin Whipple Arts Center, including the Upper School Musical, My Fair Lady, the Middle School production, A Wrinkle in Time, and dance concerts for KindergartenGrade 12 students and the dance company, Dance Through Moments. The Spring Concert Series featured the strings, choral, and band ensembles as well as guitar classes, and private music lesson recitals took place in late April. Twenty-seven students were inducted into honor societies this spring.

DANCE

Spring dance at Berwick included a surprise performance by Middle School dancers on April 8 in honor of visiting Poet-in-Residence Meg Day. The dance was repeated at the Upper School assembly on April 22 and again in May during a Berwick concert series. Meanwhile, the Upper School Company Blue performed at the Earth Day assembly. From May 20 to 21, dancers in all divisions performed in front of a live audience for the first time in almost three years at the Kindergarten-Grade 12 Dance Concert and Company Dance Concert. The concert series, entitled Dance Through Moments, featured movements from different eras and moments in time, and incorporated jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary/ modern, and student choreography. Company dancers also debuted their production of Wonderland, an original take on the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland — all told through dance and movement.

Performing Arts

MUSIC

The Middle and Upper School Ensembles performed in the Spring Concert Series. The concerts featured chorus, string ensembles, and band ensembles from both divisions and Middle School students taking a combination of guitar and African drumming. The concerts highlighted the growth and skill development of individual students and the group as a whole. Several of the groups brought Middle and Upper School musicians together to perform a new repertoire. Another highlight of the Concert Series was bringing the chorus ensembles back to the stage to perform vocal repertoire on stage and in person after a two-year pandemic hiatus.

PRIVATE MUSIC LESSONS

Private music lessons returned to the Hilltop and continued virtually, with students at all grade levels enjoying personalized instruction in piano, orchestral, voice, guitar, ukulele, drums, and saxophone. Many of these students participated in the Berwick recitals on April 19 and 21.

Arts Honors Induction Ceremonies

The following students were recognized and inducted into National Arts Honors Societies at the Visual and Performing Arts Recognition event this spring:

NATIONAL HONORS SOCIETY OF DANCE

Rory Joslin ’23 Stella Ridolfi ’23 (Arts Pathway: Performing Arts)

TRIM HONOR SOCIETY INDUCTION CEREMONY

Michael Eddy ’24 Joey Fiermonti ’24 Isabella Gorman ’23 Grace Libby ’24 Becca Naftoly ’24 Eliza Naftoly ’24 Eliza Penfold ’24 Topher Peracchi ’24

INTERNATIONAL THESPIAN SOCIETY INDUCTION CEREMONY

Ginger Friedman ’24 Virginia Hudson ’24 Alex Osgood ’25 Will Shipley ’24 Sophie Sakthivel ’24 Hannah Mather ’22 Shivani Vora ’22 Griffin Nedelka ’25 Luke Dorsey ’25

THEATER

On March 25 and 26, Berwick’s theater students performed a stunning version of My Fair Lady, directed by Hevia Paxson, with Chel Illingworth as music director. The production featured a talented cast, a student tech crew, select student choreography, set designers, and student musicians playing from the pit orchestra. Noah Robie ’22 (Henry Higgins), Lily Mansfield ’22 (Colonel Pickering), Gabe Naftoly ’22 (Alfred P. Doolittle), Zhuowei Che ’22 (Lord Tarrington), Sasha Hoven ’22 (percussion, orchestra) and Parker Douglas ’22 (lighting design/tech leader) graced and lit the Berwick stage for the final time in their Upper School careers.

This year’s Middle School production of A Wrinkle in Time, based on the Madeleine L’Engle classic and adapted for the stage by Morgan Gould, took place on April 9. Directed by Stella Ridolfi ’23, it followed Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin as they traveled through time and space to save Meg’s father from IT. The show was filled with beloved characters from the book, bits of laughter, and great excitement.