Untermyer Gardens: Paradise on the Hudson
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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You don't expect to find a 43-acre garden with influences of Persia, Spain, Italy and India tucked away behind a hospital in Yonkers, but look hard and you'll locate this paradise perched above the Hudson. Untermyer Gardens sits on property that was originally the site of Greystone, a 99-room mansion built by industrialist John Waring. The grand home was sold to Samuel Tilden a former Governor of New York in 1879 and purchased by Samuel Untermyer, an attorney in 1899.
Untermyer hired one of the era's foremost landscape designers to "create the greatest garden in the world" on his 150 acres on the banks of the Hudson. William Welles Bosworth, who trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and had just completed the gardens at the Rockefeller Mansion, Kykuit in Pocantico Hills was given the job.
His design centered on a vast, 3-½ acre walled gardens, known as the Grecian garden or the Indo-Persian garden that is traversed by crisscrossing canals that symbolize the four ancient rivers. Crenelated walls surround the garden and the main canal ends at a stone amphitheater flanked by two sphinxes on 
cipolino marble columns. These were sculpted by Paul Manship who based them on the design of similar columns at the Boboli Gardens in Rome. You can only imagine the performances that took place there in its era. The garden also includes a large Greek temple that is sited over a deep mosaic pool that will hopefully be restored. You can see traces of elaborate design. Once maintained by 60 gardeners and supplied by 60 greenhouses, the site is vast.
In it's day in the 1930's, the garden was very popular and attracted up to 30,000 visitors for special occasions. Upon his death, Untermyer attempted to bequeath the garden to New York State or Westchester County to preserve as a state park, however neither could afford to maintain it. Portions of the property were sold off and the remaining 43 acres became the 
property of the City of Yonkers. The mansion was demolished.
Restoration is now underway where much of the previous garden is in ruin. Horticulturists hope to restore garden features such as the rock garden and the sundial. Other sections of the garden are now being excavated, re-imagined and replanted. The property includes a stunning staircase that descends from the walled garden toward the Hudson that at one time was flanked by six terraced color gardens. Though the gardens are gone, the stone stairway remains and leads down to an overlook where you can view the original gate that served as the entrance to the estate from the train line below. Our guide took us to climb to the "Temple of Love," a cantilevered temple that sits high above a rock garden and looks like a set for Romeo and Juliet.
The property is now maintained by the Untermyer Garden Conservancy 
who is raising money to bring the gardens back to their original splendor under the direction of Horticulturist Timothy Tilghman and Horticultural Advisor Marco Polo Stufano, who worked together at Wave Hill. In an article for New York Cottage and Gardens Tilghman notes the cross-cultural roots of the Untermyer Gardens, saying, "The history of Untermyer the man and the gardener is significant. Untermyer was an American-born German Jew who married a Christian and based his gardens around Middle Eastern, Persian, and Islamic symbolism. These different cultures converging in a diverse community like Yonkers provided a measure of unity and peace in addition to being a garden escape. We hope Untermyer will become a national garden destination, if not a world one."
Learn more about tours and hours at www.untermyergardens.org.
Untermyer Gardens
945 North Broadway
Yonkers, NY 10701
(914) 512-0436
Scarsdale Native Laura Dave Publishes Fourth Novel
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- Written by: Jacqueline Berkell Friedland
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You know that feeling, the one you get in the pit of your stomach, when you suddenly realize that everything in your picture perfect life is about to fall apart? It's that day when you break up with your boyfriend, quit your job and lose your best friend. It's that awful moment when the bottom falls out, and all you want is to go home, back to your youth, where you can curl up in the comfortable security of your childhood. Perhaps you might find temporary relief if you could just escape for a moment, long enough to catch your breath and pretend that you are still cocooned, safely slumbering within your nascent hopes and dreams. Now imagine it's gotten so bad that you do actually trek all the way home, craving this shangri la, only to discover that the home, the safe haven you left, no longer exists.
This is the scenario that Laura Dave presents in her newest novel, Eight Hundred Grapes. Dave, a Scarsdale native, and bestselling author, hits her stride yet again in her fourth book (previous titles include London is the Best City in America, Penguin Books 2007, The Divorce Party, Penguin Books 2009 and The First Husband, Penguin Books 2012). A past president of Scarsdale High School and former resident of Quaker Ridge, Dave graduated from SHS in 1995. Although she now lives in Los Angeles, she is a Raider at heart (especially when it comes to basketball), and she makes sure to return to town periodically to visit with family and get her fill of all things Scarsdale.
In her latest release, Dave tells the story of Georgia Ford, the adult child of winemakers from Sonoma County, California. Georgia has long since flown the coop, relocating to Los Angeles, where she has become a successful attorney, way too big-time for her family's adorable little winery. She is engaged to a dapper Englishman who plans to transport her back to London with him after their wedding. Her parents' vineyard is little more than a novelty where she can hold a charming wedding reception before hopping across the pond to begin her real life. Everything is turning out perfectly for Georgia, just the way she has always planned.
Until it isn't. As the book opens, it's two weeks before the wedding, and Georgia has fled LA, at an emotional 
impasse, after serendipitously discovering that her fiancé, Ben, has a four year old daughter about whom he has told her precisely nothing. Father, child and ex-girlfriend happen to walk past the window while Georgia is at her final dress fitting. Making matters even worse, the child's mother is an internationally renowned movie star, complete with flawless skin, shimmering long hair and an impeccably sophisticated British accent. Georgia does the only thing she can think of. She runs home. In a moment of great panic, she drives nine consecutive hours to the safety of her parents' vineyard, her nuclear family, the security she has known her whole life. And she is still wearing her wedding dress, no less.
The only problem is that when she finally arrives, somewhat heartbroken and entirely over-caffeinated, in her hometown of Sebastol, CA, she discovers that nothing has remained the way she left it. Her parents' marriage is falling apart. Her mother is involved with a classical music composer who talks too much and wears too little clothing. Her father is in contract to sell their small biodynamic winery to a big box winemaker. Her brothers are at each other's throats, and there are secrets everywhere she looks.
Writing with a fast-paced, witty, and devastatingly nostalgic prose, Dave shows Georgia struggling to determine her next move. In the spirit of a Choose Your Own Adventure story, Dave has readers imagining how Georgia's life will unfold if she should decide to forgive Ben for his deceptive behavior, or conversely, if she should refuse his entreaties and return to LA without him, or perhaps never even return to LA at all. With a deft hand, Dave renders her characters with such subtlety that each scenario is replete with ambiguity. Nothing in this story is black and white.
With equal parts warmth and wryness, Dave dissects Georgia's emotions and lays her bare before the reader as she attempts to rebuild the life she thought she had left behind. As she tackles several weighty issues simultaneously, each of which compounds the others, Georgia begins to wonder whether the life she imagined during her childhood ever really existed. And now, she must decide whether to interfere in her parents' marital deterioration, whether to convince them to hold onto their romance and their vineyard, the very vineyard she had once been so anxious to leave behind. All of these conundrums help distract her from her own predicament, mainly whether her relationship with Ben is beyond salvation.
Aside from the absorbing details of this complicated tale, Dave writes with a contemporary flare that would make any story immensely readable. And let's not forget the theme the runs beneath the book in its entirety: wine, glorious wine! The details that Dave provides about California winemaking will leave readers feeling as though they have become mini-experts on American vintology. As Georgia navigates her personal issues, she does so against the backdrop of fulsome, flavorful grapes, lusciously rich soil, Sonoma sunsets and tannins that have been fermented, blended and loved to perfection.
Despite the somewhat light-hearted, chicklitty nature of this story of botched love and complicated family dynamics, there are clearly many deeper issues that Dave tackles throughout the tale (and it's not just about how tough it is to run a successful environmentally-friendly vineyard either). Tucked beneath the surface of this relatively quick story are questions about what it really means to commit to another person, how to preserve your own identity in a long-term relationship, when to compromise, and when to let go. Ultimately, Dave has created a well-balanced and insightful novel that is as engrossing as it is delicious. Buy the book here.
Contributor Jacqueline Berkell Friedland is a resident of Scarsdale and an MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, where she is studying fiction. She is a former attorney and law school professor. When she is not writing, Jacqueline can be found plowing through novels or chasing after her four young children.
Swingin' Sunday at the Library welcomes acclaimed Broadway performer Eric Michael Gillett
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Eric Michael Gillett has performed at the circus, on stage on Broadway and will now appear at the Scott Room at Scarsdale Library when they welcome him to perform his one man show "Man About Town" as a part of the Library's Swingin' Sunday Concert series. This acclaimed show features the work of British playwright, composer, actor, director, and singer Noel Coward. The concert will be offered free of charge, this Sunday, June 7 at 4pm. Gillett, who began his professional career as the ringleader at the Barnum and Bailey Circus, went on to become a cabaret performer on Broadway and will now make a one-time appearance in Scarsdale.
Eric Michael Gillett's show, "Man About Town" honors the life and work of Noel Coward. Widely acclaimed for his performance, Gillett is known for his ability to quickly change the mood of the audience between songs, from happy and giddy laughter to sadness, and back. Gillett sings with emotion and adds personal feelings and experiences to Coward's music and lyrics, written over 50 years ago.
Gillet weaves his own stories into the songs, stopping at various to convey a personal message that relates to the lyrics and message of the original Noel Coward song. Performing "Come the Wild, Wild Weather" Gillett connects the song to a recent fire at his apartment building, which burned his apartment down, and destroyed all of his possessions.
Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to see this Broadway cabaret show for free on Sunday June 7 at 4 pm at the Scarsdale Library. Seating is first come, first served.
Hoff-Barthelson Music School Students "All That Jazz" Free Performance June 7
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The Hoff-Barthelson Music School will present its jazz department students in a performance of original and jazz standards in Scarsdale's Chase Park on Sunday, June 7 at 5 pm. Broadway's Next to Normal composers Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey have written an original composition that the band will play.
The program is entitled All That Jazz and will feature several of the Music School's smokin' student jazz ensembles. The ensembles will perform a delightful cross-section of American jazz standards as well as pieces composed and arranged by the students and faculty. The students will be joined by jazz faculty members in a variety of jazz combos.
On the June 7 program will be a performance of the fourth annual premiere of a jazz composition written specifically for the School's Advanced Jazz Ensemble. Pulitzer Prize and Tony winners for their Broadway hit Next to Normal Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey have written a piece for soprano and jazz ensemble titled I Call That Home. Kitt and Yorkey were represented on Broadway this season by the Idina Menzel star vehicle If/Then, which was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award for Best Score. The team is currently at work on a musical version of the movie Freaky Friday.
Previous commissions for the HBMS jazz department featured compositions by international jazz greats pianist Ted Rosenthal and baritone horn player Gary Smulyan and New York Philharmonic bassist David Grossman.
Hoff-Barthelson's Jazz Studies Program is under the direction of jazz saxophonist Ed Palermo, a well-known performer and recording artist in the jazz world. The jazz faculty includes several of the most distinguished jazz artists in the New York area, who teach jazz lessons, composition, improvisation and musicianship and coach a range of ensembles geared to all levels of the more than sixty students who study jazz at the Music School. Students perform several times throughout the year on student recitals and during the School's Music Festivals.
One of Westchester County's most cherished and active cultural resources, the Music School has achieved national recognition as a premier community music school for its unsurpassed leadership in education, performance and outreach since 1944.
The program is open to the public free of charge. Bring a blanket and a picnic! For more information visit: www.hbms.org, [email protected], or call: 914-723-1169.
Note: In case of inclement weather the concert will be held at the Music School, 25 School Lane, Scarsdale, NY, 10583.
Promposals Round Two
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- Written by: Isabel Klein
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With the Scarsdale Prom coming up on Thursday June 4, more seniors are "promposing" to their potential dates than ever. Check out Round Two of Scarsdale's Promposals. The community is invited to the Pre-Prom Red Carpet reception at Scarsdale High School on Thursday June 4, at 4:00pm. The seniors will be out in their tuxedos and gowns before the bus takes them to the VIP Country Club in New Rochelle for the big night.
