With its annual gala, A Feast of Music, New England Conservatory came close to matching the grandeur of imperial Russia (minus the melancholy and hemophilia).
Held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, the swellegant evening began with cocktails in the Oval Room, followed by a five-course feast in the ballroom, which looked like the inside of a Fabergé egg, decked out in roses, damask and all form of rococo puffery. Throughout the evening, NEC students and staff performed, and the wine flowed at a startlingly Russian pace, which only made the crowd more convivial.
Among them: co-chairs Hope Baker, Deborah Elfers, Sibila Korb and Rita Rudyak, the entire Beacon Hill de Braganca clan—Suki, Miguel père et fils, Annabel and Camilla—the hale and hearty Harold Pratt with the flawless Frances, fashion plate Katie Schuller-Bleakie, North Shore nabobs Peter and Christina Townsend, the absurdly handsome Ed Graves, the unsinkable Mary Kakas, force of nature Doris Yaffe and pretty much everyone else you’d want at a ball.
The gowns were magnificent, the jewels were the equal of anything that ever curtsied before Catherine the Great, and the evening raised beaucoup bucks for music scholarships. Not surprising—given the party’s theme—some mention was made of Russian penetration into U.S. affairs, to which one saucy guest countered, “In my experience, Russian penetration never ruined an affair.”
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A Feast of Music
By Jonathan Soroff | March 10, 2017
Willa and Taylor Bodman at A Feast of Music
Mary Kakas and Max Bleakie at A Feast of Music
Peter and Christina Townsend at A Feast of Music
With its annual gala, A Feast of Music, New England Conservatory came close to matching the grandeur of imperial Russia (minus the melancholy and hemophilia).
Held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, the swellegant evening began with cocktails in the Oval Room, followed by a five-course feast in the ballroom, which looked like the inside of a Fabergé egg, decked out in roses, damask and all form of rococo puffery. Throughout the evening, NEC students and staff performed, and the wine flowed at a startlingly Russian pace, which only made the crowd more convivial.
Among them: co-chairs Hope Baker, Deborah Elfers, Sibila Korb and Rita Rudyak, the entire Beacon Hill de Braganca clan—Suki, Miguel père et fils, Annabel and Camilla—the hale and hearty Harold Pratt with the flawless Frances, fashion plate Katie Schuller-Bleakie, North Shore nabobs Peter and Christina Townsend, the absurdly handsome Ed Graves, the unsinkable Mary Kakas, force of nature Doris Yaffe and pretty much everyone else you’d want at a ball.
The gowns were magnificent, the jewels were the equal of anything that ever curtsied before Catherine the Great, and the evening raised beaucoup bucks for music scholarships. Not surprising—given the party’s theme—some mention was made of Russian penetration into U.S. affairs, to which one saucy guest countered, “In my experience, Russian penetration never ruined an affair.”
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