And the Award Goes To...

Missives from the Jet Set

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(Top Left: Catheline van den Branden and Jeffrey Plunkett at A Feast of Music; Top Middle: Rita Rudyak at A Feast of Music; Top Right: David Korb and Sibila Glöggler at A Feaat of Music; Bottom Left: Joan Yogg and Kurt Gutenbrunner at A Feast of Music; Bottom Right: Christina and Peter Townsend and Chynna Pope at A Feast of Music)

Guests got a cruise down the Danube when New England Conservatory hosted A Feast of Music, its annual black-tie fundraiser for scholarships.

Held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza, the evening began with cocktails in the Oval Room, followed by a sumptuous dinner prepared by New York uber-chef Kurt Gutenbrunner and accompanied by stunning performances from NEC students. True to the evening’s theme, the food (including something called “zwiebelrostbraten”) and music (by the likes of Strauss, Dvorak and Liszt) all had a decidedly Eastern European flavor, and all surpassed expectation.

Prominent among the super swanky throng: board treasurer Tom Blumenthal and the tres chic Lisa, the enchanting Deborah Elfers, Boston’s answer to Yoko Ono, Setsuko Hori (in a stunning silver kimono), Chestnut Hillions Cokie and Lee Perry, Beacon Hillions Deb Hanley and Frank McGuire and Suki and Miguel de Bragança, with their son, Miguel, squiring the drop-dead gorgeous Ty Sinnett, enchanting event co-chair Joan Yogg and her other half, Michael, iconoclastic blueblood Linda Cabot Black, the delightful Hope Lincoln Baker, Boston Ballet head honcha Max Hodges, the scrumptious Anne Fitzpatrick, statuesque brunette Barbara Jordan, the incomparable Joanne Dickinson, the stunning Sibila Glöggler and her charming other half, David Korb, French Cultural Center cutie Catheline van den Branden and the dashing Jeffrey Plunkett, and one woman who said, “I used to fly my stylist in from Argentina four times a year, until I found one I liked on Newbury Street.”

After dinner and the performances, it was back to the Oval Room for the after-party, where committee members like brunette beauty Chynna Pope, newlyweds Christina and Peter Townsend, and the achingly lovely Suzanne Eliastam tripped the light fantastic until well into the wee hours.

All in all, a spectacular evening. The only false note? The child prodigy who played Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody neglected to cut the label off the sleeve of his suit, making the video of him playing look like an ad for Van Heusen.

Lights, Camera, Party!

(Left: Chika Offurum with WGBH’s American Experience production team at the Ellie Fund’s Red Carpet Gala; Middle: Mary Saladna, Danielle Vollmar and Antoinette Antonio at the Ellie Fund’s Red Carpet Gala; Right: Lori Kyler interviewing Melissa McMeekin at the Ellie Fund’s Red Carpet Gala)

Boston got all glammed up to celebrate the Oscars at The Ellie Fund’s annual Red Carpet Gala, the breast cancer nonprofit’s Academy Awards blowout held at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Yours truly got to play Fashion Police with Boston Herald style columnist Erica Corsano, greeting guests on the step-and-repeat and quizzing them on who they were wearing.

Among those who pulled out all the stops: Chika Offurum of WGBH (whose film The Last Days of Vietnam was up for best documentary), Ellie Fund founder Jeff Popkin, redheaded actress Melissa McMeekin, Wellesley yummy mummies Ashley Bernon, Penny Fireman and Sue Brady Hartigan, author and raconteur Casey Sherman, the sassy Anita Kagan, snacky chef Matthew Pidge, the evening’s honorees, blond bombshell Heather Shanahan and TV exec Bill Fine of Channel 5, on-air talent J.C. Monahan, Phil Lipof, Kelley Tuthill and Jim Lokay, producers Christy Cashman and Mary Chiochios, lunachick Jeanie Flynn, the flawless April Soderstrom, fashionista Christina Pierce and her handsome husband, Ryan, lovable shutterbug Michael Blanchard, power chick Joni Lee Rossi, the super dapper Bentzion Chudnovskiy and others of an equally glittery ilk.

In between air-kissing, knocking back cocktails and grazing from the buffet, a few people actually paid attention to the ceremony being broadcast in the ballroom. Meanwhile, the award for snarkiest comment went to the person who said, “I love a plunging neckline, but that one goes all the way to her cervix.”


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