Summer Portals students present piano concert on July 22

LAKEVILLE » For the past 15 years, the Summer Portals Program, a nonprofit under the auspices of The Hotchkiss School which recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, has offered highly intensive training to uniquely gifted and dedicated young students in grades 6-12 from around the world in a variety of specialized subjects, from DNA Science to Documentary Film, American Literature and Theater to Robotics, and beyond.

The Summer Portals Program concert will be held Saturday, July 22, 7:30 p.m. in the Katherine M. Elfers Hall - Esther Eastman Music Center at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville. Performers include Fabio Witkowski, piano, Gisele Nacif Witkowski, piano, and the Fine Arts Quartet with Ralph Evans, violin, Efim Boico, violin, Gil Sharon, viola, and Niklas Schmidt, cello.

The musicians will perform selections by Haydn and Schumann.

The two-week Piano Program, now in its fifth year, satisfies the great demand for outstanding musical leadership in a community which places advanced music education at the same level of importance as STEM subjects, literature, and the humanities.

“The goal of the Piano Portals program is that the intellectual demands and self-discipline required for classical music and confidence needed for successful live performance becomes a character-building experience for students of this age, between 6th and 12th grades, no matter what career path they choose to pursue later in life,” said Mary Tanner Frank.

For five years, the Piano Portals program has accepted young pianists solely on the basis of merit from 15 countries across North and South America, Asia, and Europe, engaging a diverse group of exceptionally musical young people and building a truly uncommon community of learning, encouragement, and friendship. Each year, an increasing number of applicants compete for a limited amount of space; for the 2017 Piano Portals session, 30 students were selected for admission from a pool of approximately 250 applicants.

For information, call 860-435-2591 or go to https://www.hotchkiss. org/our-school/summerprograms

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS / THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL Students will present a concert on July 22, part of the Summer Portals Program at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville.