Each June, when Yale’s Westchester based alumni have completed their spring interviewing of Yale-bound students, applicant receptions, presentation of Yale Book Awards at assemblies in Westchester high schools, and recruitment of Yale’s Summer Community Service Fellows, their attentions turn to the New York Metro and Westchester area’s broad cultural scene. They look toward Broadway, Kykuit, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Caramoor and the many other opportunities available to support the cultural resources available to Westchester’s residents, schools and students.

 Often these alumni tap into many dimensions of Yale University’s people to create cultural opportunities. For example, in June 2003, alumni planned a theater event around La Boheme on Broadway. They planned a luncheon at Café Nicole in New York’s Novotel restaurant on Broadway that offers a view of the theater district beyond its fourth floor of glass walls. Their luncheon speaker, Oscar Andy Hammerstein of Westchester, pointed out properties that his great great grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, had owned, and the place where the same original Hammerstein built his 6,000 seat opera house. After this fascinating talk about many efforts to popularize opera on Broadway, Yale alumni walked one block to see La Boheme, one week before the critically acclaimed production closed.

 Not all the La Boheme seats had been sold to alumni, the remaining seats were given to

voice teachers, other musicians and their students who had not had seen the unusual Broadway production of Puccini’s opera. The performance was special because the roles of Mimi and Benoit were played by Yale alumni, who are both actors of extraordinary musical talent and acting skill. They joined with fellow actors after the show to answer questions and give insights into the show, why it had run out of audience, and what they were going to do next.

 In 2003 at Boscobel, Yale alumni attended both of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival productions of All’s Well that Ends Well and Antony and Cleopatra. The latter was directed by David Muse, Yale ’96 and Yale Drama School ’03. Two other Yale actors performed in that show. Professor Murray Biggs of Yale’s English and Theater Departments was the preview speaker at Garrison’s Desmond-Fish Library before Antony and Cleopatra. Similarly, David Muse was the preview speaker before All’s Well that Ends Well. The Yale Westchester Shakespeare Award was presented to a Westchester junior, Gwyneth Smith-Arnold, who had been selected to serve as an apprentice actor in the Festival’s productions. Yale support of HVSF has reached important dimensions for the theatrical group. In 2002, 115 alumni participated, however, in 2003, only 80 participated, but their support remained important. 

In addition to summer productions, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival operates a variety of programs in schools in Westchester and the Mid Hudson Valley region. Each year, over 8,000 students are reached through this educational program.

Similarly, the Caramoor music center gains considerable Yale alumni support every summer. At alumni gatherings, the Yale Westchester Music Award is given to outstanding high school students, and there are important opportunities for students to exchange views with key performers during Caramoor’s summer festival. In 2003, Peter Oundjian, a Yale professor who is also the artistic director at Caramoor, joined the Westchester alumni following a concert by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, which he conducted. Later in the summer, the Tokyo String Quartet, which performed at Caramoor and is resident faculty at Yale’s School of Music, provided an interesting retrospective of their long history of performance and teaching. They spoke with the Yale alumni gathered in the special “artists’ patio” courtyard which afforded time for interviews and talk.

 These efforts by the Yale Westchester Alumni Association to support Westchester’s top cultural resources achieve multiple objectives. While the alumni enjoy the performances and companionship, they also serve to encourage young people. Symbolically, these summer events offer opportunities to provide a bridge between faculty and students at Yale, alumni in Westchester, and pre-collegiate students who are powerfully motivated by the Yale association and appreciate the recognition afforded.

 Other institutions supported by the YWAA have included Storm King, the remarkable sculpture park; Westchester Philharmonic; Historic Hudson River; and historic Playland Amusement Park. Current plans call for developing Yale and student links to the Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Garden at PepsiCo.