Making a Place For Music, Dance And Theater


Singing the birds out of their trees comes to mind, meeting Debra Every. We are at Millbrook School to talk about her plans for a performing arts society based in this prep school’s theater. She is afire with hope.

"Just walking into this darkened, empty space, I feel the possibilities," she tells me, and takes a seat high above the stage.

Cloaked in black, Every is theatrical; she looks like Maria Callas, a pretty Maria Callas — not as big a nose — which may have done her no harm in her career as a mezzo-soprano.

"Oh, no one has said I looked like Callas in years," she tells me, settling into the dim, empty 300-seat theater, just part of the $8 million Holbrook Arts Center off the school’s quadrangle.

Well, maybe no one at E.F. Hutton and then Warburg Pincus, where she managed $1 billion in municipal bonds, noticed it, but she kept auditioning in non-high-finance hours, and certainly the Swedish conductor who hired her to star in Debussy’s "Pelléas and Mélisande" in Stockholm must have noticed. Her appearance, her excellent French, her knack for the art song. Her drive.

That was 1992. And that was the beginning of a performing and recording career as Debra Kitabijian Every.

"Every person should have a dream and a chance to fulfill it," she says, looking down into the stage.And every person ought to be allowed to set that dream aside and pick up a new one. Marriage and two children changed her perspective on the performing life.

"I’m a hands-on mother. I found it very difficult to juggle travel and family. I discovered I wasn’t having any fun as a singer."

She retired. At least for a time. And, after the family moved from New York City to Rhinebeck, she decided to put other people on a stage. The beautiful theater at Millbrook, where her oldest son is in his second year, seemed just the spot.

Her idea is to bring in professional dance groups, small chamber ensembles, small-scale plays, maybe a film festival, perhaps three to five performances a year.

"We want to find a way to bring the best to this space," "we" meaning herself and Emily Upham, a pianist, director of development at Millbrook School, old friend and collaborator in establishing a Millbrook Performing Arts Society.

To that end, Every and Upham are making their pitch for support and funds at the Holbrook Arts Center, following the opening reception for photographer Douglas Menuez. The two will talk about their ideas for this series (which is, incidentally, completely separate from the school), listen to suggestions and ask for community support next Saturday, March 31, 7 p.m., at the Millbrook School’s Holbrook Arts Center, 131 Millbrook School Road, off Rt. 44. For information, call 518-537-6048.

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