The Belvoir Blog

My name is Karen DiLeo (formerly Karen Pelaez). I was a summer camper at Belvoir Terrace in, well I want to say around 1997-8. I attended F.H. LaGuardia H.S. and attended the Juilliard weekend MAP program. My viola teacher at the time, Alanna Wheatley, would be teaching at Belvoir Terrace that year and I was fortunate enough to have been introduced to your family and affiliation. I met with you at your home and was granted with the honor of attending Belvoir Terrace Summer Camp through a generous scholarship, from which without I could not attend. Now, as I reach close to 30 years old, I look back at the photos and incredible experiences and can truly appreciate how your camp helped mold me into the woman I am now. Your camp encouraged confidence, strength, and positive work ethic, while providing enriching experiences and friendships that would last a lifetime. I am now happily married, with 2 beautiful boys of my own. I am an occupational therapist, and will be starting in the NYC public schools this september. Coming from humble beginnings as a first generation american, I am forever grateful for the people who supported and believed in me, giving me the opportunities to succeed and grow. This letter is to sincerely say, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, to you and your family for your generosity and kindness. Hoping this letter finds you well.

Karen DiLeo OTR/L

My first summer at Belvoir was when the camp was only 5 years old, there were 50 campers, and we all lived in the main building. Since then I have returned to Belvoir for reunions and informal visits, and every time, despite the spectacular growth and changes that have taken place at the camp, I still feel like I am coming ‘home’.

It was at Belvoir where I fine-tuned my ballet abilities, which led to a successful career as a soloist with American Ballet Theater in the 1960s. It was also at Belvoir where I discovered my other passion – pottery. Although it was almost half a century later that I began to study ceramics seriously, I now have a thriving pottery business, www.earthdancespottery.com.

The creative opportunities offered at Belvoir have literally lasted me a lifetime, and I remain deeply grateful to Edna Schwartz and Nancy Schwartz Goldberg for making it all happen.

Judith Lerner Taylor

I attended Belvoir for two years in 1982-83 and returned as a drawing instructor in 1998. I view my time as a camper at Belvoir as a major stepping-stone in my life. It was during my time at Belvoir that I decided to become a visual artist.
It was a revelation to meet young woman from all over the world who loved the arts the same way I did. It was the first time I had been in such a creative atmosphere where people sincerely wanted me to succeed. The culture was and still is supportive and encouraging; I immediately felt comfortable.

Although while I was there I took classes in theatre, voice, and dance; my personality was more comfortable in a painting studio than a stage. That introduction to all the arts instilled an appreciation, especially the performing arts. I saw how tirelessly performers practiced in order to make it look so easy and natural while on stage. That appreciation has deepened my artwork and adds so much enjoyment to my life today.

After Belvoir I graduated with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and continued my studies with the Four-Year Certificate Program at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. I remained in Italy to teach painting and drawing for four more years before returning to the United States in 2004. Upon my return I began an atelier school- The New School of Classical Art- where I taught the traditional drawing and painting techniques I learned in Italy. My first child was born in 2009 and with my new role as a mother some sacrifices would have to be made. Painting is at the core of who I am and giving it up was not an option. I decided to close the school and take a break from teaching for a while.

I am represented by several art galleries, Eleanor Ettinger Gallery in NYC, Bert Gallery in Providence RI, Principle Gallery in Alexandria VA and Walsingham Gallery in Newburyport MA. I have paintings in the permanent collections of The Everson Museum of Art, New Britain Museum of American Art, and Cape Cod Museum of Art. I have a wonderful and supportive husband and a son who I think may be the happiest child in the world.

I am proud of my career and personal life and I am telling you about it because I feel that attending Belvoir had a great deal to do with it. I remember at Belvoir forming an idea of the woman I wanted to become. There were so many amazing examples of successful women there- professional artists, passionate teachers, caring and patient women. My time at Belvoir and the guidance of Nancy LONG after I left as a camper has helped me realize that woman I dreamt of becoming.

I feel Belvoir helped me become a “successful” person- it helped me find my true passion in life- painting, it gave me the confidence to be a risk-taker, and showed me that to be truly successful we must nurture the loving relationships in our lives.

Thank you Nancy!

Please visit Dana Levin’s website for more of her incredible art.

My summers at Belvoir were the happiest summers of my childhood. I attended Belvoir from 1961 to 1966, majored in acting and minored in singing. In fact, my very first summer there, I got to sing in the children’s choir at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony conducted by Erich Leinsdorf at the ripe age of 10! I stood right in front of the timpani! I was also mad about my other classes in dance (jazz and modern), sculpture, drawing and painting – it was magical and so beautiful. The grounds, the professional quality of the staff and the friends I made. It was heaven. And it remains a clear, fond bevy of rich memories.

To say that Belvoir had a connection or an influence on my life today is a resounding “YES”. I have been an actress in NYC for 30 years and have worked in theater, film, tv, documentary narration for PBS and the History Channel, audio books, animation and even a little Japanese anime. And two years ago I started my own business as a communication coach and professional speaker. I work with entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, proprietary business owners and individuals wanting to refine their message and design and deliver great speeches for all public forums including the media. I truly love this work as it is a great amalgamation of my skills and talents and what I love.

This winter I will be appearing as Amanda in Tennessee WIlliams’ “The Glass Menagerie” at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia and will follow the run in Philadelphia with a 6-week east coast tour. First stop on the tour is the Nashville Performing Arts Center to headline the Tennessee Williams Festival. It just doesn’t get much better than this.

There you have it.

I consider myself blessed and grateful to have had such an amazing experience at Belvoir and will cherish it always.

I can say without a doubt that my musical experiences at Belvoir contributed to my career as a professional musician. I had my first voice lessons at camp when I was 10yrs old. Now, nearly twenty years later, I have built my career as a professional singer and songwriter around the talent that I first discovered at Belvoir.

My path into the music business is a bit unique. Though my music career now centers around the commercial pop/rock industry, I am actually a classically trained musician. After high school I went on to Oberlin Conservatory for a bachelors of music and The Manhattan School of Music for my masters in vocal performance. I sang opera professionally for about 5yrs (San Francisco Opera, Opera Theater of St.Louis, B.A.M., Aspen Music Festival) all the while honing my craft as a pop/rock songwriter as more of a hobby in my spare time. Here’s a picture of me that appeared in the New York Times on stage singing in the opera “Il Matrimonio Segreto”.

When I turned 25 I had an “ah-ha” moment when I realized that I was much happier writing and performing my own music then singing opera, so I moved from NYC to Los Angeles to pursue that goal. Since then I have released two albums on PEGA Records, The Elephant In The Room (2009) and Quarter Life Crisis (2007) which are distributed on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc.

I have had many of my songs used on TV shows on NBC, CBS, The CW, ABC Family, MTV and Discovery Channel. In the last year or so I have started to focus more on writing songs for film/tv and recently wrote and performed the theme song to a show on Discovery Channel called “Deliver Me”. It’s now in it’s 3rd seasons on the air. I love writing songs that help to brand a show or a product. It’s really fun for me to work with the producers of a tv show, a film or a commercial to find just the right sound and lyrics they’re going for. I like the challenge of it. And at the end of the day it’s very rewarding to be watching TV when one of my songs happens to come on. I still get a kick out of it. Here’s my song in the opening credits for “Deliver Me”:

I am also involved with helping to develop young artists who are just getting their start in the music business. I have a company called Pitch Perfect which brings together experienced songwriters, producers, recording studios and vocal coaches to make a professional recording package for developing artists. If you are a talented young singer trying to get your foot in the door at record labels, management companies etc., you need broadcast quality recordings that show off your talent before you can make a move. I started Pitch Perfect to bring together all the fabulous and award winning industry professionals that I’ve worked with along the way in service of a professional product for young artists who otherwise wouldn’t have the access or the resources to work with them. Our website is www.PitchPerfectRecordings.com.

If there are any Belvoir Girls that have a desire to be a recording artist, I encourage you to take a look at the Pitch Perfect website (www.PitchPerfectRecordings.com) and reach out to me for more information. You do not have to be located in Los Angeles.

On a personal note, I am getting married next spring and can not wait to start a family of my own so that I can send my little girls to Belvoir. There’s no way I would be where I am today had I not had such a wonderful place to nurture my talent growing up.

When I was 4 years old I went to “sleep-away” camp for 8 weeks, and there I met Nancy Schwartz (now Goldberg), who was assigned to be my “big sister” for the summer. That friendship, begun so long ago at a sports camp in Maine, has lasted for 62 years, and brought me to the happiest days of my life, my 5 summers at Belvoir Terrace.
Nancy’s mom, Edna, opened Belvoir in 1954, and in the summer of 1955 I found my home-away-from-home in Lenox. There I not only blossomed creatively and artistically, but I learned about friendship and life. Of course Nancy was there, and most importantly was right there in the froggy pool with her arms held out to me, making me feel safe jumping into a pool even though I had a terrible fear of the water! When Edna passed the reins of the Directorship on to Nancy, I felt my life had come full circle, for there was Nancy taking care of me again, and there was Ruthie Renaud as head counselor, Ruthie who had been a terrific counselor at “that other camp.”
I remember so many counselors and teachers — Mr. Sanborn, who scared the Boston accent right out of me in drama classes; and Madame with her dog; and Corky and Petie and the fencing teacher Nick; and oh, Mama J, who sang us to sleep with the sweetest “Summertime” anyone ever heard; and of course Sally McBride, who gave me piano lessons and who gave me the courage to face a difficult childhood.
I made fun friends, and kept in touch with some of them on and off during the years, but in the summer of 1958 I met Leslie Green and Judith Lerner and Jill Colpak, among others. Leslie has been my best friend, my college roommate, my matron of honor at my wedding, and much much more for the past 42 years. Our love for and memories of Belvoir bind us in ways no other best friends can understand. We’ve been back to visit together, and now we can’t wait until July 24th to be there again! And we’ll be there with Judith and Jill. Judith and I went back to visit once too, plus we spent a week in Jerusalem together, a week that began my journey into the rabbinate.
I’ve kept in touch with Nancy over the years, but have become closer with her and Belvoir over the past couple of decades after I became ordained as a rabbi. I had the incredibly exciting and moving honor and privilege of officiating at Diane and Michael’s wedding! I couldn’t believe it – there I was, in the old green room (which was by then white) where I’d sat countless times cross-legged on the floor, standing under a chuppah with a wedding couple! And then I got to give Avery her Hebrew name in a warm and wonderful ritual in Diane and Michael’s home in New York!
But I think the biggest honor, and most moving ritual, I’ve been involved in with the Schwartz/Goldberg/Marcus/Belvoir family was Edna’s funeral. Here was a woman who had given me countless hugs, in whose lap I had snuggled countless times, who had literally changed my life by creating Belvoir, a woman to whom I owed more than I could ever repay, and her daughter and granddaughter Nancy and Diane gave me the opportunity to thank and repay her after all by asking me to officiate at her funeral.
So Belvoir has been an integral part of my life, and I know it will continue to be that no matter how many years pass by. I know that for you who read this blog that is no surprise, of course. The point is to keep spreading the word, and bringing new generations into the fold. This coming summer my great-niece will be a camper at Belvoir, and I can’t wait to see her happy face when I’m there on July 24th!
And, I’d love to hear from anyone who remembers me, Connie Abramson 1955, 56, 58, 59, and 60 (now Connie Golden, rab.golden@cox.net)!

Stacey Lorinczi speaks about her Belvoir experience and how it helped shaped her life:

So, to begin, I have always been ardent about my years at Belvoir… They remain five of the best summers of my life, and I met some of my dearest friends there, and perhaps more importantly, was first exposed to metalsmithing, which would become a lifelong passion and my career. When I started Belvoir I dove into everything I could— theater, dance, painting, drawing, ceramics. I couldn’t get enough of all the arts, but when I learned that jewelry making was an offering, but only for the older girls, I fought to be able to take it at a younger age. Nancy let me take it, and it was a revelation. That you could manipulate metal to make beautiful pieces to wear on your body… Well, it just lit a fire in me.

I remember the first jewelry teacher I had at Belvoir was English, so all the terminology I picked up was pronounced with an English accent. Instead of pronouncing solder “sodder,” I pronounced it “sole-der.” I remember my parents were baffled as to why I kept mispronouncing all these words, but I think it all finally made sense to them when they met my teacher over parents’ weekend. Strangely enough, that early exposure to English pronunciation proved helpful later, when I attended Central St. Martins College in London to study jewelry design… I felt right at home.

Since living in London for three years, I’ve now settled in San Francisco, with my darling husband from Israel, Hadar, and my two daughters Hannah and Tess, ages 4 1/2 and 3 1/2. I’m just so thankful that I had girls, I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t go back to Belvoir again, at least vicariously through my children. I can guarantee that Hannah is already a Belvoir girl, I knew this by the time she was 2 years old– it was just self-evident. Tess remains to be seen (I can only hope!), but Hannah for sure will be going when she’s ready. I’m already excited to see which art she’ll gravitate towards, and how it will impact her life in years to come.

Hannah and Tess are jewelry mavens already, with a fairly unerring sense of style, and many suggestions for how I could improve my jewelry. Usually their mantra is “More diamonds.” And sometimes they’re actually right! I would love to share some of what I do with all my Belvoir alums, so please check out my website, www.Lorinczi.com, to see the jewelry yourself– Belvoir girls always receive 25% off. You won’t be surprised to learn that purple is not only my favorite color, (and Tess’s favorite color), but the color of my logo and website; clearly, 5 years spent painting inside a purple greenhouse had some long-term effects.. Let’s just say that that early imprinting at Belvoir was fairly indelible, as was the image of Edna barreling around the grounds in her purple golf cart!

Hannah

Tess