A gala showcasing classical Eastern and Western art forms attracted about 200 attendees at Paramount Theatre in Middletown on May 8.
The Spring Moonlight Gala was put together by faculty and students at Northern Academy and Fei Tian College at Middletown to share classical beauty with local audiences, according to Alison Chen, dance department vice chair at the college.
“We are a part of this community, and we need to give back to the community,” Chen said. “Beauty and goodness should really be shared with everyone around us.”
Paul Johnson, a City of Middletown councilman, told The Epoch Times that he enjoyed the show, especially the brass performance of “Hands Across the Sea” and “Amazing Grace.”
“What I am impressed with this type of performance is the discipline of students and the devotion of the faculty to get that type of talent developed at a really young age—it is remarkable,” he said.
Both Northern and Fei Tian offer various tracks in dance, music, and art rooted in classical Eastern and Western cultures, such as ballet, classical Chinese dance, brass, Chinese instrument erhu, and oil painting.
The two institutions share a common educational goal to achieve academic and artistic excellence while planting a solid moral compass in students, according to their websites.
“These young men and women at Northern Academy and Fei Tian are fantastic,” Town of Wallkill Supervisor George Serrano told The Epoch Times after watching the show.
Chen said classical arts require artists to connect with and reflect on themselves first before they can make performances that can move the audience.
Middletown City Court Judge Richard Guertin told The Epoch Times that he was deeply touched by the classical Chinese dance piece “Fleeting Moments of Youth.”
“It brought a tear to my eye,” Guertin said. “The memories of friends from school, the romance, children and raising the family, seeing them grow, and grandchildren—it just brings it all together.”
Gerald Kleiner, a City of Middletown councilman, said he appreciated that the show’s emcees weaved the history of the Northern and Fei Tian campus into their speeches.
The two institutions sit on the site of the former Middletown Psychiatric Center, where Kleiner spent much time as a child while his parents worked there, he said.
One of the buildings was named after his father, Dr. Solomon Kleiner, who was the hospital’s clinical director for 30 years.
The psychiatric center, one of the largest employers in the area in its heyday, gradually declined in the 1960s as the deinstitutionalization movement unfolded.
In 2006, the hospital was closed, and its buildings on over 200 hundred acres of land were abandoned.
Fei Tian College at Middletown started purchasing and renovating the former hospital buildings in 2015, after which a middle and high school called Northern Academy was established onsite.
Last year, an elementary school, Northern Schoolhouse, was founded on the campus.
“We are very happy to be a part of Orange County, a part of Hudson Valley,” Chen said.
