A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood MHC's music department celebrated the opening of the Berkshire Hills Music Academy at the former Skinner Estate with a reception held at Pratt Hall October 4. The school purchased the estate, which is located at 48 Woodbridge Street in South Hadley, last September. Students and faculty from Mount Holyoke and the academy gathered to share their love of music and become acquainted with one another. The academy's first class of fourteen students, who hail from nine states and two Canadian provinces, began classes September 22.

Berkshire Hills Music Academy is a residential school of musical arts for young adults with learning disabilities. Its nine-month program includes instruction in music, performance, social and academic skills, independent living, and physical education. It offers vocational internships, as well. The school also has a two-year certificate option in either general studies or music and human service. Berkshire Hills hopes to accommodate fifty students in the future. The impetus to establish the school came from families of individuals with Williams syndrome, and the first class is largely drawn from this group. Those affected by this genetic cognitive disorder are often highly verbal and talented in music and have lower than normal cognitive skills.

At the reception, Greg Williams, dean of studies at the academy thanked Mount Holyoke and likened the College's goals to those of the academy. Berkshire Hills was founded "to provide opportunities to a group of people that has not really had them, just as Mount Holyoke was established to expand opportunities for women," Williams said. He expressed his enthusiasm for the academy's new students and their musical talents, noting, "Music is the gift. It's what they do." Under the direction of Catharine Melhorn, MHC choral director and Hammond-Douglass Professor of Music, the College's Chamber Singers welcomed the new students and faculty of the academy with a Ysaye Barnwell song called "On Children." Berkshire Hills student Brian Johnson sang "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp and played the guitar, drawing an enthusiastic response from the audience. Tori Ackley performed a song she composed called "Why I Like Snow," accompanying herself on the piano. Ackley noted that she loves the school and has enjoyed her first few weeks there. "I have lots of friends there who really support me," she said. Berkshire Hills Music Academy has been developing partnerships within the Five College Consortium and anticipates collaboration in the areas of assessment, internships, and research.