THE PORTER-PHELPS-HUNTINGTON MUSEUM CONTINUES ITS 2019 SEASON OF “A PERFECT SPOT OF TEA” WITH A PERFORMANCE BY 56 STRING DUO ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 10TH
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum continues its 2019 series of “A PERFECT SPOT OF TEA” on Saturday, August 10th with a performance by 56 String Duo, a local musical group featuring Robert Markey and Andrew Jenkins playing Indian inspired guitar and sitar improvisations. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum invites guests to partake in its 250 year old tradition of afternoon tea with good company, interesting conversation, and lively music. Admission is $12 per person. There are seatings at 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. For an additional fee, guests may also tour the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Tours will be every hour on the half hour; at 1:30, 2:30, and 3:30.
56 String Duo is comprised of Robert Markey and Andrew Jenkins playing Indian-inspired guitar and sitar improvisations. Robert Markey studied classical and blues guitar and then sitar in Boston and in India. His music is based in the North Indian (Hindustani) music tradition, playing a mix of ragas from North and South India and raga-like improvisations from Persia, Japan, Hungary and Indonesia. In addition to his work with music, Robert Markey is a visual artist working in mural, sculpture, and mosaic whose work has been displayed throughout the Pioneer Valley and the world. Andrew Jenkins is a twelve-string guitarist who studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and has been playing music for 38 years. Since relocating to Northampton, Andrew Jenkins performs regularly, and hosts and produces the local TV access show Thoughts and Sounds from New England.
Elizabeth Porter Phelps, a resident of the house from its construction in 1752, regularly hosted teas until her death in 1817, and noted the teas often attracted ten to fifteen couples weekly. Elizabeth’s daughter met her future husband, Dan Huntington, at one of these events. Visitors would “tarry” a while over a beverage that “cheers but not inebriates.” The series is made possible through generous donations from area musicians, volunteer servers, restaurants, grocers, florists, and other businesses who provide the music, engagement, tea, pastries, and flowers for this program.
The “A Perfect Spot of Tea” series continues on Saturday, August 17th, with a performance by Box Shop Blues, a Leverett based duo playing original folk, blues, ragtime, and rock.
The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum is located at 130 River Drive (Route 47) in Hadley, two miles north of the junction of Routes 9 and 47. The Museum is open for guided tours Saturday through Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The house, which remains unchanged since the family’s occupancy, tells the story of six generations of prominent Hadley residents. The family, prosperous traders turned farmers, fought in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, rose to prominence in local government, and embodied a consistently progressive social consciousness. Tours highlight both local and regional narratives, from architecture, material culture, and labor, to early-American theology, economics, women’s history and social movements. For further information about tours or other programs, please call the Museum at (413) 584-4699 or visit our website at http://www.pphmuseum.org .