Salisbury prepares for launch of 100th Jumpfest

John Satre, one of the original Satre brothers, is credited with pioneering the sport of ski jumping in the United States.
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John Satre, one of the original Satre brothers, is credited with pioneering the sport of ski jumping in the United States.
SALISBURY, Conn. — Salisbury’s longstanding tradition of ski jumping is reaching new heights this year with the 100th annual Jumpfest, scheduled for Feb. 6–8 at Satre Hill.
The weekend-long celebration opens with a community night on Friday, Feb. 6, followed by youth ski jumping competitions and the Salisbury Invitational on Saturday. The event concludes Sunday with the Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships.
While spectators look skyward to watch the high-flying athletes, Jumpfest will also invite the community to look back on Salisbury’s deep-rooted ski jumping history.
Ski jumping originated in Norway in the 19th century and is a tradition familiar to most Nordic children. That was the case for the five Satre brothers — John, Magnus, Ottar, Sverre and Olaf — who grew up competing in ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
When John Satre moved to Salisbury in 1923 to work as a chauffeur, he brought the tradition with him. The rolling hills and heavy winters of the Northwest Corner resembled those of Norway, allowing John to seamlessly integrate his passion into his new community.

Within a year, his brothers followed him to Salisbury.
In 1926, John Satre captivated roughly 200 spectators by skiing off a snow-covered barn roof.
The brothers soon formed the Salisbury Outing Club — now known as the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) — and began construction of a permanent ski jump in the same location it sits today: Satre Hill.
By 1933, the Satre brothers had won numerous championships and helped popularize the sport across the United States. Salisbury hosted the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1932, and the following year hosted the National Championships.
Tragically in 1934, at the age of 40, John Satre was killed in a car accident. The New York Times hailed him as a pioneer in U.S. skiing and his legacy is carried on in the winter sports culture that is nurtured in Salisbury today.
During this time, local children were introduced to the sport, creating makeshift jumps in their backyards out of crates and hay bales. One of these children was Richard Parsons, who became the first Salisbury resident to earn recognition for cross country skills. He earned a spot for the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games and in 1936 competed in the Winter Olympics in Garmisch, Germany, where he was the leading American-born cross-country skier.
During World War II, young athletes who would have normally been jumping were enlisted in the service, causing a lull in the sport and deterioration of the jump itself. After the war, however, community members eagerly worked to rebuild the jump, and another Salisbury athlete emerged.

Roy Sherwood was first introduced to ski jumping when his father built him and his brother their own ski jump in their backyard. Sherwood quickly gained ground, earning himself the title of “hometown hero.” By 1954, Sherwood was offered a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team for the 1956 games in Cortina, Italy.
Sherwood’s path to the Olympics was far from easy. A year before the Games, he was diagnosed with polio, threatening his ability to compete. He recovered enough to travel to Italy, only to hit an icy patch during a practice run.
Sherwood rebounded and competed the next day, placing 36th out of 51 — the second-highest finish by an American — and was later inducted into the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame.
Today, four jumps line Satre Hill — K10, K20, K30, and K65. The 65-meter jump is used for competitions, and the smaller jumps are used to teach local youth during winter camps.
Islay Sheil, a Housatonic Valley Regional High School student and Lakeville resident, is the current SWSA athlete on the rise in ski jumping today. Her passion for the sport emerged during one of the SWSA winter camps, and last March earned gold in the Junior National Championships. The next Junior National Championships will be hosted in Salisbury in 2027.
While Salisbury celebrates the 100th anniversary of its own ski jump this year, the Olympic Games will be held in Milan and Cortina, Italy, the same place that Sherwood gained global recognition.
To honor the town’s remarkable history and tradition of ski jumping, Jumpfest will begin early with a Winter Warmer on Jan. 31 between 5:30 to 8 p.m. It will be at the home of Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand. Small plates and drinks will be served. Limited tickets are available for $50 and more details can be found at Jumpfest.org/100years/

On Feb. 1, a double feature screening of On the Hill and Downhill Racer will be held at The Moviehouse in Millerton, followed by a panel discussion on winter sports and SWSA’s role in Salisbury’s history. There will also be a raffle and SWSA merchandise for sale.
Tickets for the showing are $16 and details can be found at Jumpfest.org/100years/.
On Friday, Feb. 6, Jumpfest will host community night at Satre Hill. SWSA will offer free admission for the night. Gates open at 6 p.m. and “Target Jumping Under the Lights” will begin at 7 p.m. There will be fireworks sponsored by NBT Bank, bonfires, and food and drinks available for purchase. The Human Dogsled Race is set for 8:30 p.m. Teams of five can register at Jumpfest.org
On Saturday, Feb. 7, the Junior Competition on K20 jump will begin at 9 a.m. The Salisbury Invitational Ski Jumping Competition will practice from 11 a.m. to noon and compete at 1 p.m. Community members are invited to the Snow Ball at the Lakeville Town Grove at 8 p.m. Dancers will be accompanied by live music from the Steve Dunn Band. Entrance to the Ball is $20 with children 12 and under free of charge.
On Sunday, Feb. 8, Satre Hill will hold the Eastern U.S. Ski Jumping Championships. Athletes will practice between 11 a.m. to noon and compete at 1 p.m.
Willie Hallihan of SWSA explained that the length of time and number of people involved on an emotional level has made the sport “iconic to Salisbury.”
Hallihan recounted in the PBS documentary “The Jump” that the ski jumps are “like a family member to a lot of people”.
Aly Morrissey
Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.
Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.
“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”
Van Ginhoven points to towers of boxes containing event programs, various ribbons, elegant decor and stacks of magazines, all in preparation for the event.
Project SAGE will celebrate its 26th year hosting Trade Secrets, but it’s so much more than a garden event.
“It’s a fundraiser for domestic violence prevention and intervention,” van Ginhoven said. “Anybody who attends knows they’re supporting a really meaningful and important cause.”
The fundraiser accounts for at least 30 percent of the organization’s overall budget, she said, and attracts around 3,000 people from across the region each year, creating an unmatched opportunity for Project SAGE to share its mission and generate support.
The event, though expensive to produce, generates enough income to significantly support Project SAGE’s direct services and prevention services.
Officials said a wave of new underwriters have emerged this year.
“We’re very grateful, because we live in a time when funding is uncertain,” van Ginhoven said.
Hundreds of copies of the annual Trade Secrets guide sat at Project SAGE headquarters, ready for distribution at the event. The book doubles as a domestic violence resource, complete with warning signs, myth-busting information and scripts for difficult conversations.
Volunteers will be present throughout the event to connect with community members. Each volunteer must be certified as a domestic violence counselor in order to work with Project SAGE.
“It means they can help us drive clients, move clients, take them to appointments or the grocery store,” van Ginhoven said.
Project SAGE officials said education about domestic violence should start early. The organization has developed a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through grade 12 and visits schools throughout the region. The class of 2026 will be the first graduating class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School to have received all four years of training from Project SAGE.

The organization’s partnerships extend throughout the region and include on-site training in schools and nonprofit organizations, including the Sharon Playhouse. Community support also goes directly to Project SAGE, including a recently donated array of colorful gift bags bearing positing affirmations and filled with toiletries and basic necessities from students at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Connecticut.
The people who visit Project SAGE have often left uncomfortable or dangerous situations and leave without any belongings.
“Some of them have nothing,” van Ginhoven said. “They just show up because they had the courage to leave.”
Project SAGE staff say many referrals come through local hospitals, police and sister agencies.
The organization serves people in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
With the stress of event planning mounting, van Ginhoven spent a “previous life” preparing for this exact moment. She spent 30 working at the intersection of arts and activism, having co-founded WAM Theatre, a Lenox-based organization focused on stories and issues affecting those who self-identify as women and girls. During her tenure, WAM donated $100,000 to 25 local and global organizations working toward gender equity in areas such as girls’ education, teen pregnancy prevention, gender-based violence, sexual trafficking awareness and midwife training.
“I love the adrenaline of putting on a show,” van Ginhoven said with a laugh. With the help of volunteers and organizers, she said she isn’t bothered by the stress.
“The show will go on,” she said.
Jennifer Almquist
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving
Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.
“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.
“We met during the pandemic, a bleak time,” Kinsolving said. “On our first date, we met at The Hickory Stick Bookshop and walked outside six feet apart. We fell in love.”
They lived in a tiny studio near Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut.
“He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly,” Capozziello said with a laugh. “When I told her I was a violinist, she mentioned ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Aaron Copland. I sent her a recording of me playing it, and it became our song.”
“For our wedding, we wanted all our friends and family out in the field listening to that music,” Kinsolving said. Capozziello’s friends from Orchestra New England performed the piece at their wedding.
“Circus Fire,” written by Connecticut’s own Jacques Lamarre and directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a multimedia world-premiere tribute to the Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire, killing 167 and injuring 700 in Connecticut’s worst fire disaster.
Capozziello, who grew up in Fairfield, began: “I came from very limited means, though my parents gave me the kind of support that mattered most. I had a hard time in school. My music teachers, noticing my knack for music, kept me in school.” As he became a teenager, he realized how demanding classical violin truly is. “I had the honor of playing in a master class for Isaac Stern when I was 18,” he said. “That was the wake-up call. He was relentless with my intonation, telling me I must ‘feel the fire in my belly.’”
At SUNY Purchase, he “met a wonderful violin teacher who taught me to play, study and practice five hours a day.” After studying at the New England Conservatory, Capozziello earned his doctorate from The Hartt School in 2018. He now teaches at The Hotchkiss School and performs with the Hartford Symphony.
He explained that his role as assistant concertmaster is the direct line between conductor and musicians, and that the orchestra is “a family dynamic, a democratic unit, truly a living, breathing organism.”

On May 2, Capozziello was soloist with Orchestra New England, performing the world premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Concerto for Violin,” along with “The River” by Jan Swafford and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” at Battell Chapel at Yale.
“I care about bringing classical music into communities and spaces where people may not expect it,” said Capozziello.“Music is most powerful to me when it feels alive, humanand accessible, not distant or formal.”
For 20 years, Kinsolving has acted in film, television and theater in London, New York and Los Angeles. “I was first onstage at Washington Montessori School playing Peter Pan,” she said. “I improvised a line, got a laugh and liked the feeling.”
She enjoys performing Shakespeare. “I love Titania’s monologue because it speaks to our current climate crisis. Lady Macbeth surprised me. I fell in love with her while I was doing it. I could play those scenes forever; so much range and depth to explore,” she said.
Kinsolving added, “I love Shakespeare’s comedies for the fun and rhythm. I have loved Rosalind, Viola, Olivia, Helena and Kate, yet the top of my bucket list is Beatrice. Each character reflects a shade of my soul. Shakespeare had the brilliance to illuminate them. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be a list of their names.”
Kinsolving, whose parents, poet Susan Kinsolving and author William Kinsolving, live in Lakeville, studied at Milton Academy, universities in China, and Vassar College. Her theater training includes Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Yale Drama Intensive and she is currently studying online through Juilliard.. She founded Theatre for Good, which donates its proceeds to charity.
Both artists are looking forward to June, when they will have more time to spend with their dogs.

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Natalia Zukerman
Nate King, “When I Was Younger And Now That I’m Older,” 2026, Digital projection, digital animation, photography.
The Wassaic Project, the 8,000-square-foot, seven-story former grain elevator transformed into a vibrant arts space, opens its 2026 Summer Exhibition, “Because, now is the time of monsters,” on Saturday, May 16, from 3-6 p.m. at Maxon Mills, launching a season-long presentation featuring 39 artists working across installation, performance, video and sculpture.
The opening celebration will include an afternoon of exhibitions and live programming throughout the historic mill building and its surrounding spaces. Gallery and Art Nest hours run from 12-6 p.m., with special presentations scheduled throughout the day.
Highlights include “Life’s a Game, Boy,” an end-of-year exhibition by the Wassaic Project’s JV and varsity art clubs (4-6 p.m.), showcasing work by students in grades 5-12 from across the region. At 4:30 p.m., artist Ace Lehner presents “Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure,” a participatory performance and installation that reimagines the barbershop as a space for queer world-making through improvised haircuts and collaborative exchange. Haircuts will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.
In the evening, artist Nate King will present “When I Was Younger and Now That I’m Older” (8-10 p.m.), a projection work that transforms the facade of Maxon Mills into a shifting visual field of memory, geometry and childhood imagery, reflecting on time, age and perception.
The exhibition, organized by the Wassaic Project, will be on view through Sept. 12 and brings together a wide range of contemporary artists working in and around the Hudson Valley region. More information is available at wassaicproject.org.
Natalia Zukerman
The Hotchkiss School will launch a major new addition to its arts programming with the inaugural Hotchkiss International Piano Competition, a three-day event taking place May 15–17 in Katherine M. Elfers Hall.
The competition will bring together young pianists ages 10 to 18 from around the world, with participants representing the United States, Thailand, Korea, China, Canada, and Azerbaijan. Performers will compete across multiple age divisions, culminating in final rounds that will be open to the public, offering audiences the opportunity to hear a wide range of emerging international talent in performance.
The jury features an internationally recognized panel of performers and educators, including Artistic Directors Fabio Witkowski and Gisele Nacif Witkowski of The Hotchkiss School, alongside Gloria Chien, Olga Kern, Leonel Morales, and Álvaro Teixeira Lopes. Together, the panel brings broad global experience as performers, pedagogues, and competition jurors, and will evaluate contestants over the course of the event.
Organizers describe the competition as both a rigorous artistic platform and an opportunity for cultural exchange, emphasizing performance under professional conditions and the development of young artists at a formative stage in their careers. Winners will receive a total of $25,000 in prize awards, along with opportunities for broader recognition and future performance engagement.
The competition is made possible through founding support from the Yang and Hamabata families. Murong Yang (Class of 2008), whose experience at Hotchkiss shaped her early connection to music and the arts, and her husband Corey Hamabata envisioned a program that combines artistic rigor with personal growth and international exchange. Their support establishes the competition as part of a longer-term commitment to nurturing emerging musical talent.
“This competition offers a platform for extraordinary young artists to challenge themselves, share their artistry, and connect with a global community of musicians,” said Fabio Witkowski, Artistic Director.
The final rounds of the competition will be open to the public, inviting audiences to experience live performances from some of the most promising young pianists on the international stage.
More information is available at hotchkiss.org/piano-competition.
Natalia Zukerman
“Untitled” by Christine Domanic, one of the 37 artists featured in “Earthen Plot,” opening Friday, May 15.
Art lovers will have an opportunity to step inside working artist’s studios across the region next weekend as Open Studios by Upstate Art Weekend returns Saturday, May 16, and Sunday, May 17, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The annual event invites the public into the creative spaces of 240 artists throughout the Hudson Valley and Catskills, offering an intimate look at artistic practices across disciplines while fostering direct connections between artists and visitors.
This year marks the first standalone edition of Open Studios. While the event previously took place alongside June’s Upstate Art Weekend festival, founder Helen Toomer said dedicating an entire weekend to studio visits allows the focus to remain fully on artists and the experience of encountering their work where it is made.
“While Open Studios previously took place alongside Upstate Art Weekend in June, dedicating an entire weekend to studios allows the focus to remain fully on the artists and the experience of visiting them in their creative spaces,” said Toomer. “We’re excited to welcome both returning and new participants this year.”
Founded in 2020, Upstate Art Weekend has grown into a major regional arts platform spotlighting artists, organizations and creative communities throughout the Hudson Valley and Catskills.
The self-guided, region-wide program transforms private studios into temporary public spaces for conversation, discovery and engagement with contemporary art.
Toomer said the shift creates a distinctly different experience from the larger June festival.
“One of the biggest differences from June is the pace and focus,” she said. “Open Studios offers a more intimate experience — giving visitors time to connect directly with artists, see where work is made, and engage more deeply with their practices.”
She added that the two events complement one another.
“Together, the two events create a meaningful balance: Open Studios in May centers the artists, while June’s Upstate Art Weekend gives participating artists the opportunity to explore the region’s museums, galleries and organizations themselves.”
This year’s Open Studios will kick off with the opening reception for “Earthen Plot,” a group exhibition curated by Toomer, from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 15, at UAW headquarters in Kingston.
The exhibition features work by 37 artists selected from more than 200 Open Studios participants and explores artistic practices shaped by place — physically, spiritually and intuitively.
Through sculpture, painting, installation and ephemeral forms, “Earthen Plot” examines relationships between land, material and environment.
The exhibition will remain on view through June 29, with regular Saturday hours and extended hours during Open Studios weekend and Upstate Art Weekend, which takes place June 25-29.
Visitors can plan their Open Studios routes using UAW’s online interactive map and create customized itineraries to explore studios across the region.
“More than anything, we hope both weekends encourage people to discover the richness of the Hudson Valley’s creative community in a personal and memorable way,” Toomer said.
More information is available at upstateartweekend.org.

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