On Friday, May 22, Housatonic’s class of 2027 hosted the fourth annual Battle of the Bands, where five bands across all grades performed a wide variety of music. Kate from Baltimore took home first place for the third consecutive year, and Elizabeth Forbes and Percussion Talk took a second place finish.
Marathon, headed by sophomore Kartel Henry, opened up the night. This was the band’s first time at the competition, and Henry’s first time performing live, although he has amassed over 1 million listeners on Spotify for his solo project, COSIGNS. “[Marathon is] going to start releasing music,” he says. “I think I can use my platform to expose Marathon to more people.”
Next, freshman Samantha Silvernail and Adrian Dykeman performed for the first time as well. The pair showed ambition and composure in front of a large audience, and look like a formidable group should they find more Metallica fans to play covers with next year.
For the third year, Abram Kirshner’s Blossom returned to the stages of Housatonic Valley. The band played two original songs composed by Kirshner and his band members, and covered The Head And The Heart’s “Rivers and Roads,” featuring Anna Gillette’s harmonies with Kirshner. “I think Battle of the Bands really helped build my confidence on stage,” Kirshner said. He began playing music and writing songs less than two years ago, and is continuing his music career at college. “It helped me get used to that sort of pressure.”
Defending last year’s title, Kate from Baltimore played fourth with a very talented squad once again. The band has performed with a few different musicians over the years, but has consistently produced some of the most exciting performances of the night. “Our band practiced a lot and we just had a lot of fun together,” said lead singer Sophia Fitz. “Even if they don’t know if they’re going into music professionally, it still lets everyone show off their talents and lets them practice their instruments.”
This year, the class of 2027 took on the role of hosting the annual event, led by juniors Danny Lesch and Carmela Egan. “It was Danny Lesch,” Fitz said. “Look, I mean, he just blew it out of the park.”
Adam Hock, left, and Abram Kirshner take a bow after their performance.Simon Markow
However, the night wasn’t all smooth sailing.
Prior to the show starting, there were many miscommunications about when the performances would actually begin. A school announcement claimed it began at 7 p.m., however the organizers claimed the show would begin at 6:15 p.m. Ultimately, the show began around 6:45, with enough time for all the bands to set up while ensuring everybody would arrive in time.
There was also some deliberation about the order that the bands would play in. Blossom was initially set to play first, however band order was determined at a sound check that Blossom wasn’t able to attend. Feeling as if opening for the third year in a row, especially as seniors, was unfair, the band protested, and eventually resolved to trade with the newer band Marathon.
With stress creating high tensions in the room, Senior Elizabeth Forbes stepped up to remind the bands that, “We’re all here for fun, ok. This is not something to stress or freak out or get mad at each other over, we’re all just musicians who enjoy playing music.”
Elizabeth Forbes and Percussion Talk played last, covering crowd favorites including “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls, and ending the night with the song “Your Toy” from Forbes’s EP Dear Leo.
As a solo artist, Forbes played with juniors Jasper Oyanadel, and first time percussionist Jacob Robles. “I think we did good,” Oyanadel said. “As a band itself we did great … Very few practices, but we definitely picked it up and we stepped up.”
“I thought it was a great experience,” Forbes said. “Everybody in the beginning was a little stressed, and we kind of just all made a big group circle and we were all like, let’s not stress about this, let’s just go out there and jam.”
“I mean, it was, honestly, it’s not even a battle of the bands,” Fitz said. “It’s more like everyone just loves performing. Like, it’s just so fun to perform. And, like, no matter if you win or don’t win, like, the performance is what everyone comes there for.”
Marina Kotchoubey at the Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers showroom in West Cornwall.
Sometime in the mid-2010s, with grandkids accumulating, he started to picture a future away from the shop. It was getting time to step away and enjoy what he insists is one of the most beautiful parts of the world: the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. But just because he was aging out of the job didn’t mean his employees needed to as well.
Ingersoll recognized the home he’d built for these creative experts — a place where they, too, could make their livings building masterworks of fine furniture. So, for his next big challenge, he began the search for someone he could trust to take what he’d made and build it even better. After searching for quite some time, he decided to look next door.
Technically, Marina Kotchoubey grew up in Manhattan but she spent weekends and summers in Cornwall, Connecticut, feeling more at home amongst the woods and rivers of Litchfield County than in the subways of the city. But business opportunities kept her away from making her permanent home in the region.
After college, Kotchoubey moved to Paris to run the U.S. branch of children’s fashion brand Petit Bateau. At the young age of 23, it was a job she wasn’t ready for. But that’s where Kotchoubey finds her creative challenges.
By pairing the experience of her peers and coworkers with her razor-sharp intuition, Kotchoubey ran the brand with seamless expertise despite her lack of experience. She jumped into the deep end of the pool and challenged herself to swim. For seven years, she swam like an Olympian.
After her time in France, she felt ready to finally make a home in Cornwall. With no career or even job lined up, she approached several local businesses around the Northwest Corner and offered to help out in a consulting capacity. After years of challenging conditions in the deep end, this seemed like calm, shallow waters. And that’s when her neighbor, Ian Ingersoll, approached her.
At first, he was looking for a little help with business issues. Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers was doing well, but a younger customer base of homeowners and interior designers weren’t as keen on classic Shaker furniture. Though the studio had already started to diversify their offerings, Kotchoubey was instrumental in implementing a smooth transition to other styles of furniture. Ingersoll saw that, thanks to her breadth of experience and enterprising vision, she could take the baton and run with it.
In 2025, he handed her the keys.
When she took the reins, Kotchoubey saw two new ways forward. She could shake things up and pivot the shop toward installations and on-site custom builds. This would require new equipment, new clients and possibly new craftsmen. The other path leaned into what she had already helped the company do: expand its offerings and cater to a new, less traditionally minded clientele.
With confidence in her craftsmen and the reputation their work has garnered, she resisted the urge to pivot and instead relied on what makes Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers great — high-quality furniture made by expert craftsmen.
The journey isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. There are great challenges that come with being a young woman in an older man’s world. Firstly, she had to win the respect of her employees, despite not sharing in their skills and know-how. She accomplished that, once again, by listening to the experts and not forcing her vision on a remarkably capable group. The woodworking side of things might be new, but her ability to swim in unknown waters has proven unflappable throughout her career.
Now in its sixth decade of operations, Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers shows no sign of slowing down. Kotchoubey’s leadership is finding new customers by expanding on the reputation of the work. With increasing demand and a steadfast commitment to slow, quality jobs, don’t expect to pop into their West Cornwall showroom and leave with a piece anytime soon. Lead times on custom creations range from 12 to 16 weeks, but if things keep going the way they are, that wait could get even longer.
To see some of the company’s offerings, visit ianingersoll.com.
Marina Kotchoubey at the Ian Ingersoll Cabinetmakers.Photo by D.H. Callahan
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