Students shuffled on and off the performance area outside the Newburgh Free Library Saturday, trading instruments and places in the lineup as Canterbury Brook Academy of the Arts brought musicians from across the school to Newburgh Porchfest.

Among them were members of the school’s first graduating class, who closed out the set after younger students took their turns performing. For many of those younger musicians, it was their first time playing before a public audience.

The scene at the library was one part of Porchfest, which put local musicians of different ages and styles in front of audiences around Newburgh and turned porches and community spaces into stages for the day.

“Newburgh has an incredibly vibrant arts and music scene that I feel like people don’t always know about,” returning Porchfest performer Riley Jane said. “I think that this is a great example of that.”

For CBA, Porchfest offered students a chance to take what they had been practicing inside the school into the city. The school returned to the festival for a second year, with Head of School Kelly Trotta saying the event fits its goal of participating in Newburgh’s arts community, as most of the school’s students live in Newburgh or the surrounding area.

The students also had little time to prepare. Classes had begun only weeks earlier, giving them about two weeks in class to prepare for Porchfest, Trotta said.

“Being invited to play at something like this is an honor for us and something that our kids take really seriously,” Trotta said.

This year’s Porchfest carried additional significance for the school as its first graduating class took part. The class began with only a few students and has since grown to seven, with some members attending CBA since its early years.
For the seniors, being the first class to reach graduation has made their final year particularly meaningful.

“I definitely think it’s really special and very heartwarming,” said Talia, a senior. I get teary-eyed thinking about it.”

The closeness of the small class has extended to the rest of the school. Talia said the seniors think of one another as sisters and the younger students as their younger siblings. Another senior, Emma, said there is pride in knowing they will be able to say they were members of CBA’s first graduating class.
Music has been part of their experience together. The students said they have performed genres ranging from country and pop to K-pop, although the graduating group tends to gravitate toward rock, naming Metallica and Green Day among bands they enjoy. At Porchfest, the group decided to perform 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?”, a song the students said they chose because they had performed it before and felt confident playing it together.

The students, however, represented only one end of the range of musicians Porchfest brought before audiences Saturday.

Brian Sullivan, who works at the Newburgh Free Library, has played guitar for 32 years. He joined Porchfest after seeing information about the previous year’s event and said performing offered another way to bring the community around the library.

“Hopefully, people go in, get some library cards, and also I just want them to see the part of the library in the community,” Sullivan said.

Seeing the students take over the performance area afterward highlighted another part of the festival for Sullivan in giving young musicians an audience they might not otherwise have.

“Right now there’s a school playing, which is kind of cool,” Sullivan said. “I doubt they get that many opportunities to play in front of what looks to be like 60, 70 people.”

For Jane, who played mostly folk music at 163 Grand Street and is inspired by artists like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Elliott Smith, this year’s Porchfest marked a return to an event she first discovered through Newburgh’s local music scene.

Jane, a 19-year-old American University student double majoring in political science and music, met Porchfest organizer Lisa Pellegrino while the two were performing at Newburgh Pride two years ago. After Pellegrino later put out a call for Porchfest musicians, Jane joined the festival last year and returned home from Washington, D.C., to perform again this year.

That invitation did not require Jane to have a porch of her own, as Pellegrino pairs musicians without a place to perform with residents who volunteer their porches for the festival, giving performers like Jane a stage for the day.

Coming home to participate again this year was also about the simple appeal of the event, according to Jane.

“It’s just a fun way to play a show,” Jane said.