Notes of Joy

How a Hotchkiss family is turning their grandmother’s passion for music education into a lasting legacy

Read the Summer 2025 Hotchkiss Magazine

By Eliott Grover

It takes a rare kind of talent to shine without access or opportunity. As a young girl, Sherry Lynn Brown-Marfuggi GP’22,’29 received an honorable mention for playing piano in her church’s pageant. It was a remarkable feat considering she was entirely self-taught. 

“Can you imagine what she could’ve done if she ever had lessons or if she had a piano at home?” the pageant director told the audience.

“That stuck with her,” recalls Sherry’s daughter, Barbara Hennessy P’22,’29. “That was the first time she understood what she was missing—and what other kids could be missing.”

Growing up in a family with limited means, Sherry spent hours in the church basement, practicing on the only piano she could access. Formal instruction was never an option. “Her family not only couldn’t afford lessons, but they didn’t understand the value of what it would mean to bring the arts into one’s life,” Barbara explains. “So they didn’t quite understand why money, if they had it, would be spent there.”

Sherry’s approach to music, self-directed and resilient, became a throughline in her life. She was the first in her family to receive a high school diploma––earning her GED as an adult––and instilled in her children a deep belief in the transformative power of education. Barbara carried her mother’s belief into her own academic journey.

After graduating from high school, Barbara attended Tufts University as a first-generation college student. “They took a chance on me, and that changed my life,” she says. Meeting professors during office hours, engaging with a dynamic curriculum, and learning alongside a diverse student body was an eye-opening experience. She went on to earn her law degree and is now vice president and associate general counsel at Aetna.

“I was on that journey with my mother’s help,” Barbara says. “Although she had not been through that process herself, she understood that education was the key to being successful and was an important foundation to be able to give back to others.”

That understanding would shape not only Barbara’s future, but that of the next generation as well. As Barbara’s own children—Grace Hennessy ’22 and Patrick Hennessy ’29—grew up, their grandmother remained a steadfast champion for their learning. 

“She always was extremely supportive of our children, making sure they were in independent day schools and then independent boarding schools,” Barbara says. “She was a critical part of carrying that mantle even though she did not have those experiences herself.”

Music Program Brings Family to Hotchkiss

Barbara, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, inherited her mother’s love of music and passed it on to her children. In their household, music wasn’t simply background noise; it was a practice, a discipline, and a source of joy and opportunity. “We actually came to know Hotchkiss because of its music program,” Barbara says.

When Grace began exploring boarding schools, her French horn teacher connected her with Fabio Witkowski, the Joanne Eastman Sohrweide Chair, head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department, director of music technology, and instructor in piano. After visiting Hotchkiss with her father, Matt Hennessy P’22,’29, Grace called her mother on the drive home. Barbara could hear the excitement in her daughter’s voice. “They had gotten such a wonderful feeling about this place,” she recalls.

That spring, Barbara attended an admissions revisit day and immediately understood what Grace had sensed. “There were plenty of good schools that met our needs academically, but Matt and I didn’t feel like they necessarily cared about our child in the same way,” she says. “What stuck out about Hotchkiss is that it’s a family. You’re going to leave your child in the care of someone else, but they’re going to be watching, and they’re going to be caring, and they’re going to challenge your child beyond what they think they can do.”

During her time at Hotchkiss, Grace received the Dana/Spencer Family Scholarship. The experience deepened the family’s connection to the School. “That was incredibly meaningful,” Barbara says. “Not only because it was given so freely, but because it really showed that Hotchkiss had made an unwavering commitment to her.”

Barbara and Matt watched as Grace stepped fully into her potential. “She took some chances in classes I don’t think she would have necessarily taken if left to her own devices—or if she hadn’t felt safe taking those risks,” Barbara says. “People joke and say, ‘Once you go through Hotchkiss, college is easy.’ I think that’s definitely true.”

Now entering her senior year at Wellesley College, Grace is majoring in art history and Middle Eastern studies. Barbara credits Hotchkiss with nurturing both the confidence and curiosity that continue to shape her daughter’s path. “The work is very doable,” she says, “because Hotchkiss prepared her so well.”

When it came time for Patrick to begin his boarding school search, Barbara and Matt let him take the lead—even as they quietly hoped he’d choose Hotchkiss. “I was worried he wouldn’t pick it simply because his sister went there,” Barbara says.

But any doubts vanished on revisit day. As soon as they arrived on campus, Patrick found a group of students and quickly melted into the flow of school life. “Within minutes, he had hooked up with a group of guys,” Barbara recalls. “They were wandering around, and he couldn’t care less if I was there or not—except that I was his ride home,” she adds with a laugh.

Like his sister, Patrick plays the French horn, along with other instruments. Barbara looks forward to watching him perform but doesn’t expect to be a constant presence on campus even though their home in Hartford is less than two hours from Lakeville. “I’m hoping he lets us come visit,” she laughs. “I thought I’d be visiting Grace all the time, and I wasn’t. She didn’t need it. I want to be there for them, but I also want them to take advantage of this opportunity to start to think about how to be a grownup.”

As the school year approaches, the whole family is preparing—logistically and emotionally—for Patrick’s next chapter. “I’m excited because I know what awaits him,” Barbara says. “And I think he’s excited because he doesn’t know yet.”

Gift Supports Student Musicians

For Barbara, the story of her children’s education at Hotchkiss is inseparable from the story of her mother. Sherry passed away in 2022 after a long illness. She didn’t have many opportunities to visit Hotchkiss in person, but she followed Grace’s journey intently, asking questions and celebrating each milestone. “She was always so impressed with the education that my daughter received,” Barbara says.

In her final days, Sherry spoke often about the chances she never had and the importance of creating them for others. “Right up at the end, she said, ‘I really want to make sure that people understand that you can still come from nothing, you can still be a woman, you can still find a way to give and make sure that kids get this education,’” Barbara shares.

After her passing, the family considered how to best honor her wishes. The decision to make a gift from Sherry’s estate to the Hotchkiss Music Lesson Fund felt natural and deeply fitting. The fund, which supports music students who receive financial aid, reflects what Sherry yearned for as a girl and what she championed throughout her life. The gift aligned with Sherry’s belief in self-improvement through education and her conviction that music is not an extracurricular luxury but a vital form of expression and growth.

“It felt to me like the right combination of everything she wanted to achieve,” Barbara says. “It felt like this was going to be a place where students who really wanted to engage in music studies or better themselves with independent school education would be able to do that and not be denied. It felt right because Hotchkiss had provided so much to my daughter, and the School had produced such great results for her. And it just felt right because Hotchkiss has meant so much to our family.”

The gift ensures that students who show musical promise won’t be held back by financial constraints—that talent will be met with training and interest met with encouragement.

Sherry never studied music formally; but through this gift, she becomes part of a legacy of musicianship at Hotchkiss. Future students will sit down with instruments and step onto stages because of her belief that access matters—and that talent, when paired with opportunity, can fully flourish.

Barbara finds herself imagining those future performances. The prospect of returning to campus, of hearing a young musician excel thanks to her mother’s generosity, fills her with quiet pride. 

Her joy takes on a more personal hue as she recalls her last trip to campus for Patrick’s revisit day. “It felt just as special coming back as it did the first time I saw it,” Barbara says. “As it will forever.”