Month: November 2014

American Chestnut Tree Planting with The Greenwich Land Trust

On Saturday, November 15th, The Greenwich Land Trust will plant hundreds of American chestnut seedlings in partnership with The American Chestnut Foundation and the Greenwich Tree Conservancy. The mighty chestnut, once a dominant tree of Eastern United States forests, was virtually eradicated by an Asian blight introduced over a century ago. Today, very few American chestnuts remain, and those that survive do not reach their former stature.

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After several decades of research to overcome the blight pathogen, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has propagated trees with qualities of the American chestnut and with disease resistance genes found in their Asian “cousins.” TACF now works with conservation organizations and other large landowners to further this research and establish local populations of disease-resistant American chestnuts.

The Greenwich Land Trust will be planting these blight resistant seedlings at our new American Chestnut Tree Sanctuary, an area with ideal conditions for American chestnut trees. The seedlings will be protected from deer and voles with a perimeter fence and tree tubes.
The public is invited to join in an afternoon of tree planting which will be held at our Duck Pond Hill Preserve, opposite 18 Burning Tree Road Greenwich, CT. Tree planting and information sessions will take place at two times: 1PM and 2PM.

Tools and refreshments will be provided. All ages welcome. FREE.
Rain date: Sunday, November 16th 1PM-3PM

This project is possible thanks to the support of The Greenwich Tree Conservancy, Private Donors, and Emerald Tree & Shrub Care.

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Music and Nature: Can you Hear It?

Nature has inspired many musical scores and the Aubudon Greenwich along with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra is hosting a Curiosity Concert – Music and Nature on November 16 from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

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Music and Nature: Can you Hear It? will feature principal players from the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and includes Phillip Bashor on the clarinet, Andrew Gordon on the piano, Daniel Miller on the cello and Susan Rotholz on the flute.

A quintet of our own Symphony’s principal players will explore nature themes in music with selections from: Camille Saint-Saens * The Carnival of the Animals, Serge Prokofiev * Peter and the Wolf, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov * Flight of the Bumblebee, Claude Debussy * The Snow is Dancing, and Antonio Vivaldi * Four Seasons.

The concert will take place at the Audubon’s Kimberlin Nature Education Center located on 613 Riversville Rd. in Greenwich. For more information and reservations call 203-869-5272 ext. 349. or email greenwichcenter@audubon.org. For more information about Greenwich Audubon http://greenwich.audubon.org.

The Greenwich Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1958, and since 1975 has been led by Music Director and Conductor David Gilbert. Associate Conductor Tara Simoncic conducts GSO’s Young People’s Concerts – free concerts for 2nd through 7th graders from all Greenwich schools. For more information about GSO’s 2014/15 season, visit www.greenwichsymphony.org.

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Holidays with the Bridgeport Symphony

The Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra has an exciting holiday season planned and tickets are selling fast. Once again this year, the orchestra is returning to Saturday night concerts beginning at 8 p.m. with a special optional 7:00 PM pre-concert open to all ticket buyers. Pre-concert attendees will hear the stories and letters that have inspired the repertoire for each concert by invited narrators. Pre-concert events also allow participants closer interactions with conductors, soloists and other musicians as well as the visuals that enhance each live performance.

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On November 15 at 8 p.m. the concert called Dream of Dances will feature György Ligeti – Old Hungarian Dances, Igor Stravinsky – Suite from Pulcinella, Ludwig Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Opus 92. The conductor, Jacomo Rafael Bairos has been described as “expressive and passionate” [Malaysian Straits Times], and lauded by the Leipziger Volkszeitung as an “impressive conductor… who is elegantly demanding”, Mr. Bairos enjoys an emerging career as an imaginative and inclusive conductor, dedicated collaborator and educator, and ardent champion of living American composers.

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On December 6 the orchestra has planned a special holiday concert that will also begin at 8 p.m. whose theme is A Folk Christmas. This concert will feature the work of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky – Serenade, opus 48; Antonio Vivaldi – from The Four Seasons; Carols and folk songs and the conductor is Eric Jacobsen. This promises to be a night of holiday cheer!

In addition, the holiday concert will highlight a performance by the Fairfield County Children’s Choir conducted by Jon Noyes, Musical Director. The Fairfield County Children’s Choir (FCCC) is a community-based choral program made up of 300 children in grades four through twelve from communities in and around Fairfield County, Connecticut. The FCCC was founded in 1995 to provide children the opportunity to participate in a musical experience which is challenging, rewarding and enjoyable. The FCCC has performed throughout New England as well as in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Maryland, New Orleans, San Francisco, Oakland, Hawaii, Canada, England, Ireland, Austria and the Czech Republic. The group has shared the stage with such artists as Renee Fleming, Charles Strouse, Stephen Schwartz, Lawrence Gilgore, Sam Waterston, Christopher Plummer, Nick Page, Ivan Rutherford, Michelle Mallardi, Henry Leck, Bob Chilcott, Jean Ashworth Bartle, Tom Chapin and Rob Hugh. We welcome FCCC back to perform a 2nd time with GBS!

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There will also be a performance by Sara Watkins who plays the fiddle and has spent nearly two decades, as singer and fiddle player for the Grammy Award–winning, bluegrass-folk hybrid Nickel Creek, a trio she’d started performing in when she was a mere eight years old. As a solo artist as the BBC put it, “Watkins’ time in the spotlight is a triumph with her agile playing and the kind of voice that gives your goose bumps the shivers.”

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The final performer is Aoife O’Donovon, best known as the founder and frontwoman of the string band Crooked Still. She is also one-third of the female trio Sometymes Why, and has appeared on the Prairie Home Companion radio program. She has collaborated with artists as varied as jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas, Yo-Yo Ma’s Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile’s Goat Rodeo Sessions band, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and Olabelle, to name just a few.

All performances are at the Klein Memorial Auditorium on 910 Fairfield Ave. in Bridgeport. For ticket information call 203-576-0263 or visit http://www.gbs.org.

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Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum Explores Mark Twain’s Victorian Holiday Traditions

On Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 11 a.m. at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, 295 West Avenue in Norwalk, CT, Curator Patricia Philippon will give a talk entitled, A Clemens Christmas, which will highlight the Christmas celebrations that took place in the Hartford home of Mark Twain.

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This lecture will discuss Victorian holiday traditions, as well as provide a virtual walk-through of the Clemens 19- room, Tiffany-decorated mansion decked out for the family’s holiday celebrations, from 1874 to 1891, when the author, his wife, and three daughters lived in the house.

This lecture will lead the audience throughout the house, starting with a “kissing ball” of mistletoe and the home’s massive staircase wreathed in garlands and ribbons. Along with the holiday decorations Ms. Philippon will discuss Clemens’ own holiday sentiments and introduce lecture goers to Mark Twain’s storytelling side, his humor, and his endearing thoughts on this cherished family tradition.

Patricia Philippon is the Executive Director of the American Clock & Watch Museum in Bristol, Connecticut and was the chief curator of The Mark Twain House & Museum from 2007 to 2014. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Providence College, RI and a Masters in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
This will be the sixth in a series of lectures entitled, Lockwood-Mathews Mansion: Seventy-Four Years of Culture – Art, Life, and Love, 1864-1938 by curators and experts in the field of Victorian era material life. The lectures are $25 for members, $30 for non-members per session. Please RSVP by Friday, November 7, 2014. The price includes lecture, lunch and a first floor Mansion tour. Lunch is courtesy of Michael Gilmartin’s Outdoor Cookers. The chair of the Lecture Committee is Mimi Findlay of New Canaan. Please contact info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or 203-838-9799, ext. 4 to purchase tickets.

The Museum’s 2014 cultural and educational programs are made possible in part by generous funding from LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown, the Museum’s Distinguished Benefactors: Klaff’s, The Xerox Foundation, and The Maurice Goodman Foundation; and LMMM Sustainers: Spinnaker Real Estate Partners.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on schedules and programs please visit: www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.

For area information on Fairfield County www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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November Fun Naturally at White Memorial Foundation

White Memorial Foundation located just off Rte. 202 on Whites Wood Road in Litchfield has planned a fun filled November for nature lovers.

photo credit: White Memorial
photo credit: White Memorial

On November 5 take a brisk walk with Gerri Griswold then relax with a super healthy meal. The objective is to share recipes, learn how to use herbs and spices to create wonderfully delicious meals that will keep you focused on your goal and to use this beautiful property to help you become the very best you can be. As for the featured dish of the night it is a Hearty Vegetarian Chili, Mesclun Greens with Oranges, Avocado, and Toasted Almonds, and Fresh Fruit. Make sure you dress for the weather and pack a flashlight! And, don’t forget to bring your own place setting! This event starts at 6:00 P.M., at the A.B. Ceder Room, Members: $15.00 Non-members: $25.00. Limited to 20 people! Pre-registration and prepayment are required.

On November 8, stop by Point Folly on the grounds of the Foundation anytime between 9 am and 12 pm to do some birdwatching with the new Education Director Carrie Szwed and don’t forget your binoculars to spot winter migrants and arrivals at this free event.

On November 15, get your paintbrush ready for a class with world renowned botanical artist Betsy Rogers-Knox! This is a great opportunity to learn techniques of botanical illustration from a pro. The class is for all levels of experience. All supplies are included. Ages 12 and up. 1:30 P.M. – 4:00 P.M., A. B. Ceder Room, Members: $35.00 Non-members: $45.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

If you give a “Hoot” then the felting workshop with Robin McCahill should be on your calendar for November 22 from 10 am – 4 pm. This is a perfect opportunity to create a handmade gift for a loved one (or to keep yourself!). Using soft wool and a special barbed felting needle, sculpt a night time owl of your choice. This one day workshop will enable you to finish your bird in time to adorn your home for the holidays. Learn some of the nocturnal habits of the famed owls while you work. All materials included! Members: $55.00, Non-members: $65.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

On November 23, there will be an afternoon Green Man Concert with with Michael McDermott and Friends Benefit Concert Supporting The White Memorial Conservation Center. he Green Man is a mysterious, eerie figure depicted mainly in medieval European stonework, believed to represent an ancient vegetation deity. It is nearly always depicted as a “foliate head,” that is, a face made of leaves and vines. Sometimes it appears as a human face peering out from leaves, other times with animal features. This joyful afternoon with ridiculously talented purveyor of joy, Michael McDermott and his band “Cead Mile Failte” Gaelic for “A Hundred Thousand Welcomes”, will include music by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Irish singer / songwriter Luka Bloom, and many more. What a splendid way to spend the Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving! 100% of the proceeds from this concert benefit the Conservation Center. 2:00 P.M., Carriage House, Members: $15.00 Non-members: $20.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required.

To finish the month, on November 29, take a walk with Gerri Griswold along the Cranberry Pond Trail and cap off the walk with a cup of hot coffee and a thick wedge of Crimson Pie swimming in a pool of thick ginger crème anglaise! Meet in the Museum. 2:00 P.M., We’ll drive over to the trail head together. FREE…Donations will be accepted to help defray the Conservation Center’s programming expenses.

For more information about White Memorial Foundation visit http://www.whitememorialcc.org. For information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

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Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting: Paintings by Mia Brownell 2003-2013 at the Housatonic Museum of Art

Twenty-eight of Mia Brownell’s paintings will be on display at the Housatonic Museum of Art in the Burt Chernow Galleries from through November 17, 2014. Luscious and sensuous, Mia Brownell’s paintings invite us to indulge in “earthly delights” and are themselves ripe with sexual innuendo.

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What Brownell asks us to contemplate is the brevity of life. “We begin in the madness of carnal desire and the transport of voluptuousness,” wrote the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, “we end in the dissolution of all our parts and the musty stench of corpses.” Seventeenth century Dutch still life paintings of tables laden with gastronomic delights served to remind viewers that all things perish but Brownell’s fruits invite us to relish the sweetness of now.

Although Mia Brownell’s paintings “may recall classical Vanitas paintings, her food-based compositions also invoke contemporary food politics. A critic of the food industrial complex, Brownell creates a juxtaposition between the natural and artificial, modeling her opulent still-lifes after molecular structures. Her depictions of shiny apples, bead-like caviar and juicy grapes look almost too good to be edible, hence the title of her upcoming traveling solo show, Delightful, Delicious, Disgusting.

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The exhibition, which premiered at J. Cacciola Gallery in New York, is a ten-year survey of Brownell’s paintings (2003-2013) travelled to the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, Juniata College Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the final stop at Housatonic Museum of Art in Connecticut.”

Gallery hours: Monday- Friday from 8:30am until 5:30pm, Thursdays until 7pm, Saturday from 9am until 3pm and Sunday Noon until 4pm. Please note that the Gallery will be CLOSED Monday. October 13th. For more information visit http://www.housatonic.edu/artmuseum/index.asp

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