Category: Connecticut Travel

Music Mountain in Falls Village, Connecticut, is one of the premiere destinations in the United States for intimate chamber music concerts. Gordon Hall is one of the finest chamber music halls in the country with legendary acoustics and resonant, full-bodied sound. Music Mountain is the home of the oldest continuing summer chamber music festival in this country. Founded in 1930 as the permanent home for the Gordon String Quartet, one of the leading string quartets of its time, Music Mountain is celebrating its 88th season in 2017.

Music Mountain and its marvelous setting for both the musicians and the audience is justly famed. The centerpiece is Gordon Hall – one of the finest chamber music facilities in the country. Gordon Hall and the Music Mountain residences were built by Sears Roebuck during the summer of 1930. The property and the buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

With seating for 335 and legendary acoustics, Gordon Hall provides resonant and lovely sound, views of the gardens, grounds and hills from every seat or from the lawn, permitting listeners to savor music and nature as one. The recent addition of air conditioning and heating has allowed them to extend the season.

On Sunday, June 11, 2017, at 3pm, the 88th concert season opens with Peter Serkin & Friends. They will play Piano Trios by Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven; the season concludes on Sunday, September 17, at 3pm, with The Juilliard String Quartet. They will perform String Quartets by Beethoven, Haydn and Dvorak.

In between these the opening and closing events Music Mountain will bring their audience an additional fourteen not to be missed chamber music concerts with many of favorites including: the Shanghai and Penderecki String Quartets and the St. Petersburg Piano Quartet; in addition to thirteen Saturday Twilight Concerts.
The twin theme for the chamber music series in 2017 is Beethoven, with nine concerts highlighting performances of fourteen of his works, plus the Piano in Chamber Music that includes thirteen concerts with piano, to be played by internationally renowned artists.

The entire 2017 Chamber Music Schedule is listed below and is exciting and varied, with a broad variety of beautiful music played by gifted artists.

SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 3PM
88TH SEASON OPENING
CONCERT & RECEPTION
All tickets: $75
Peter Serkin, Piano
Stefan Jackiw,Violin
Jay Campbell, Cello
Haydn: Piano Trio in G Major, Opus 73 # 2 “Gypsy”
Schubert: Piano Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 99, D 898
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 97, “Archduke”

SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 3PM
Alexander Fiterstein, Clarinet
Michael Brown, Piano
Nicholas Canellakis, Cello
Beethoven: Clarinet Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 11
Selected Klezmer Works for Clarinet Trio
Debussy: Premiere Rhapsody for Clarinet & Piano
Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Opus 114

SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 3PM
Cassatt String Quartet
Mihae Lee, Piano
Mendelssohn: 4 pieces for String Quartet, Opus 81 “Capriccio”
Beethoven: String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet Opus 57

SUNDAY, JULY 2, 3PM
All Tickets: $60
Peter Serkin & Julia Shu
Piano 4 hands
Beethoven: The Grosse Fuge, Opus 133
Balance of program to be announced

SUNDAY, JULY 9, 3PM
Arianna String Quartet
Victoria Schwartzman, Piano
Haydn: String Quartet in A Major, Opus 20 # 6
Brahms: String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 51 #2
Dohnanyi: Piano Quintet in C Major, Opus 1

SUNDAY, JULY 16, 3PM
Penderecki String Quartet
Leopoldo Erice, Piano
Mozart: String Quartet in D Major, K. 57 5
Schumann: String Quartet in A Major, Opus 41 #3
Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major, Opus 81

SUNDAY, JULY, 23, 3PM
Ariel Quartet
Soyeon Kate Lee, Piano
Mozart: String Quartet in G Major, K.387
Dvorak: String Quartet in F Major, Opus 96 “American”
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E Flat Major, Opus 44

SUNDAY, JULY 30, 3PM
Harlem String Quartet
Fei-Fei Dong, Piano
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Mozart: String Quartet in B Flat Major, K. 458, “Hunt”
William Bolcom — Three Rags for String Quartet
Guido Lopez-Gavilan: Guaguanco
Brahms: Piano Quartet in C Minor, Opus 60

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 3PM
Aeolus String Quartet
Geoffrey Burleson, Piano
Haydn: String Quartet in G Major, Opus 64#4
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in F Major, Opus 74 #2
Franck: Piano Quintet in F Minor

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 3PM
St. Petersburg Piano Quartet
ALL BEETHOVEN PROGRAM
Violin & Piano Sonata # 5 in F Major, Opus 24 “Spring”
Piano Trio in D Major, Opus 70 #1 “Ghost”
Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, Opus 16

SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 3PM
St. Petersburg Piano Quartet
Brahms: Viola Sonata in E Flat Major, Opus 120 #2
Shostakovich: Piano Trio # 2 in E Minor, Opus 67
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, Opus 47

SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 3PM
Daedalus String Quartet
Tanya Bannister, Piano
Beethoven: String Quartet in F Major, Opus 18#1
Schubert: String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 29 #1, D. 804) “Rosamunde”
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Opus 34

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 6:30PM
The Shanghai String Quartet
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E Flat Major, Opus 12
Yiwen Jiang: Selections from China Song
Brahms: String Quartet in C Minor, Opus 51 # 1

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 3PM
LABOR DAY BENEFIT
CONCERT & RECEPTION
All Tickets $75
The Shanghai String Quartet
Qing Jiang, Piano
Beethoven: String Quartet in B Flat Major, Opus 18 # 6
Beethoven: String Quartet in E Minor, Opus 59 # 2
Brahms: Piano Quartet in G Minor, Opus 25

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 3PM
Amernet String Quartet
Vivek Kamath, Viola
ALL BEETHOVEN PROGRAM
Piano Sonata # 8 in C Minor, Opus 13 “Pathétique”
Arranged for String Quartet by Jeffery Briggs
String Quartet in F Major, Opus 135
Viola Quintet in C Major, Opus 29 “Storm”

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 3PM
All Tickets: $60
The Juilliard String Quartet
Beethoven: String Quartet in A Major, Opus 18 # 5
Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Opus 76 # 5
Dvorak: String Quartet in C Major, Opus 61

Franklin Street Works newest exhibition, “The Work of Love, The Queer of Labor,” is curated by New York City based artist/curator Yevgeniy Fiks and curator/critic Olga Kopenkina. In “The Work of Love, The Queer of Labor,” queerness is discussed through the lens of class and vice versa. Exhibiting artists are: Angela Beallor, Hugo Gellert, Montague Glover, Noam Gonick, Hagra, William E. Jones, Erik Moskowitz+Amanda Trager, Jaanus Samma, and YES! Association / Föreningen JA!. The exhibition is on view through August 17, 2017.

In “The Work of Love, The Queer of Labor,” individual artists and collectives contribute works that represent a desire for liberation through critically engaged connections between class, gender and sexuality. LGBTQI identities are explored from the class perspective in order to re-discover political potentialities in queerness’ countercultural paradigm. By exploring queerness through its relationship with class, curators Fiks and Kopenkina aim to interrogate the possibility of love in a class-based society. They attempt as well to envision a classless society akin to “affectionate community” built by LGBTQI people.

In today’s global economy the difference between work as a productive force in service of capitalism and labor as a condition of biological life is almost gone. Artists’ creative work, once avant-garde and independent, has become alienated and inseparable from market economy. Likewise, love and sexuality have become abstracted from the site of their enactment. They are no longer a product of biological body, but, instead, generated by techno-bodies impacted by multimedia technologies of global capitalist production.

Is it possible for queer activities, which are driven by “true desire,” not social norms, to restore love and produce new relationships between people? Could these relationships be based on equality of all forms of sexuality, love and labor? Artists who present their works in this exhibition extend this desire for love and personal relationships in a society built on equality and justice rather than exploitation and oppression to all people. The struggle for queer rights is everyone’s struggle!

Franklin Street Works is located on 41 Franklin Street in Stamford. Gallery Hours are: Tues. – Sun. noon to 5 p.m. To sign up for a monthly newsletter on things to do and see, special events and travel tips in Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com or www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Nationally Acclaimed American Museum of Tort Law invites you to Join Politico’s Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker, and Hall of Fame The New Yorker magazine cartoonist/illustrator Barry Blitt on Saturday, June 3rd, for a special daylong Program. ‘If It Doesn’t Please the Court: Two Ink-Stained Wretches on the Art of Political Satire.’ The program will be held at Winsted United Methodist Church, 630 Main Street, Winsted.

The program will include a workshop on cartooning/illustration, led by both Wuerker and Blitt, a presentation by them, as well as Consumer Advocate and author, Ralph Nader, and a meet and greet with the speakers.

CARTOON AND ILLUSTRATION WORKSHOP 11:00am to 12:00pm
Doors open at 10:30am. Blitt and Wuerker will discuss their distinctive approaches to creating visual communication that can influence how we interpret the political landscape and challenge leadership – beyond the written word alone.

PRESENTATION 1:00pm to 2:30pm Blitt and Wuerker present their unique, provocative and evolving perspectives on how their work has changed the way we see the world. Nader will speak on the connection between political satire and the critical role that tort law plays in not only compensating victims, but also in publically disclosing wrongdoing and acting as a future deterrent. A question and answer period will follow their remarks.

MEET and GREET 2:45pm to 5:30pm at the Museum. The AMTL bookstore will be open with a special collection of illustrations and books by Blitt, Wuerker and Nader, available for purchase and autographing by the presenters.
Tickets are $10. You are welcome to come for all three programs or make your reservation for the afternoon program. Advance reservations are highly recommended. The Workshop is limited to a maximum of 50 participants. RSVP now.

To purchase tickets, contact AMTL Director of Engagement, Joan Bowman, at joan@tortmuseum.org; or Online at: http://www.tortmuseum.org using your credit card or debit card.

For more information please visit: www.tortmuseum.org or call (860) 379-0505.

The Shelton Historical Society has reopened the Brownson House. In late October 2015, the Shelton Historical Society suffered severe water damage to the Brownson House, the cornerstone of the Shelton History Center, during a rainstorm while the roof was being repaired. Water poured down through the roof and attic all the way to the main collection storeroom in the basement, ruining ceilings and walls in its wake. One of the bedroom ceilings collapsed; holes were punched in certain areas to relieve water pressure and to keep it from traveling further along beams in the ceilings. The Historical Society had to close the facility to the public during 2016 for repairs.

Gigantic industrial dehumidifiers were brought in by a disaster recovery company. Running constantly for over a month, they finally dried the ceilings and walls, albeit with an $800 electric bill. It took such a long time, not only due to the extent of the saturation, but because of the lath, horsehair, and lime that made up the plaster walls in the circa 1822 house. Specialized contractors were brought in to repair, replace, and paint.

While the house was closed and our attention was on the physical structure, consideration was given to a long-term project that had, out of necessity due to the disaster, been postponed: focusing the interior of the Brownson House to interpret a middle class lifestyle of the early 1900’s. The Society had been working room by room but having the house closed permitted the project to proceed without interruption. Committees could concentrate on locating and installing period-appropriate floor coverings, lace curtains, and other furnishings. The most challenging aspect was finding the correct wallpaper, so it was decided to have it custom designed and printed. Furnishings were cleaned, polished, photographed, and put back into place.

The decision to interpret the house to 1913 rather than 1822—when the house was built—is due to the significant collections of photographs, diaries, account books, furniture, and textiles from the 1890’s through the 1940’s that the Society holds. Using these sources in the environment of an appropriately decorated house enables Shelton’s history to be told in a clearly understood manner. We know how money was earned and spent, how neighbors socialized, and how the growing middle-class farm families interacted with the businesses and industries that called Shelton home during this time.

Additional opportunities to tell stories of a rapidly changing society are told using this new interpretation: women seeking the vote, unions organizing, immigrants flooding through Ellis Island, and a world war looming. All these factors were reflected locally and related to those who lived in Shelton at the time.

The preservation of the Brownson House as a pre-World War I era farmhouse will fill a gap in interpretive history in Connecticut, both in terms of the time period depicted and the status of people represented. Most historic homes and historical societies demonstrate the colonial period or a famous or wealthy individual. Through the lives of ordinary people—the Brownson’s—the Society illustrates, as Harriet Beecher Stowe once stated, that “Every individual is part and parcel of a great picture of the society in which he lives and acts, and his life cannot be painted without reproducing the picture of the world he lived in.”

In addition to the Brownson House, the Shelton History Center consists of the Wilson Barn, the one-room Trap Fall School, a carriage barn, a corncrib and an outhouse. While the Shelton History Center staff is available Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, they also accommodate appointments for those who would like to arrange tours or use research materials.

For more information, visit www.sheltonhistoricalsociety.org

The annual Barnum Festival is a seasonal celebration of the City of Bridgeport and its surrounding towns including Monroe, Trumbull, Easton, Shelton, Stratford, and Fairfield. Dating back to 1948, the festival originated to help support local businesses and honor P.T. Barnum—a world-renowned showman and city leader. The Barnum Festival events span May 13 – June 25, 2017 and culminates in a weekend-long Barnum Palooza that hosts parades, concerts, fireworks, and other family-friendly festivities.

The festival celebrates many of Barnum’s imaginative concepts for entertaining the populace. The Wing Ding Parade for kids at Beardsley Zoo, concerts and musical competitions in the spirit of Jenny Lind, and the concluding event, a grand civic parade celebrating all of the wonderful assets the City of Bridgeport and surrounding area have to offer, are created to delight attendees of all ages.

On May 28, Memorial Day weekend join the Barnum Festival for the Aquarion Water Company Barnum Festival 5k & 10k Road Race. The timed race will begin at 8:30am at Webster Bank Arena taking runners along the picturesque Long Island Sound through Seaside Park with heart-thumping finish inside The Ballpark at Harbor Yard. There will be a FREE Kid’s Run in the Ball Park with kid’s prizes, a Bounce House, face painting, clowns & a magician to keep the fun going post-race. The race will be followed by The Best Race “After-Party on Earth” featuring great food & beer, a live band, swag bags, Dri-Fit shirts & tons of fun for the whole family.

On June 1, you can eat, drink and be merry! Join festival goers for a day of fun hitting the hot spots of historical Black Rock. There will be plenty of libations, food and drink specials, music, raffles, and fun. Each attendee must purchase a wristband* 21 and over only. All proceeds will benefit Barnum Festival activities and scholarships. Bar Crawl Itinerary: Hub & Spoke: 5-6pm Event Kickoff!, Tautog Tavern: 6-7pm, Fire Engine Pizza Co.: 7-8pm, Smitty’s of Black Rock: 8-9pm, Brennan’s Shebeen Irish Bar and Grill: 9-10pm & Afterparty *Pricing: Drinking wristbands = $25.00, Designated Driver = $10.00 (Includes free soda) Wristbands available for purchase day of for $30., Wristbands purchased online require pickup at The Cardinal Shehan Center. 1494 Main St, Bridgeport, CT 06604 Pickup Hours: 9am – 5pm, Monday-Friday. Purchase of wristband includes special drink pricing & free t-shirt! Once wristband is purchased t-shirt size will be noted and will be available to pick up at Brennan’s Shebeen 2 weeks prior to event; Please note: Guests are encouraged to wear their t-shirt to the crawl!

The Wing Ding Parade takes place beginning at 9 am on June 17 at the Beardsley Zoo.Bring the whole family for a day filled with excitement and entertainment. Get creative as you dress up for the kid’s parade through Beardsley Zoo. Your means of transportation are up to you—make a float, pull a wagon, ride a bike, or just walk together. Prizes will be awarded for best costume. Enjoy entry to the zoo until 12pm, as well as face painting, balloon animals, music, and food. It’s fun for the whole family. Registration opens at 9am and the parade starts at 11am. Admission is FREE.

June 24 promises to be a “Barnumpalooza” of family fun from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Seaside Park! The Barnumpalooza is an all-day festival with food trucks, live music, and carnival rides for kids. Bring the whole family for a day of fun celebrating the city of Bridgeport and its surrounding communities. Admission is free. The Bridgeport Symphony will perform at 9 p.m. and there will also be fireworks at 9 pm. that is sure to impress the whole family.

The Barnum Festival concludes with the “Great Street Parade” that begins at 12 noon. Firetrucks, bands, floats, clowns, and more will travel from the corner of Brooklawn and North Ave all the way to the corner of Lincoln Blvd and Capitol St. in Bridgeport.
For more information visit the website. http://barnumfestival.com

To sign up for a monthly newsletter on things to do and see, special events and travel tips in Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com or www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Weir Farm National Historic Site is offering a free, one-hour Nature of Love Walk on Sunday June 11, 2017 from 10:00 to 11:00 am with local scholar, poet, and volunteer Bonnie Tremante.

Enjoy a walk through the lush, summer landscape of Weir Farm National Historic Site as you learn about the connection between art, love, and landscape that fundamentally affected Weir’s appreciation of his Branchville farm. Bonnie will discuss love letters exchanged between artist Julian Alden Weir and his then fiancée Anna Dwight Baker during the summer of 1882. In the letters, Julian and Anna express their deep affection for each other, their observations of nature, and nature’s role in fostering the bond between them.

Bonnie Tremante graduated with a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University, an M.A. in Reading and Language Arts from Montclair University, and earned a Humanities and Writing Certificate of Advanced Study from Wesleyan University. She taught for 14 years in the Wilton Public School system in the English Department. Bonnie continues to explore her love of literature and art by volunteering at Weir Farm National Historic Site, where she enjoys transcribing historic letters, staffing the historic studios as a Studio Docent, and presenting special interpretive programs.

There is no fee to participate, but registration is required and space is limited. To register or for more information about the Nature of Love Walk, please call 203-834-1896 ext. 28.