Category: Connecticut Travel

Looking for that unique gift idea for a child who loves animals? Or need a fun activity for out-of-town guests during the holiday week?

Send them behind the scenes – and let them feed some of the marine life – of The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk!

The Aquarium’s “Feeding Time” program on Wed., Dec. 28 goes “backstage” before the popular family attraction opens for the day. This fun experience gives participants exclusive access to some of their favorite marine animals by letting them join educators and the animal-husbandry staff during morning rounds. Opportunities include:
• Feeling the vacuuming power of rays on your palm as you offer morsels in the Shark & Ray Touch Pool.
• Hand-feeding a horseshoe crab and diamondback terrapin.
• Going above the Aquarium’s 110,000-gallon Ocean Beyond the Sound exhibit to watch as Aquarium staff feed the 7-foot sharks prowling just below your feet. Toss in some bonus food for the sharks and the exhibit’s rays and other fish.
• Attending a private seal feeding open only to “Feeding Time” participants.

“Feeding Time” participants get fed too: the program starts at 8 a.m. with a hot breakfast in the Aquarium’s Cascade Café.

“ ‘Feeding Time’ is perfect for anyone who is curious about a career in marine biology or animal husbandry,” said Aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth. “But it’s also just plain fun for anyone who wants to enhance their experiences here at The Maritime Aquarium beyond a typical visit.”

Children must be at least 5 years old.

Cost is $50 for adults and $25 for ages 5-12 ($45 and $20 for members). Aquarium admission at 10 a.m. is included.

Advance registration is required. Call (203) 852-0700, ext. 2206, or register online at www.maritimeaquarium.org (under Public Programs).

The Sherman Chamber Ensemble is ringing in the new year with its annual “Best of Baroque” concerts on Saturday, January 7 at 4 p.m. at Christ Church on Quaker Hill in Pawling, NY and on Sunday, January 8 at 4 p,m. at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT. Audiences will be treated to works by masters of the Baroque era played by the best of today’s chamber music artists.

The program will include music for harpsichord, flute and strings by Bach, Zelenka, Telemann and Vivaldi. Special Guest Dylan Sauerwald, international prize winning harpsichordist will be joined by SCE Artistic Director and cellist Eliot Bailen, Susan Rotholz (flute), Gerard Reuter (oboe), and Doori Na (violin).
The Ensemble’s “Best of Baroque” concerts have been praised by The Millbrook Independent as “stunning performances…inspiring and uplifting.”

Harpsichordist Sauerwald is a distinctive continuo player, soloist and music director, and is active across the US and Canada. He won the first place title in chamber music at the Concours de Musique du Canada 2009 and was a finalist at the Montréal Baroque CBC / Galaxie chamber music competition 2007, both with Ensemble la Félicité. He has performed in halls from Montréal’s Musée de Beaux Arts to Taipei’s National Recital Hall to Boston’s Goodlife bar.

He has music directed staged productions for Ensemble la Félicité and Ensemble Musica Humana, and is a regular repetiteur for the Amherst Early Music Festival, Venice Opera Project, Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Institute, and others.

Sauerwald has performed with the Handel & Haydn Society, TENET, Emmanuel Music, the Cambridge Concentus, Lorelei Ensemble, Sonnambula, Tramontana, The Weckmann Project, Ensemble Musica Humana, Ensemble ad Libitum and many others.

Doori Na began violin studies at the age of four and made his solo debut with orchestra at the age of seven with the Peninsula Youth Symphony. A winner of numerous competitions in San Francisco and Los Angeles, he has performed with the Palisades Symphony, Brentwood Symphony, Freemont Symphony, and the Torrance Symphony.

An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, Carol Wincenc, Cynthia Phelps, and Nancy Allen.

Currently living in New York City, Na has performed with many different ensembles around the city ranging from Classical and New Music to Jazz. He has been regularly performing with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and recent highlights include tours in Europe, Japan, and the US. In 2011, Doori participated in Chick Corea’s album, The Continents, released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Na holds a Bachelors of Music from The Juilliard School where he studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Donald Weilerstein. He was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, and was chosen to travel to Sào Paulo, Brazil in 2012 where he gave masterclasses and performed for students.

General Admission tickets are $30; Senior and Student tickets are $25, and children ages 15 and under are admitted free with the purchase of a paid ticket. Tickets may be purchased online at www.ShermanChamberEnsemble.org or at the door on the afternoon of the performance. For information or reservations call 860-355-5930.

Both concerts will be followed by an informal reception where audience members will have an opportunity to meet the musicians. Performances at St. Andrew’s Church are presented in conjunction with the church’s Music in the Nave series.

For information and reservations, contact the Sherman Chamber Ensemble at 860-355-5930 or info@shermanchamberensemble.org. To sign up for a monthly newsletter on events and travel tips of Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com

The Westport Arts Center announces the MORE Than Words/#iammore exhibition, a juried show featuring selected works by the community at large. The works were designed in support of the theme of the Arts Center’s previous exhibition MORE Than Words – courage, resilience and empowerment in the face of bullying – featuring pieces by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time.

The exhibition, that runs through January 7, 2017 features a diverse range of thought-provoking and conversation-starting works, including videos, three-dimensional works, paintings, drawings, photography, multi-media installations and more.

Over 160 works were submitted for consideration, including entries by young artists ages 10-17 in a separate new Junior Category. Submissions came from Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York. Students affiliated with the Norwalk Housing were granted scholarships to participate, and their works are included in the exhibition as part of the Junior Category.

In the Call For Entries, Westport Arts Center invited artists to submit work that examines the idea of bullying within a broad cultural context that considers how the imbalance of social, physical, or political power can marginalize those who are perceived as weaker. Artists have long responded to these inequities through their work, able to speak truth to power in a way not available to others.

Jurors for MORE Than Words/#iammore were Gerry Snyder, Dean of The Pratt Institute School of Art; Pamela Hovland, Designer and Senior Critic in Design, Yale University School of Art; and Ward Shelley, Sculptor and Performance Artist (Pierogi Gallery).

The jurors together stated, “As a panel of jurors, we found an abundance of thoughtful and highly skilled work from which to choose. Artists both young and mature addressed their strongly felt emotions and ideologies in work that spanned all genres. There was great diversity in the artists’ formal strategies and in their interpretations and points of view; we wished we could’ve included more of the work that was submitted.”

“The show’s variety will offer visitors a rich experience around deeply felt, universally human concerns — the desire for equality, acceptance and compassion — as well as an expanded view of the ways artists address those concerns,” they added.

The Westport Art Center is located on 51 Riverside Ave. in Westport. Gallery hours are: Mon. – Sat. 10 am – 5 pm and closed Sun. To sign up for a monthly newsletter on what to see and do in Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Ring in the New Year with an old-fashioned tea hosted by the Gunn Historical Museum in the Wykeham Room of the Gunn Library from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on December 31. Guests will have the opportunity to socialize with friends under the historic 1914 gilded ceiling mural by H. Siddons Mowbray and enjoy period music in the festively decorated room.

Guests of this soiree will be able to browse through Washington photograph albums that will be out for browsing. Guests will have great fun trying to help museum staff identify the people and places in the images.

Guests are asked to bring their favorite tea cup; and museum staff will provide the tea sandwiches and cookies. The tea party is free and open to the public, but registration is required as space is limited. To register please email your name(s) to: info@gunnhistoricalmuseum.org or call 860-868-7756.

Give your kids a fun day hanging with sharks, seals and other marine animals – plus a screening of the holiday IMAX® movie “The Polar Express” – while giving yourself solo time for holiday shopping on Dec. 17 or 18 through “Drop & Shop” programs at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

The Maritime Aquarium has a whole day of hands-on activities and explorations planned for ages 5 to 10 – each from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – giving parents six solo hours for useful shopping, wrapping or other holiday prep.

Each “Drop & Shop” begins with participants attending the Aquarium’s “‘Polar Express’ Pajama Party,” which includes a hot-chocolate bar, a fun craft and a meet-and-greet with Santa – all prior to the animated feature-length holiday film at 10 a.m.

After the movie, other “Drop ’n’ Shop” activities include Aquarium tours, making a holiday keepsake gift, animal encounters and more.

Cost for “Drop & Shop” programs is $85 per child ($75 for Aquarium members). Kids should pack a lunch, a snack and an appetite for adventure.

Capacity is limited. Advance reservations are required. Call (203) 852-0700, ext. 2206, or go online to www.maritimeaquarium.org. To sign up for a monthly newsletter on events and travel tips for Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com

On Sunday, December 18 at 3 p.m. the Mattatuck Museum is hosting a holiday celebration with classical crossover tenor and light Italian opera singer, songwriter, composer and music producer Michéal Castaldo. An Italian-born Canadian who currently resides in New York, Castaldo studied voice with Maestro Pisapia, a protégé of the great Italian operatic tenor, Enrico Caruso. Castaldo also studied at Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto and Berklee College of Music in Boston. Visit www.michealcastaldo.com for more information.

Discounted Early Bird tickets to the event are $15 for Mattatuck Museum members and $20 for non-members when purchases before December 2. After December 2, tickets are $25 for Museum members and $30 for non-members. V.I.P. tickets with seating in the first two rows are available for $35. Cash bar. Light food and one drink are included in the price of admission. Full payment must be received by December 2 for the discounted ticket price.

Located in the heart of downtown Waterbury’s architectural district, the Mattatuck Museum is a vibrant destination, known locally and regionally as a community-centered institution of American art and history. For more information on the Museum’s programs, events, and exhibits visit the website at www.mattmuseum.org or call (203) 753-0381.

For a monthly newsletter on what to see and do and travel tips on Litchfield Hills and Fairfield County visit www.litchfieldhills.com