Tag: Litchfield

A Pet Parade in Litchfield to Celebrate the 4th of July!

The Litchfield Historical Society has planned a wonderful way to celebrate Independence Day by hosting the Society’s annual Pet Parade and Turn-of-the-Century Festival! The festival will take place on Friday, July 4th from 2:15 to 4:30 pm and all are invited to attend — with or without pets.

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The Litchfield History Museum and the Tapping Reeve House & Law School will also be open from 11 to 5 pm with free admission.

A highlight of the Turn-of-the Century- Fest is the ice cream social with ice cream generously donated by Peaches and Cream, a local ice cream maker that makes ice cream using traditional methods. Old-fashioned lawn games will be hosted on the Green after the parade. Fest participants will have the opportunity to compete in egg and spoon races, a tug of war, a sunflower seed spitting contest, and three-legged races.

The event is free and open to the public. Pets of any kind are welcome, but all pets must be either on a leash or in a cage and, where applicable, must come with a rabies certificate.

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To register for the parade, call the Historical Society at (860) 567-4501. Registration begins at 2:15 pm and the celebration kicks off at 2:30 pm. For more information or to register, please call Litchfield Historical Society at (860) 567-4501 or email registration@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org. Litchfield History Museum is located at 7 South St., Litchfield, CT. For more information about this or other programs, please see www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org or call (860) 567-4501.

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Torrington is New Home for Karen Rossi Studios

Internationally known artist Karen Rossi is excited to call Torrington her new home. Rossi’s grand opening is scheduled for June 28 and 29, to coincide with the Open Your Eyes studio tour sponsored by the Northwest Arts Council. The Allen Building at 27 East Main Street will house a gallery, showroom, workspace and classroom area.

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Rossi is highly regarded for her original metal sculptures has created more than 500 original characters… celebrating the seasons, holidays, professions, friends and family, children, hobbies and a host of other life-inspired themes. Her whimsical work features metal as well as broken crystals, charms and other embellishments that make them eye catching and unique.

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Rossi is most known for her giftware designs known as Fanciful FlightsTM, which she has licensed to major companies, enjoying worldwide sales. Fanciful Flights are metal caricatures of people adorned by charms that tell the story of a person’s hobby or profession. Long before Rossi was involved with arts licensing, her originals were commissioned and collected by the likes of Neiman Marcus, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, lobbies of Hospitals, and the Hartford Courant.

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Karen’s themed groupings of artwork include: Animal Kingdom, On the Road, Celestial, Christmas, Halloween, the Glorious Garden, Just for Kids, Paradise Island, Ladies with Red Hats, Festivities of Faith, Bistro, Girlfriends, Celebration and Fanciful Flights TM. For details of this artwork visit http://www.karenrossi.com.

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The 27 East Main Street destination will feature demos and crafting workshops including painting on glass and Mosaics. Rossi has been hosting Art Parties for over 30 years and is particularly excited to offer, “Make your own T-town ballerinas and Mad River Mermaids.” The artist has been involved with several CT Art communities and is excited to showcase the work of comrades and guest Artisans from Hartford, New Haven, South, and the Litchfield Hills. The new studio will also feature a clearance area for sales of retired Rossi giftware.

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Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Announces its 2014 Season

Located in the heart of the Litchfield Hills, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, presented by the Yale School of Music, celebrates its 73rd season this year with performances and residencies of internationally esteemed ensembles and chamber musicians alongside students and young professionals from around the world.

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From June 14 to August 16 Norfolk will host a roster of outstanding ensembles including: the Artis Quartet, the Brentano Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Leschetizky Trio (Vienna), the Yale Choral Artists, and San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
In 2014 the Norfolk Festival is proud to honor its patroness, Ellen Battell Stoeckel, who passed away seventy-five years ago, in 1939. It was her dream that resulted in the glorious Music Shed, and it was her wish that after she died, music would continue in the small village of Norfolk, CT through a summer school for the Yale School of Music.

Norfolk director Paul Hawkshaw says, “In keeping with Ellen Battell Stoeckel’s wishes, our mission at Norfolk is to cultivate the performance and teaching of chamber music at the highest level. We always want our audiences, students, and performing artists to have fun exploring the chamber music repertoire, and this year we are especially fortunate to have a truly international group of performers for our audiences to enjoy.”

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Something new for Norfolk will this year’s festival on Saturday, June 14. To honor Ellen Battell Stoeckel, and as a fund raising event for its educational programs, the Norfolk Festival is presenting an evening of classic big band music from the 30’s and 40’s, with dancing in the Music Shed. The Shed will be transformed into a supper club for the evening, with music provided by the Flipside Big Band directed by Thomas Duffy.

The following weekend is a choral program by the Yale Choral Artists, a new ensemble of 24 professional singers from around the country under the direction of the Yale Glee Club’s Jeffrey Douma. The Choral Artists will perform a program of new music inspired by early works: J.S. Bach’s motet Singet dem Herrn will be coupled with a new work by Sven-David Sandstrom; a work by Thomas Tallis will be paired with a new, Tallis-inspired piece by Ted Hearne; and a work by Josquin des Pres will be coupled with a new Josquin-inspired piece by Hannah Lash.

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From July 4 to August 9 Norfolk will host a six-week Chamber Music Session. Among the twelve concerts each Friday and Saturday night in July and August will be a concert of string sextets pairing the Dvořák Sextet, Op 48, with Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht; and a program of chamber music to celebrate the Fourth of July including works by Leonard Bernstein, Charles Griffes and Dvořák. Of special note is a program on July 11 honoring clarinetist Keith Wilson who was Director of the Norfolk Festival from 1960 to 1982. Richard Stoltzman will perform works by Hindemith, Peter Sculthorpe and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet.

On Friday, August 15 San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Nicholas McGegan (OBE) will return to Norfolk with a program of vocal and instrumental works by Corelli, Handel and Rameau. Soprano Celine Ricci and countertenor Robin Blaze join the orchestra in scenes from Handel’s opera Teseo.

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The Norfolk Festival, under the leadership of Paul Hawkshaw since 2004, includes a New Music Workshop led by composer Martin Bresnick and guitarist/composer Benjamin Verdery and special guest Bryce Dessner of the ‘indie’ band The National, a Lecture series, a Young Artists’ Performance Series (Thursday nights and Saturday mornings; free admission), Festival Artist concerts (Friday and Saturday nights), and a Family Day on July 13. This year’s festival concludes on August 16 with a performance of works for chorus and orchestra from the Renaissance to the contemporary by the
Norfolk Festival Chorus and Orchestra directed by Simon Carrington.

For tickets and information contact The Music Shed, 20 Litchfield Rd. (Rtes. 44 and 272) Norfolk by phone: 203-432-1966 or visit the website www.norfolkmusic.org. For information on where to dine and stay in the Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

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Walking Tours of Historic Litchfield June 6 & 21

Litchfield is often referred to as the most well preserved colonial town in America and with good reason as the center was the first in Connecticut to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the state in 1959.

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The Litchfield Historical Society’s annual slate of walking tours for June begins at 10:00 am. During each tour, a museum educator or guest tour guide offers participants a new way to look at their surroundings with themed walks through Litchfield’s history. Each tour lasts about an hour—make sure to bring a bottle of water and wear comfortable shoes!

Saturday, June 7 the theme of the tour will be on Litchfield and the Beecher Family. “This country is inhabited by sinners, saints, and Beechers.” Join the Historical Society on a tour through the places relating to the Beecher family, from the Congregational Church to the sites of their homestead and the Litchfield Female Academy on North Street. Hear the Beechers’ reflections on their childhood in Litchfield and the events that shaped their lives as activists, authors, and preachers in America’s most famous family.

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Saturday, June 21 is a very special “Curators” tour of Litchfield’s colonial revival architecture. In conjunction with the Society’s new exhibit on Litchfield during the Colonial Revival, The Lure of the Litchfield Hills, curator of collections Jessica Jenkins will lead a walking tour exploring some of the Colonial Revival hot spots around town.

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Taking the stories of the Colonial Revival out of the museum, participants will have a chance to hear about how areas of town, such as the business block and town green, underwent major changes in the first part of the 20th century. Ms. Jenkins will also explore the motives behind the social movement and touch on the evolution of the appearance of private homes as well as such iconic building as the Congregational Church. Join them for a intimate look at the Colonial Revival Movement in Litchfield and take a walk through history as you learn why Litchfield looks the way it does today.

This program is free for members and $10 for non-members; registration is required. Please call (860) 567-4501 or email registration@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org to register.

The Litchfield History Museum is located at 7 South St., Litchfield, CT. For more information about this or other programs, please see www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org or call (860) 567-4501.

For information on where to stay, dine and shop visit www.litchifeldhills.com

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Arthur Carter at Washington’s Stairwell Gallery

The Stairwell Gallery at Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, CT is honored to present an exhibition of sculptures, orthogonals and paintings by Arthur Carter. The exhibit will be on view through June 21.

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Mr. Carter’s early years might seem like another person’s full lifetime of events. He was trained as a classical pianist, majored in French literature at Brown University, served three years in the United States Coast Guard as a lieutenant commanding officer of an air search and rescue craft, then received his MBA in finance from Dartmouth, followed by a 25 year career as an investment banker.

In 1981, he started a new venture. Founding the Litchfield County Times and six years later the New York Observer, he began his career as a publisher. He was also the publisher of theNation and the East Hampton Star. And in 2008, the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute was founded at New York University where Mr. Carter is a trustee and chairman of the Board of Overseers of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Mr. Carter has also held adjunct professorships in philosophy and journalism at NYU.

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Now we come to the “art part” of Mr. Carter – the grid design and layout of the front page of his newspapers inspired him to reproduce that same theme but in a three dimensional format and using stainless steel. This was a material he had learned to master when he was in Officer Candidate School where he learned welding. Thus, sculpting “became the latest statement of his polymath proclivities.”

Artists naturally evolve and he was soon working with wood, clay and copper wire and then larger constructions in silicon bronze and stainless steel. Many of his larger pieces are on permanent public display in New York City. The fabrication process can take months to complete and involves all the complexities of a machine shop, but each piece begins with one common denominator, his sketch pad.

The Stairwell Gallery exhibit will include Mr. Carter’s Orthogonals. A catalog of his exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art from the Fall of 2011, describes the pieces as follows: “Arthur Carter’s bold new series, which he calls collectively the Orthogonals, offers a fine example of a mixed mode that channels the powers of painting and sculpture through the distinguished medium of the relief.” These pieces are complex in their simplicity. They are strong, mathematical and like his other work, they vary in finish and are affected by the changing light and reflection. Carter has said, “My work focuses on simplifying and eliminating the excessive. The question is how does purity of design lend itself to making a beautiful and elegant piece?”

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Arthur Carter maintains a production facility and design studio in Roxbury, CT. He has been a featured solo artist at many galleries, including the Tennessee State Museum, The Grey Art Gallery, 80WSE Galleries at New York University and the New Britain Museum of American Art. Mr. Carter is the author of two hardcover books, Arthur Carter: Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings (2009) and Arthur Carter: Studies for Construction (2012).

Gunn Memorial is most pleased to welcome this prolific artist who is still immersed in the world of manufacturing and finance around the world. Perhaps his philosophy can help unify this “polymath” for us. Mr. Carter has said, “The simpler the economics are, the better; if you don’t understand it, you don’t do it. Purity in both design and business function means never dilute, never diffuse, and never bloat.”
For further information please call (860) 868-7586 or email chartman@biblio.org . The Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at the juncture of Route 47 opposite the Green in Washington, CT. For library hours and to learn more about our programs and events visit our website www.gunnlibrary.org .

For information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

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“Jazz Great” Bucky Pizzarelli at The Silo Hunt Hill Farm

The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm, in Litchfield Hills is “Saluting Jazz” in style on May 24 at 7 p.m. when they will be hosting jazz great Bucky Pizzarelli at the Canterbury School in New Milford. Pizzarelli, a , world-renowned jazz guitarist, will be accompanied by Ed Laub. The duo has been performing for audiences all over the US and Canada in clubs, concert halls and jazz festivals for the past 12 years after a lifetime association as teacher/student.

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Pizzarelli and Laub combine instrumental and vocal arrangements with an emphasis on the Great American Songbook and well as some of the classic 1930’s guitar duos made popular by Carl Kress/ Dick McDonough, Eddie Lang and George Smith. Their great friendship of over 45 years is evident in their sound and the way they interact together.

All proceeds from the concert will benefit The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, offering programs and family events that enrich the community, including art gallery exhibitions, cooking classes, live music, literary readings and more.

Tickets begin at $30 for general admission, with reserved seating tickets at $50 and $75 levels. A pre-concert reception will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m., also at the Canterbury School, with tickets for the reception and concert at $100. Sponsor and Underwriter levels are available as well. For more information and to purchase tickets visit http://www.hunthillfarmtrust.org, or call (860) 355-0300. Tickets are also on sale at The Silo during regular business hours. The Silo Gallery and store are open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Ticket prices are: $30 General Admission $50 Reserved Seating, $75 Front and Center, $100 Jazz Lover (includes pre-concert reception and “Front and Center” reserved seating), $250 All Star Patron (includes pre-concert reception, “Front and Center” reserved seating and program credit as a patron), $500 Premier VIP (includes pre-concert reception, “Front and Center” reserved seating, CD and program credit as an underwriter).

About Hunt Hill Farm Trust

Located in New Milford, Conn., the Hunt Hill Farm Trust operates The Silo at Hunt Hill Farm, a non-profit organization and Smithsonian Institution Affiliate dedicated to preserving the unique history of this farm. The Silo is as devoted to protecting this piece of New England agricultural history – its buildings, stone walls, and fields – as it is to the cultural legacy of Ruth and Skitch Henderson, the founders who brought ‘new life to old barns.’™ The Silo continues traditions of education, conservation, artisanry and excellence in the Cooking School, the Skitch Henderson Museum, the Hunt Hill Farm Land Preserve, the Gallery and the Silo Store and is a vibrant and unique regional resource, offering the public opportunities to explore music, art, cuisine, and permanently protected historic open space. For more information, please visit www.hunthillfarmtrust.org, and connect with the bank on Facebook and Twitter (@thesilohunthill).

For information on Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

JanetLeave a comment