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Open Your Eyes Studio Tour & Showcase in Litchfield Hills

L. Petrocine - Wetlands
L. Petrocine – Wetlands

Artists in the Litchfield Hills are opening their doors to the public this summer on June 22 and 23 free of charge. In the Open your eyes Studio Tour sponsored by the Northwest CT Arts Council, twenty-nine artists and eight performers in New Milford and Kent will open their studios to the public.

Artists will open their creative spaces to the public on Saturday and Sunday along the tour route to show their work and discuss their creative processes. The artists’ media represented on the tour include painting, printmaking, sculpting, photography, metal sculpture, woodworking, wool spinning, dying & weaving, installation work, bookmaking, digital art, drawing, ceramics, and jewelry. The artists are Terri Tibbatts, Bill Merklein, Silver Sun Studio, Michael Everett, Linda Petrocine, Peter Kirkiles, Alison Palmer, Peter Kukresh, Lauri Zarin, Scott Bricher, Naya Bricher, Mary Terrizzi, Ed Martinez, Deborah Chabrian, Jill Scholsohn, Richard Stalter, Susan Grisell, Barbara Dull, Stephen Dull, Elizabeth Mullins, Susan Millins, Kathleen L’Hommedieu, Peter Catchpole, Patrick Purcell, Chris Osborne, Joel Spector, Anda Styler, Lynn WEllings, and Diane Dubreuil.

Tibbatts
Tibbatts

Performers for the Showcase on Saturday, June 22 from 5 – 9 pm on the New Milford Green will include TheatreWorks New Milford, musician Tom Hooker Hanford, Artists in Motion (dance), composer/pianist Sharon Ruchman, Larry Hunt from Masque Theatre, Buzz Turner on acoustic guitar, Rebecca Moore Dance, and True Jensen who perform rock and R & B cover music.

Jill Scholsohn
Jill Scholsohn

For more information about Open Your Eyes Studio Tour & Showcase go to OpenYourEyesTour.org or contact the Northwest Connecticut Arts Council at (860) 618-0075 or mcartsnwct@gmail.com.

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Garden Club of America House and Garden Tour Celebrates 100 Years in Litchfield CT

“Garden of Margaret Hicks Gage, Litchfield Garden Club Archives, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.”
“Garden of Margaret Hicks Gage, Litchfield Garden Club Archives, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.”

To fete their 100- year anniversary, the Litchfield Garden Club is hosting a flower show and house and garden tour including two Smithsonian Gardens on June 15 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The Flower Show will take place at the Litchfield Community Center located on 421 Bantam Rd. (Rte. 202) in Litchfield and will feature outstanding horticulture and three exhibits one on garden history and design including details on four Smithsonian gardens, a second on the history of the Litchfield Garden Club and a third conservation exhibit on organic food. A boutique offering special garden items will also be a highlight. The Flower Show at the Community Center is free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the Flower Show, the Litchfield Garden Club has organized a very special house and garden tour of five members’ homes and gardens that includes judged design classes in each home. Tour tickets and maps are available for purchase at the Community Center and are $50 per person. Tour goers may also purchase a box lunch at Breeze Hill Farm Gardens for an additional $18 and enjoy lunch on the grounds of this spectacular garden. For tickets in advance visit www.litchfieldgardenclub.org for a printable registration form.

Houses featured for this very special tour include some of Litchfield’s most interesting homes and gardens.

The Ozias Lewis house, built in 1806 is a perfect example of a late traditional center chimney, 5 bay Federal style dwelling. The garden has newly installed stonewalls, terraces and imaginative gardens, including extensive beds of peonies. The gardens provide extensive views of Chestnut Hill to the east.

The Lismolin House named after a castle in Tipperary in Ireland is a gracious Colonial Revival style house complete with a Palladian window. The gardens with elegant stonewalls and garden beds afford wonderful eastern views and contain a former owner’s pet cemetery.

Perhaps one of the most interesting houses featured on this tour is the Oliver Wolcott House, built by Oliver Wolcott, Senior, the Colonial High Sheriff of Litchfield, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut, in 1753-1754, is the oldest house in the Borough of Litchfield. Many of the leading figures of their day, including General George Washington, Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton were entertained here. During the Revolution, the statue of King George III, torn down by a mob from its pedestal in Bowling Green in New York City, was brought by oxcart to the orchard behind the house, where the women and children of Litchfield melted it and molded bullets for the Continental Army.

The current owners bought the house in 1978 and carried out extensive renovations under the direction of expert restorers. The house has the original, hand-routed, beaded clapboards on its exterior and oak floors with handmade nails throughout the first floor. The “keeping room” contains a cooking fireplace and beehive ovens. The delft tiles in the dining room were installed about 1790 and the paneling over the dining room fireplace is original 18th century work. The rear terrace overlooks extensive gardens that are breathtaking.

Another beautiful home on the tour is the Ethan Allen House, the birthplace of Revolutionary war hero Ethan Allen in 1738. Today the house boasts a renovated kitchen, breakfast area and garden room. A landscape design is in process including renovating the parterres off of the terrace, originally designed in the early 1950’s. The gardens offer an extensive eastern view of Chestnut Hill.

Breeze Hill was built in 1800 as a summer home and the Oldmsted brothers were hired to landscape the grounds. In 2012, the owners of Breeze Hill Farm joined a select group of Garden Club of America homeowners whose garden documentation was accepted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens. On June 15th, you are invited to pick up your reserved boxed lunch here and enjoy a pastoral picnic lunch in these bucolic meadows and gardens.

Another Smithsonian Garden featured on the tour is Chestnut Hill Gardens that consists of a 240-foot perennial border composed of deer-resistant and native plants. The border surrounds a large vegetable garden, herb gardens, a water garden, pinetum, fruit trees and native shrubs.

For area information visit www.litchfieldhills.com

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Steam at the Railroad Museum of New England

Steam_on_the_Naugy copy

This June, Steamin’ With Sadie will be the star attraction at the Railroad Museum of New England’s Thomaston Station as restored Lehigh Valley Coal Company Engine #126 leads weekend trips over our scenic railroad between June 8 through 23, including Father’s Day Weekend. Sadie, an 0-6-0 coal-fired steam engine and big sister to Hank the Tank, will be pulling their vintage train cars on hour-long trips along the Naugatuck River. For more information http://www.rmne.org. For area information www.litchifeldhills.com.

All trips are on Saturdays and Sundays for three weekends beginning June 8 at 10 AM, 12 PM and 2 PM, boarding at historic 1881 Thomaston Station. They will also have extra displays, story book readings, live music and activities for kids of all ages at the Station. Tickets are Adults $20 and Children $15 (ages 3 – 12), age 2 and under are free. Purchase tickets online or call (860) 283-7245 to purchase from their agent. This is a special event you will not want to miss!

Steam_at_Thomaston_Station

Between the 1830s and 1960, steam locomotives carried passengers and freight to every corner of America. They became part of our national history, a symbol of mobility and change. Over the years, steam locomotives became larger and more efficient. But technology advances after World War II changed the face of railroading forever. By 1948, steam engines were gone from the Naugatuck Valley, replaced by modern diesel locomotives on the New Haven Railroad from Bridgeport to Winsted, ending an important era in modern industrial history.

Lehigh Valley Coal Company #126 is a 40 ton coal-fired steam locomotive built by Vulcan Iron Works and put in service in 1931. It worked in Pennsylvania coal mines and was purchased by father and son team John and Barney Gramling from Indiana in 1993. Gramling Locomotive Works fully restored #126 to operating condition, completing it June 2011. Since then, #126 has traveled as far as Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and now to Connecticut as a living, breathing Ambassador of Steam.

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About the Railroad Museum of New England
The Railroad Museum of New England is a not for profit historical and educational organization and an all-volunteer organization. We are located in historic 1881 Thomaston Station at 242 East Main St., Thomaston, CT. Our mission is to tell the story of the region’s rich railroad heritage through our educational exhibits and operation of the Naugatuck Railroad. The museum concept is more than artifacts; it’s also the story of the region and the development of society around the railroad. We offer an entertaining and scenic train ride along the Naugatuck River with vintage locomotives and restored passenger cars, also featuring displays of freight equipment and cabooses.

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Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Announces its 2013 Season Through August 17

The Music Shed
The Music Shed

The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, presented by the Yale School of Music, celebrates its 72nd season this year with performances and residencies by six internationally esteemed string quartets alongside students and young professionals from around the world. From June 22 to
August 17 Norfolk will host a roster of string quartets including: the Artis Quartet, the Brentano Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Jasper String Quartet, the Keller Quartet, and the Tokyo String Quartet. The Tokyo String Quartet, which is retiring this year, will play its last concert on July 6 at the festival. And on August 3 the Emerson String Quartet will perform its New York area debut concert with the group’s new cellist, Paul Watkins.

Opening the 2013 festival on Saturday, June 22 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 All Night Vigil (Vespers) by Sergei Rachmaninov along with a shorter work by Pavel Chesnokov, Salvation is Created.

From July 5 to August 17 Norfolk will host a six-week Chamber Music Session. Among the twelve concerts each Friday and Saturday night in July and August is a presentation of Franz Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise performed by pianist Peter Frankl and baritone Randall Scarlata on
Friday, July 12.

Back Camera

The Norfolk Festival, under the leadership of Paul Hawkshaw since 2004, includes a New Music Workshop led by composer Martin Bresnick, a Lecture series, a Young Artists’ Performance Series, Festival Artist concerts (Friday and Saturday nights), and a Family Day on July 14 that includes a performance of Yale’s Javanese ensemble, Gamelan Suprabanggo. This year’s festival concludes on August 17 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: Concerts at: The Music Shed, 20 Litchfield Road (Rtes 44 & 272), Norfolk, CT Call: 203.432.1966 Email: norfolk@yale.edu Website: http://www.norfolkmusic.org Series Ticket Prices: $55 – $15; $10 Students (ages18-25), and KIDS COME FREE! Special Event Ticket Prices: The Tokyo String Quartet- The Last Concert $375 ($345 ltd view) – $225 ($175 ltd view) – $100 ($75 ltd view) – $45.

About the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

Carl Stoeckel and Ellen Battell, both from families steeped in the Yale University tradition, married in 1895 and decided to honor Ellen’s father by founding a local musical society that would bring an abundance of musical excellence to their town of Norfolk, CT. Choral and musical societies already blossomed around the region; every town had a club and a quorum of musicians. Mrs. Stoeckel had long hosted informal evenings in her home, first in the Whitehouse, and later in the church next door. A great musical festival in Norfolk would provide a natural center to a region steeped in music. When the Litchfield County Choral Union came into being in 1899, it soon became the first internationally known music festival of its kind in America, and inspired the array of music centers that have since settled across the Berkshires.
After five years of concerts on their estate, the Stoeckels decided to build a hall worthy of truly great music.

A New York architect, E.K. Rossiter, designed the building, and the Music Shed opened for use on June 6, 1906. The Shed is built of cedar and lined with California redwood, which likely accounts for its brilliant acoustics and certainly for its rustic beauty. The original hall seated 700 audience members, but after several expansions it was enlarged to hold 2,100. (Fire regulations have since reduced its capacity back to under 1,000.) Audiences began to clamor for invitations from all over New England and as far away as Texas, Chicago and California, and within five years they could easily have filled a building many times as large. The Music Shed had begun its reign among the premiere concert halls in New England.

Mr. and Mrs. Stoeckel spared no expense in making the festival concerts extravagant musical events. They recruited a 70-piece orchestra of players from the Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera orchestras in New York, and paid for a special train to transport the instrumentalists through the Litchfield hills. The appointments were eagerly sought; apart from the honor, the musicians had the pleasure of spending a week in the mountains, and the lawn parties that spread across the estate after rehearsals were soon famous.
Carl Stoeckel died in 1925 and the concerts continued for several years but activities came to a close during the 1930’s. When Ellen Battell Stoeckel passed away in 1939 she left her estate in trust for the use of the Yale School of Music, to continue “studies in music, art and literature,” and the Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival began in 1941. Since that time countless gifted musicians have made for themselves a summer home in Norfolk, whether as students, faculty or performers at the Festival.

Since the beginning of the School and Festival, artists such as the Cleveland, Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, and Tokyo quartets have taught and performed in Norfolk. Fellows at Norfolk have included the oboist Allen Vogel, violinists Syoko Aki and Pamela Frank, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and soprano Frederica Von Stade. Recent ensembles have established themselves as students at Norfolk, including new music ensemble eighth blackbird, the Avalon quartet, the Calder quartet, the Claremont Trio, the Jasper Quartet, and the Miro quartet. In addition, Norfolk alumni are found in virtually every music conservatory and many major orchestras around the world, including the Boston, Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestras.

Students from conservatories around the world audition each year to participate in the festival and those that are accepted receive fellowships to cover the cost of tuition, room, and board. Since 1906, Norfolk festival musicians (including Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Vaughn Williams, in the early decades of the 20th century, and the St. Lawrence Quartet, eighth blackbird, Frederica von Stade, Richard Stoltzman and Alan Gilbert more recently) have performed on the stage of the festival’s iconic venue, the “Music Shed.”

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Greenwich Concours d’Elegance: Classic Cars, Aircraft and America’s Cup 12-M Yacht

This year’s Greenwich Concours d’Elegance, 1 and 2 June at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park will feature an interesting car that defies identification at first – or second or third – glance, baffling even knowledgeable collectors. Its smooth lines, lustrous red paint and Carrozzeria Ghia crest confirm its Italian heritage, but what, exactly, is it?

Selected as the Poster Car for the 2013 Greenwich Concours it is a 1955 Jaguar XK140MC, with a custom aluminum body by Ghia of Turin, Italy. The MC suffix signifies that the engine was upgraded to produce 20 more horsepower, for a total of 220 hp. It was built for Marge and Gower Champion, the Hollywood musical stars, who later sold it to fellow actor, Ricardo Montalban; it is currently owned by Greenwich-collector Michael Schudroff. Thanks to its hand-made aluminum body, the coupe is substantially lighter than a stock XK140. Its greenhouse has slender roof pillars and greater glass area for a bright and airy interior. The greatest owner satisfaction though, comes from the exclusivity and the stir it creates wherever it appears at a gathering of car enthusiasts.

The poster car of the 2013 Greenwich Concours d'Elegance is a 1955 Jaguar XK140MC, with a custom aluminum body by Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin, Italy. Photo by Bruce Wennerstrom
The poster car of the 2013 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance is a 1955 Jaguar XK140MC, with a custom aluminum body by Carrozzeria Ghia of Turin, Italy. Photo by Bruce Wennerstrom

Also making an appearance at the Greenwich Concours this year is Andy Rooney’s 1966 Sunbeam Tiger. The outspoken “60 Minutes” television commentator was a passionate “car guy.” He lived in Rowayton, Connecticut, and his station car, the 1966 Sunbeam Tiger, was a class of car known at the time as a “hybrid.” Not the politically correct electric/gasoline hybrids of today; Rooney’s Sunbeam was Brit-built but was powered by a hot 289-hp American Ford V8. Such cars were called hybrids because they combined European coach work with American power trains, an amalgam of Yankee horsepower and sleek European curves. His Sunbeam was a light-weight two-seat sports car, painted, of course, in British Racing Green.America II and Lionheart, the Greenwich-based ex-America’s Cup yachts will again be berthed by the Greenwich Concours and will offer two days of match racing. The association of classic cars and America’s Cup yachts is appropriate, for the yachts are truly classic, in the same sense that the cars are, being the finest craft that yacht designers, builders and sail makers could create, and conceived for the sole purpose of defending the America’s Cup during a series of challenges from sailors of other nations over a period of decades.

The Greenwich Concours – considered one of the premier concours in the country – is unique. Since its founding in 1996 it has comprised two separate concours, back-to-back; Saturday’s Greenwich Concours Americana features American cars from the 1900’s to the present, while Sunday’s Greenwich Concours International is exclusively for imported sports, competition and touring cars, again from the 1900’s to the present. From the beginning there has been a Best-of-Show trophy for the American cars, and a Best-of-Show for imported cars, with over a hundred classic cars and motorcycles on display each day.

This 1966 Sunbeam Tiger, with a hot 289-hp Ford V8 engine, was the favorite ride of Andy Rooney, the famous "60 Minutes" TV commentator will be shown at the Greenwich Concours. Photo by Russ Rocknak
This 1966 Sunbeam Tiger, with a hot 289-hp Ford V8 engine, was the favorite ride of Andy Rooney, the famous “60 Minutes” TV commentator will be shown at the Greenwich Concours.
Photo by Russ Rocknak

Additionally, Bonhams auction company will hold an auction of rare and important collector cars and automobilia on Sunday, 2 June. The cars offered will be on display for the day prior to the sale and open to prospective bidders and the public.

Automobile Magazine is the Title Sponsor of the Greenwich Concours. Renowned radio host Bob Long, will be broadcasting live from the Concours for two hours each day. AmeriCares, the respected international relief organization, ranked best by Money magazine, is the charitable beneficiary.

In addition to classic Duesenbergs, Pierce-Arrows, Packards, Auburn Speedsters, 16-cylinder Cadillacs, Mercedes 300SL gullwings, and the popular post-war American muscle cars, spectators can also check out the very latest offerings from the Concours’ sponsor companies in a relaxed no-pressure setting. The new-car offerings of BMW, Cadillac, Corvette, Hyundai, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and other sponsor companies will be on display for viewing by show attendees,
plus Chubb Personal Insurance has all the answers for insuring collector cars.

Greenwich Concours Basics
A great attraction of the Greenwich Concours is the stunning beauty of its waterfront site, Roger Sherman Baldwin Park – a verdant peninsula at the head of Greenwich Harbor – which affords cooling sea breezes and a delightful water-side setting for alfresco lunches.

The Greenwich Concours Americana and the Concours International are open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The admission is $30 per day, or $45 for a two-day pass, and children 12 and under are free when accompanied by an adult. Parking is free, and food service is available on site. The dates for 2013 are 1 and 2 June, rain or shine.

The ease of getting to the Concours also contributes to its popularity, for it’s immediately off Exit 3 of I-95, and within a block of the Metro North train station with express service from New York and Boston. And, within walking distance, is Greenwich Avenue – the Rodeo Drive of the East – with all of its many restaurants, antique shops, luxury stores, and numerous boutiques. Hotels, ranging from the modest to ultra-luxe, are also close by, with the Delamar, the host hotel, right at the Concours site.
The Concours web site, www.greenwichconcours.com includes a map, driving directions, and contact information. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

JanetLeave a comment

Lorikeets Arrive at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

This summer the The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk will welcome colorful exhibit of lorikeets that are native to the south Pacific. Visitors will step into a lush aviary to share a laugh and a squawk with beautiful tropical birds that will sip food right out of your hands !

Aquar.twolorikeets

“Lorikeets” will be open from May 25 through Sept. 2 on the Aquarium’s riverfront courtyard and will feature about a dozen varieties of lorikeets, which are colorful medium-sized parrots native to the south Pacific (SE Asia, eastern Australia, Polynesia). They’re naturally found in rainforests and woodlands, but also in wooded urban areas, where they primarily feed on the nectars of various blossoms and fruits.

Aquar.lorikeet_feeding

Visitors will be invited to purchase a small cup of nectar before you go into the exhibit, that will encourage the lorikeets to land on your hand, or your arm, or even your head to get to your nectar.

Lorikeets are specially adapted to their sweet diet through their specialized tongue. Tiny hair-like appendages called papillae form a U shape on the end of the tongue. When the tongue is extended, these papillae stand up like bristles on a brush, expanding the tongue’s surface area and allowing the birds to easily soak up nectar. Unique to lorikeets, these papillae have earned the birds the nickname “brush-tongued parrots.”

Aquar.lorikeet
Entry into “Lorikeets” will be free with Aquarium admission. There will be a small fee for the nectar cups.

For visitors with an aversion to close encounters with birds, viewing of the lorikeets will be possible from outside the aviary.

The Aquarium is located on 10 N. Water St. in Norwalk. FOR INFORMATION: Call (203) 852-0700 or go online to www.maritimeaquarium.org. For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

JanetLeave a comment