This concert in memory of Anne Koscielny, pianist and former Hartt faculty member, will be presented by the Musical Club of Hartford in conjunction with the Hartt School of Music. Ms. Koscielny performed a Memorial Concert for the Musical Club of Hartford at Millard Auditorium in 1990 to open its 100th Anniversary season and also presented a Musical Exploration lecture/recital on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven in April 2006 during the Club’s 115th season. She taught at the Hartt School for 23 years, and due to her tireless dedication to her students and to the refinement of her art, she was a vital part of the energy and life force of the school. She passed away on February15, 2015.Two of Anne Koscielny’s former piano students, Mia Chung and Robert Henry, both of whom sustain international careers as concert pianists, will perform in her memory at this recital.This concert takes place at 3:00 p.m.Admission is free.

Anne Koscielny Memorial Concert, Sunday 9/13/2015 at 3 p.m.

Our opening member program will kick off our 125th Anniversary season with a concert linked to our 10th anniversary. In 1901, <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" alt="Mme Schumann-Heink" class="on">Mme Schumann-Heink</a>, accompanied by Mr. Louis Saar, gave a recital of vocal and piano music. Two pieces from that recital, Berceuse from Lyric Pieces for piano by Grieg and Das Echo by Schubert will be performed by David Garrido-Cid and Alice Matteson. David will also play “Fete a Dieu en Seville” from Suite Iberia by Albeniz and he and Alice will perform works by Handel and Robert Schumann. Additionally, the Piano Quartet, Op. 15 by Robert Fuchs will be performed by Michelle Duffy, Ginny Allen, Peg Walker and Herb Walker. This program begins at 9:45 AM and will be followed by an Open House/Reception.In case you are fiscally minded, in 1901, the Club paid $550 to the performers for that concert. In today’s terms, that amount would be at least $14,000. So, come and hear what some of it was all about!! Also, there are hints of a special fanfare, which you will not want to miss. Come early, so that you get a good seat and have a chance to visit with friends before the program starts.Admission free.Following the program, a reception will be held in the Fireside Room. All are welcome.<div class="se-component se-image-container __se__float- __se__float-none" contenteditable="false"><figure style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" alt="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" data-image-link="image"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" alt="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" data-image-link="image"><img src="http://musicalclubhartford2.org/files/schumann-heink.jpg" alt="" data-image-link="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Schumann-Heink" data-proportion="true" data-align="none" data-index="0" data-file-name="schumann-heink.jpg" data-file-size="0" data-origin="," data-size="," data-rotate="" data-rotatex="" data-rotatey="" data-percentage="auto,auto" style="" origin-size="176,240"></a></figure></div>​ Alice Matteson, soprano, was born and raised in Orlando, Florida and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Hartt School. During her time at Hartt, she performed the roles of Eurydice in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Ginevra in Händel's Ariodante, and First Witch in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She was also a featured soloist with the Hartt Baroque Collegium. She has been a member of the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford since 2008, where she frequently presents solos. She also serves as a cantor for the Catholic Communities of East Hartford North, St. John Fisher Church in Marlborough, Connecticut and St. Mary's Parish in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Concert works have included soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Benjamin Britten's Missa Brevis and Ceremony of Carols. Chamber works have included soprano soloist in Heinrich Schütz's Müsikalische Exequien, J.S. Bach's Wedding Canata (BWV 202) and Giacomo Carissimi's Jonas. Alice is an active voice instructor. She is on faculty at Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, and Summit Studios in Manchester. Additionally, Alice is a founding member of emerging early music ensemble, Voce Concitato. She also enjoys presenting recitals with her husband, pianist David Garrido-Cid.Peg Walker has played violin since second grade. Chamber music has been a constant joy and challenge in her life. She began playing the viola fifteen years ago at the request of a friend, and has enjoyed understanding the music she loves from different perspectives – that of the violin and the viola. A founding member of the Con Brio Trio, as well as an active member of the Musical Club of Hartford, Peg is enjoying the additional playing time her retirement affords.Herb Walker began studying cello in Philadelphia. His love for the instrument and for playing chamber music has stretched over nearly 6 decades. Herb is a founding member of Con Brio, and an active member of the Musical Club of Hartford. In his spare time, he continues to contribute his engineering skills as a consultant for Pratt &amp; Whitney.

Musical Club Opening Program and Reception, September 24, 2015

The second of this year&rsquo;s member programs will commemorate the 1937 concert by Marian Anderson at the Bushnell Memorial Hall that was sponsored by the Musical Club of Hartford. At that concert, Ms. Anderson performed Schubert&rsquo;s Der Tod und das Mädchen, which will be sung at this October program by Patrice Fitzgerald, mezzo-soprano.The program will also include an exciting variety of piano and vocal music, beginning with Mo Tian playing the first movement, Ondine, from Ravel&rsquo;s Gaspard de la nuit. He will also accompany Patrice and her husband, baritone Richard Leslie, on duets from Brahms and Schubert, as well as Schubert&rsquo;s Der Atlas. Linda MacGougan will play Sonata No. 1 for Flute and Piano by Eric Ewazen, with Bridget Gilchrist on flute.And then there will be jazz! Walter Gwardyak will accompany Patrice and Richard on pieces ranging from Blues in the Night (with Richard on trumpet) and Orange-Colored Sky to All the Things You Are.Walter will finish with solo jazz piano renditions of Body and Soul and There Is No Greater Love. At the end of the program there will be an opportunity for audience members to join in as we all sing My Country &rsquo;Tis of Thee, in honor of Marian Anderson&rsquo;s famed Lincoln Memorial concert of 1939. Connie Hegarty will accompany the entire group on the organ.This program begins at 10:00 AM. You will not want to miss it!<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Anderson" target="_blank"><img src="/files/marian_anderson.png"/>10:00 am on Oct 28, 2015 at Conard High School in West Hartford, along with performances by the Hall and Conard High School Concert Jazz Bands.Richard Leslie, baritone and trumpet, began playing in the fifth grade, well before he discovered his love of singing. He has been a soloist and section leader with numerous churches, including the Unitarian Society of Hartford, the Universalist Church of West Hartford, and the Unitarian Church in Westport. Past affiliations include the Cantabile Chorale and Musica Plenti as well as CONCORA. Richard toured Paris, along with his wife Patrice, with the Hartford Chorale in the summer of 2014, and will be part of this fall&#39;s production of &quot;Carousel&quot; with the West Hartford Community Theater. By day he works in IT as a programmer/analyst.Linda MacGougan, piano, received her B.A. in Music at Yale and a M.M. in Piano Performance at UConn. Her teachers have included William Westney, Ian Hobson, and Joseph Villa, and she&#39;s participated in master classes with Walter Hautzig, Ward Davenny, and Claude Frank. Linda teaches piano in West Hartford, maintaining a studio of about 20 students, and is an active member of the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association. She performs solo piano at area nursing homes and accompanies several West Hartford elementary school choirs. Currently, she serves as President of The Musical Club of Hartford.Mo Tian, piano, has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University and currently studies with Irma Vallecillo at the University of Connecticut in the Doctoral of Music Arts program in piano performance where he was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. He is also piano faculty at the Community School of the Arts. Prior to his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Mo studied at the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in solo piano and chamber music, both of which he finds equally exciting and challenging. Mo is an active member of the Music Club of Hartford, which has generously supported him through scholarships for his higher music education.</div>

Music by Members - Oct 1, 2015

Looking back more than a century to the recital that Arnold and Mabel Dolmetsch gave with soprano Emma Noyes in 1910 for the Musical Club of Hartford, we can only feel gratitude for the work of these pioneers in the re-discovery of early music. From the Dolmetsch Workshop, where instrument builders learned to make reproductions of viols, lutes, recorders and keyboard instruments, to the publication of The Interpretation of the Music of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, the Dolmetsch family truly had, in the words of Sir Henry Hadow, &quot;opened the door to a forgotten treasure-house of beauty.&quot;For the program on October 15, 2015, harpsichordist Anne Mayo will perform Les Tendres Plaintes, by Jean Phillip Rameau and a Prelude and Terpsichore, by François Couperin. New member, Deborah Robin, recorder, and guest artist Monika Kinstler, violin, and will join Anne Mayo and Laura Mazza-Dixon for the Quantz Sonata in C.Ms. Kinstler will also play bass viola da gamba with Ms. Mazza-Dixon on Two Fantazies and a Sarabande from Matthew Locke&rsquo;s Duos for Two Bass Viols.Harriet Wetstone, violin, Karen Benjamin, cello, and Linda MacGougan, piano, will perform the Sonata in B minor for Violin, Cello and Piano, by Jean Baptiste Loeillet.Karen de Bergh Robinson, soprano, and Diane Day, piano, will present Cinq melodies populaires grècques by Maurice Ravel. Betty Knorr, mezzo-soprano, will join them for Gabriel Faure&rsquo;s setting of a poem by Victor Hugo, Puisqu&#39;ici-bas toute âme.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Dolmetsch" target="_blank"><img src="/files/dolmetsch_arnold_mabel.jpg"/>Processes Engineering department. Her musical and engineering interests collide in a passion for woodworking, and she has built several historical musical instruments, including a set of virginals and two vielles.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Betty Knorr, mezzo-soprano, studied music at the University of Texas at El Paso, and holds a degree in Classics from Trinity College, Hartford. She has studied voice with Joanne Scattergood. Betty sings with CONCORA and The Hartford Chorale. She also plays violin with the Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra. Linda MacGougan, piano, received her B.A. in Music at Yale and a M.M. in Piano Performance at UConn. Her teachers have included William Westney, Ian Hobson, and Joseph Villa, and she&#39;s participated in master classes with Walter Hautzig, Ward Davenny, and Claude Frank. Linda teaches piano in West Hartford, maintaining a studio of about 20 students, and is an active member of the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association. She performs solo piano at area nursing homes and accompanies several West Hartford elementary school choirs. Currently, she serves as President of The Musical Club of Hartford.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>In the 1970s, Anne Mayo and her husband, Walter, constructed a harpsichord from a Zuckermann kit, igniting a decades-long study of solo and chamber repertoire for that instrument. Anne and Walter Mayo have served as Co-Presidents of The Musical Club of Hartford and have sung in the Hartford Chorale and with the Madsingers, a madrigal group. She has played with the Baroque Ensemble, Les Amies de Théodore on various concert series in the Farmington Valley. Anne has been spearheading the 125th Anniversary Committee for the Musical Club, editing the souvenir booklet and designing publicity materials for the events planned for the year.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Laura Mazza-Dixon teaches classical guitar and viola da gamba at the Windy Hill Guitar Studio in Granby, CT. With a degree in classical guitar from Penn State University and an MFA in Early Music from Sarah Lawrence College. She has directed the Early Music Ensembles at the Hartt School of Music Community Division. Currently she coaches the Early Music at Windy Hill Ensembles with Deborah Robin, recorder. Along with Anne Mayo, harpsichord, and Susan Allen, flute, Laura performs Baroque music with the ensemble Les Amies de Théodore. Recently she has also performed at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford with The Cathedral Viols, along with Monika Kinstler, Leland Tolo, Dana Campbell, and Carrie Crompton.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Karen de Bergh Robinson, soprano, graduated from Sarah Lawrence as a Performing Arts Major. In New York City she performed with several modern dance companies, as well as playing the soprano leads in numerous Gilbert and Sullivan productions, including the role of Princess Ida with the Village Light Opera Company. After moving to CT she sang for 15 years with the CT Opera Company as a member of their AGMA chorus. She has been a soloist in Hartford area churches, and performed in numerous duo concert performances with the pianist Paul Bisaccia in such venues as the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Wood Memorial Library. For 20 years she also worked with her husband at AcoustiCraft, Inc., a piano service and restoration company.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Harriet Wetstone, who has recently moved to Lenox, Massachusetts, is a gardener and a lover of playing and listening to chamber music. Harriet is a retired psychologist who started out as a music educator. She has studied violin with Rachmael Weinstock, Anthea Kreston, and Sarita Kwok. She is on the board of the South Windsor Cultural Arts Chamber Music Series and invites every one to check out their Sunday afternoon concerts at the Wood Library in South Windsor.</div>

Music by Members - Oct 15, 2015

The <a href="http://www.neje.org/" target="_blank">New England Jazz Ensemble</a> will take the wraps off a new big-band arrangement of Peter and the Wolf in a special concert at Conard High School, 110 Beechwood Road, West Hartford, at 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 28, 2015.The concert features Walt Gwardyak&rsquo;s arrangement of Prokofiev&rsquo;s classic story, the first big-band adaptation in more than 50 years. Gwardyak is a founder and the music director of the <a href="http://www.neje.org/" target="_blank">New England Jazz Ensemble</a>, which was formed more than 20 years ago to profile the compositions and arrangements of jazz musicians in the region. The NEJE has received accolades for their earlier interpretation and presentation of the Duke Ellington Jazz Nutcracker, and other recordings of original jazz arrangements and compositions.Giacomo Gates, one of today&rsquo;s most prominent jazz singers, has re-composed the spoken story in &ldquo;hip&rdquo; language, and will narrate behind the New England Jazz Ensemble&rsquo;s musical performance. Jeff Holmes, lead trumpeter and one of the band&rsquo;s principal arrangers, will conduct.Presented in celebration of the Musical Club of Hartford&rsquo;s 125 years of bringing great music to the state&rsquo;s Capital city, this concert is presented in collaboration with the West Hartford Schools Arts Department.A half-hour break for lunch will follow the New England Jazz Ensemble concert, after which the students in the Conard and Hall High School Jazz Bands will perform. Joining them will be a high-school jazz band visiting from Schorndorf, Germany. We hope you will be able to return to hear this concert as well.As a special service to the community, these programs are free and open to the public.Please note that this event takes place on a Wednesday.<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 100%;" summary="New England Jazz Ensemble"><caption>New England Jazz Ensemble</caption><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://www.neje.org/" target="_blank"><img src="/files/neje_0.jpg"/>nsuing years, most of which kept the overall concept but introduced changes to the story line. The first of these films was an animation produced by Walt Disney in 1946. Prokofiev himself was a consultant in the adaptation.Many other artists and orchestras have adapted the popular music and the story line from Prokofiev&rsquo;s original composition for everything from coloring books to a 1958 animation produced in Russia and a British television version for the Royal School Ballet. However, to the best of our knowledge, The New England Jazz Ensemble version is the only through-composed jazz rendition of the piece.<h3>About the performers</h3>The New England Jazz Ensemble was founded in June 1991, as a rehearsal band by its then-lead trumpeter Mike Jones and its pianist, music director, and arranger Walter Gwardyak. The New England Jazz Ensemble has recorded 5 CDs, including a live recording at the inaugural Pittsfield City Jazz Festival in 2005 and a Christmas CD featuring the Duke Ellington Nutcracker and other holiday jazz selections. Most of the recordings feature original arrangements and compositions by members of the ensemble, listed below.<ul><li>Saxes: John Mastroianni, Bob DePalma, Michael Leventhal, Larry Dvorin &amp; Lisa LaDone</li><li>Trombones: Tim Atherton, Peter McEarchen Dan Hendrix, Dave Wampler</li><li>Trumpets: Steve Fitzko, Don Clough, Adam Mejaour, Hank Zorn</li><li>Piano: Walter Gwardyak</li><li>Bass: Steve Bulmer</li><li>Drums: Jon Mele</li><li>Conductor/Solo Trumpet: Jeff Holmes</li><li>Narrator: Giacomo Gates</li></ul>Walter Gwardyak, piano, is a founding member and Music Director for the New England Jazz Ensemble, a sixteen-piece big band, which has received accolades for their presentation of Duke Ellington&rsquo;s Jazz Nutcracker. He is a former member of the Buddy Rich band and has played in concert with such jazz greats as Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, Pepper Adams and Clark Terry. He served as the Dean of Music at Hartford Conservatory of Music for 21 years, and is currently the jazz piano instructor at Trinity College, pianist at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and staff arranger at the Hartford Symphony.Giacomo Gates is a jazz singer with a full-bodied and mellifluous voice, extraordinary rhythmic precision and an unerring sense of lyricism, He has performed with such notables as Lou Donaldson, Freddie Hubbard, Richie Cole, Rufus Reid, Randy Brecker, and many other world-class performers. He has played major U.S. clubs such as New York&#39;s Birdland, Smoke, Jazz Standard, Blue Note, and Dizzy&#39;s, Blues Alley, The Kennedy Center in D.C., and Snug Harbor in New Orleans, and major festivals like Detroit/Montreux, Telluride, Caramoor, Sedona, Clearwater, and California&#39;s Jazz at the Plazz.Jeffrey W. Holmes is Professor of Music and Director of Jazz and African-American Music Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a nationally published and commissioned composer/arranger and multiple recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Composition Grants. Holmes has written music for John Abercrombie, The Big Apple Circus, Ernie Watts, Max Roach, Yusef Lateef, Doc Severinsen, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, as well as numerous works for military, college, high school/junior high school jazz, concert and marching ensembles.The Hall High School Concert Jazz Band is an advanced level performance ensemble consisting of flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, string bass, drum set, and auxiliary percussion. Students develop knowledge and skill in ensemble balance, tone production, improvisation, sight-reading, jazz theory and jazz history as it pertains to the music that is being prepared and performed. The Concert Jazz Band performs at the annual Pops &#39;n Jazz show, school and community events, competitions, and a biennial European concert tour.The Conard High School Concert Jazz Band consists of 18-22 talented instrumentalists selected by audition from over 190 band students at Conard High School. The Concert Jazz Band performs extensively throughout the year and sponsors three major jazz events at their school - Autumn Leaves Jazz Show, Winter Jazz Show, and Jazzamatazz. This group travels biannually and has traveled throughout the eastern part of the United States, California, Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Italy, Scotland, Wales, and England.</div>

New England Jazz Ensemble's Peter and the Wolf - Oct 28, 2015

This program commemorates the 100 year anniversary of Pablo Casals&rsquo; Musical Club performance at the Foot Guard Hall in Hartford. Casals, the virtuoso Catalan cellist, may be most remembered for his devotion to chamber music and for his Bach Cello Suite performances.This upcoming Musical Club program will feature Benita Rose performing &ldquo;Almería&rdquo; from the Suite Iberia, for piano, by Isaac Albéniz, a contemporary of Casals who assisted him in his teen years to establish his career.Visiting artist Amy Kang of New York will perform movements from a Bach Cello Suite and share her original artwork depicting Casals.Lisa Kugelman, violin, Stacy Cahoon, piano, and Fran Bard, cello will perform Dvorak&#39;s Piano Trio, Op. 26.Karen Benjamin, cello and <a href="http://www.soohyungyoo.com/" target="_blank">Soohyung Yoo</a>, piano will perform a Catalan song arranged by Pablo Casals: Cant dels Ocells (&quot;Song of the Birds&quot;).Finally, joined by clarinetist David Schonfeld, Karen and Soohyung will perform the first movement of Beethoven&#39;s Trio in E flat, Op. 38.Three different cellists are participating in this program, making it a most memorable event!<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Casals" target="_blank"><img src="/files/pablo_casals_0.png"/>ts. In addition, she is the accompanist for the Travelers Chorale and the CitiSingers of Hartford. As a composer, she has had vocal compositions premiered at Bushnell Hall, and the Women Composers Festival of Hartford. She is an independent piano teacher in West Hartford teaching students of all ages.Amy Kang is a cellist and painter. She graduated from Columbia University in 2011 and currently lives and works in NYC. She studied with Fred Sherry and has performed at venues ranging from jazz clubs on the lower East Side to Carnegie Hall.Lisa Kugelman, violinist, originally from West Hartford., studied with Bernard Lurie, Roman Totenberg, and Syoko Aki, and performs regularly with the Hartford Symphony, the Worthington Trio, and the Arensky Trio. Lisa has been a professional free-lance violinist in the Hartford area for the past 25 years.Benita Rose, pianist, has performed on three continents. She and saxophonist husband, Tony Gibbs, were top prize-winners in the professional division of the international 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition. Her performance of Gershwin&#39;s Concerto in F with the U.S, Coast Guard Band was broadcast on NPR&#39;s &quot;Performance Today.&rdquo; She teaches piano in Connecticut and is also a church and concert organist, currently serving Bethany Lutheran Church in West Hartford.David Schonfeld, clarinet, grew up in the Bronx. He received a B.A. in Music from CCNY and an M.Phil. from Yale in the Theory of Music. He has studied oboe with Lois Wann, Marilyn Krentzman, and Marc Schachman and clarinet with Curt Blood, among others. David also received a Fulbright to study South Indian classical music in Madras. He has performed with an international folk-dance band for many years and serves as a classical-music broadcaster at radio station WWUH. David is currently studying the Baroque oboe.Korean American pianist Soohyung Yoo has performed for audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and Salle Cortot in Paris. She has been a prizewinner of several international competitions, including the Young Artists Piano Competition, and Artist International Presentations, which resulted to a successful debut recital at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2009.Soohyung began her piano studies in Korea at the age of 7, and continued her studies in the United States with Eleanor Sokoloff. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees at Eastman under the guidance of Thomas Schumacher. She continued her training in Europe through the International Certificate for Piano Artists program held by the Ecole Normal de Musique de Alfred Cortot and Fondation Belle &#39;Arte. Soohyung continued her studies at the University of Maryland where she obtained her Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Larissa Dedova in December of 2009.Soohyung has been on the piano faculty at Frederick College, University of Maryland, and Los Angeles High School for the Arts. She is currently on the faculty at Miss Porters School and maintains an active private piano studio. She makes her home in Farmington, CT with her husband, 2 young children, and cat.</div>

Music by Members - Nov 5, 2015

Excerpts from two half-hour videos from 1984 and 1985, produced by West Hartford Community TV, will be shown. First, a panel led by Sylvia Goldstein discussing the Club&rsquo;s history with several members; then a recital by Club members.Some of the members who appear in the videos will&nbsp;be on hand to reminisce. Joining them will be several Club &quot;veterans&quot;, including Jane Bartlett, Barbara Pond, and Betty Ohlheiser.Join us for this look back on the Musical Club&#39;s long and proud history.This event will take place in the church&#39;s Fellowship Hall (not the sanctuary).Note: Admission to this event is free and the general public is warmly invited!&nbsp;

Musical Club of Hartford: A Retrospective

The Musical Club of Hartford continues the celebration of its 125th anniversary year on December 10, 2015, at 10:00 am with a concert by the Musical Club&rsquo;s vocal ensemble, directed by Rita Henderson; a high school flute ensemble, directed by Bridget Gilchrist; solo pieces for piano performed by Diane Day; and works for organ performed by Scott Lamlein. The program will include music by composers J.S. Bach, Vaughan Williams, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Claude Debussy.The Musical Club of Hartford concerts are open to the public and held in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT.&nbsp; &nbsp;Admission to this event is free to members of the Musical Club and $5 for the general public. The Westminster Presbyterian Church parking lot entrance is on Ridgewood Road.&nbsp; The church is wheelchair accessible from the side entrance on the end of the building near Mountain Road.Coffee and cookies will be served following the program.Membership in this marvelous non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information please call 860-561-1588.About the musicOriginally founded in 1891 by a group of young women, the Musical Club of Hartford has long supported the performance of choral music, as evidenced by the concert it sponsored on January 18, 1934, which featured the choir of the South Methodist Episcopal Church of Manchester, with vocal and organ soloists in &ldquo;An Evening of Church Music.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp; The December 10 performance will feature pieces from that performance for both vocal ensemble and organ.In addition to bringing choirs from the area to Hartford to perform, members of the Club have formed many different choral ensembles over the years, with names like &ldquo;The Ladies Chorus&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Vocal Quartet.&rdquo;&nbsp;The Vocal Ensemble we will hear in this concert was formed sixty-eight years ago.&nbsp; In 1947, the Officers of the Musical Club of Hartford asked Mrs. Murial Ainley to start a Vocal Ensemble.&nbsp; Muriel asked Mrs. Jane Bartlett if she would join her as piano accompanist. Thus began a 50-year partnership that lasted until both retired in 1997.&nbsp;Since 1997, Mrs. Rita Henderson has been the Director of the Vocal Ensemble, with Mrs. Diane Day serving as the accompanist for the group.&nbsp; Currently the Vocal Ensemble has twenty members and is made up of a combination of professional singers, choir singers and those who simply enjoy singing.For this program the Vocal Ensemble will begin with music written in the 16th century by Pierre Clereau, followed by a setting of the Ave Maria by Johannes Brahms. They will also perform a piece written in 1986&nbsp; by a Musical Club member, Bea MacLaughlin, which is titled All Natural. Among their other selections will be a Yiddish folksong celebrating Hanukkah; This Little Babe, from Benjamin Britten&rsquo;s Ceremony of Carols; and a harmonization of As it Fell Upon the Night by Katherine K. Davis.&nbsp;Virtuosic repertoire for solo piano will be performed by Diane Day who will perform two preludes - Prelude, Op. 23, No. 4 in D major by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Prelude from Book 1, No. 10, by Claude Debussy, also known as La Cathedrale Engloutie, (The Sunken Cathedral.)The Flute Ensemble will feature flute players from three different high schools, playing as a flute quartet with Ms. Gilchrist directing. They will begin with Jour D&rsquo;ete a La Montagne, by Eugene Bozza;&nbsp; go on to Deck the Halls, arranged by James Christensen; and finish with a &ldquo;BellMedley&rdquo; consisting of Jingle Bells, Ring Christmas Bells, and Silver Bells. Scott Lamlein, organist, will perform the Prelude in G Major, BWV 550, by Johann Sebastian Bach. He will also include a piece performed on the program in 1934, and played by Mrs. Ellison on that date, Rhosymedre (Lovely) by Vaughan Williams from the three Chorale Preludes he composed on Welsh hymn tunes.&nbsp; Mr. Lamlein will conclude his section of the program with Carillon-Sortie, by Henri Mulet.About the PerformersMusical Club of Hartford Vocal Ensemble:Director, Rita HendersonMembers: Jane Bugbee,&nbsp; Elizabeth Carabillo, Carol Carlson, Sandra Ann Craig, Sharon Girard, Carol Hunt, Marjorie Hutensky, Ellen Ma , Josephine Mangiafico, Vivian Marks, Anne Mayo, Donnalou Rollins, Lean-Cheng Tan, Vilma Walton, Janet Wilson, Diane Day, AccompanistHigh School Flute Ensemble:Director, Bridget GilchristThe flute quartet is comprised of three of Ms. Gilchrist&rsquo;s students from three different school systems. &nbsp;&nbsp;All three of them have been selected to perform with the American Society of Band Directors Association Festival for Fall 2015.&nbsp;&nbsp; Each of them is also performing for the Connecticut Regional auditions and festivals with the Connecticut Music Educators Association.Acacia Farber-Krug is a senior from Northwestern Regional Seven High School in Winsted, Elizabeth Raynor is a junior from Canton High School, Bethany Newton is a junior from Simsbury High School.Diane Day, piano, a native of Simsbury, started studying piano at age 7. &nbsp;She graduated from the 4-year program at the Hartford Conservatory with an artist&rsquo;s diploma in Piano and a minor in Theory &amp; Composition. &nbsp;She studied with Juan Nazarian, Maria Luisa Faini, and Howard Parsons.&nbsp; Having taught piano privately for over 40 years, she enjoys performing chamber music, accompanying soloists and groups, including dancers, and has performed many solo concerts over her career. &nbsp;Bridget M. Gilchrist, flute, is a cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Music. She studied flute under Mr. Louis Soloway and Mr. Thomas Nyfenger, who was principal flutist with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.&nbsp;Ms. Gilchrist also toured and performed with the UCONN Flute Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble, and recorded as a soloist with the Jazz Ensemble.As a graduate student at Hartt School of Music, she completed conducting symposiums with Stanley DeRusha, Craig Kirchoff (Ohio State University) and Allan McMurray (University of Colorado); as well as courses conducted by Jerry Nowak and Anthony Maeillo, and performed with Jackie McLean&rsquo;s Jazz Lab.Mrs. Gilchrist taught in the Manchester, Connecticut schools, and also taught music theory and history at Manchester Community College.&nbsp; Under her direction, the Jr. and Sr. High School Concert, Marching, and Jazz Bands&nbsp;traveled extensively throughout the US and Canada, winning numerous prestigious awards.&nbsp; Notably, her Jazz Ensemble earned a 2nd place finish in the Berklee College of Music Jazz Festival, which qualified them to compete in the Music USA National Finals for High School Jazz Bands throughout the country.In addition to her 35 years of experience as a music educator and private instructor of flute, Mrs. Gilchrist is an avid performer, soloist and conductor/ guest conductor with numerous performing ensembles, orchestras and bands.&nbsp; She also conducts and composes for flute choirs, guest conducts jazz ensembles, and leads master classes for flute players in many schools systems.Mrs. Gilchrist is also active in the CT. Music Educator&rsquo;s Association, having been the head flute judge for All-State and many regions for the past 30 years, as well as Festival Chair and Jazz Chair, and numerous committees.&nbsp; Bridget and her husband, Thomas, have two daughters, Heather and Eryn.Rita Haaser Henderson, director of the Vocal Ensemble, began a career in music at the age of ten, singing on the &ldquo;Kiddie Revue&rdquo; program on Hartford&rsquo;s local WNBC station. She has studied voice with Frank La Forge and with Frank Pandolfi, of Connecticut Opera Company. In Connecticut, she has performed with the Met&rsquo;s Salvatore Baccaloni for the Connecticut Opera Guild Ball, The Connecticut String Orchestra, and won the Connecticut NBC New Talent competition. Ms. Henderson also performed with the National Opera Club of America in New York and sang in operatic performances throughout the New England, New York, Canada, Ohio, and Colorado with seven different opera companies.&nbsp; Her performances of operatic selections have aired on station WNYC. Upon retiring, she became Minister of Music at the Memorial Baptist Church, where she conducts three choirs and combined performances of choirs from several churches.&nbsp;&nbsp;Scott Lamlein, organist, has been cited by&nbsp;The American Organist&nbsp;magazine as infusing his music with &ldquo;virtuosic flair and fire.&rdquo; In demand as a concert artist, Scott has traveled near and far, with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.musicformission.org/events/">appearances</a>&nbsp;at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival&nbsp;in South Carolina, First Night Worcester (MA), and the Organ Masters Series in Nashua (NH). He has concertized in Germany and Switzerland, as well as in metro Boston and New York. Scott&rsquo;s concerts have been broadcast in South Carolina, Boston and Worcester. Previously, he served as Artistic Director of the Music Alive! Concert Series, the&nbsp;a&nbsp;cappella&nbsp;chorus, Sacred Voices, and the South Hadley Chorale.Scott has 3&nbsp;<a href="http://www.musicformission.org/">CDs in current release</a>&mdash;The Organ at Worship, and&nbsp;In Quiet Joy: Music&nbsp;of Advent and Christmas,&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.musicformission.org/piano/">CD of his piano compositions</a>, entitled&nbsp;Peace.&nbsp;He also is featured on the CD,&nbsp;Great Organs of Worcester. Each of these CDs serve as a vehicle to raise money for various missions.As&nbsp;<a href="http://sjparish.net/">Music Director at St. John&rsquo;s Episcopal Church, in West Hartford, CT</a>, Scott directs a Royal School of Church Music affiliated Youth Choir and semi-professional Adult Choir, as well as presenting organ masterworks in regular Sunday services. He also serves as artistic director of the church&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="http://reddoormusic.org/">Sacred Music at the Red Door</a>&nbsp;concert series.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Music by Members - Dec 10, 2015

The Musical Club of Hartford continues its 125th anniversary season on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 10:00 am, with a concert featuring the music of several American composers, including Aaron Copland, Cole Porter, and Robert Fuchs. Held in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT, admission to the Musical Club concerts is $5 for the general public and free to members of the club. The church is wheelchair accessible from the side entrance nearest to Mountain Road.The Musical Club of Hartford has a wonderful history of supporting and performing music by American composers. On October 30, 1975, at the Town and County Club, as a celebration of American composers, the members of the Musical Club performed pieces by composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and John Duke; as well as Wallingford Riegger, Charles Ives, and Edward MacDowell.In March of that same year, Musical Club member Sharon Girard was a student at Western Connecticut State College when Aaron Copland visited the campus to lecture as part of an Arts Festival focused on the 20th Century.<img src="/files/Copland_WCSU_1975.jpg"/>m> by Robert Fuchs, an Austrian composer known best for his Serenades for piano and a close friend of Johannes Brahms.Membership in this marvelous non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information call 860-561-1588.&nbsp;<h2>More about the musicians</h2>Pianist Lillie Gardner has performed both solo and chamber music throughout the Midwest, New York City, and Europe. Most recently, she performed solo recitals at von der Mehden Recital Hall at the University of Connecticut and the Blackbox Theater in New York City, and was selected Alternate in the University of Connecticut&rsquo;s 2015 Aria and Concerto Competition. In 2013 she performed in Oviedo and Gijón, Spain as a participant in the Gijón International Piano Festival, and in 2011 she received an Honorable Mention for her performance in the New York State Music Teachers Association&rsquo;s Empire Piano Competition.Lillie received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance at New York University as a student of Miyoko Nakaya Lotto and Dr. Jose Ramon Mendez. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Connecticut under the tutelage of pianist Irma Vallecillo, and she is a grateful recipient of the Musical Club of Hartford&rsquo;s Evelyn Bonar Storrs Piano Scholarship.Ginny Allen, violinist, graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Music degree. She then went on to get a Master&rsquo;s degree in Special Education, teaching the hearing impaired. After spending some years raising a family, she went back to school and became a registered nurse. She has recently retired from twenty years in a nursing career.Ginny is presently Concertmaster of the Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra and is a performing member of The Musical Club of Hartford. Over the years, she has taught violin and viola students in her home.Peg Walker, violin and viola, has been playing chamber music for most of her life.&nbsp; She attended Miami University in Ohio and the University of Michigan for her undergraduate work, and received her MFA in Applied Violin and Musicology from Western Michigan University.&nbsp; She has studied with Margaret Randall, Julius Stulberg, Gerald Fischbach, and Orhan Ahiskal.&nbsp; A founding member of the Con Brio Ensemble, which includes her cellist husband, Herb, Peg has performed chamber music regularly in the greater Hartford area for the past 25 years.&nbsp; In addition to her Musical Club Activities, Peg is an enthusiastic volunteer at the University of Hartford&rsquo;s Presidents&rsquo; College. Walter Mayo has played bass since high school, and with jazz, dance, folk and Dixieland groups in college and beyond. He has studied piano and harmonic theory at the Hartford Conservatory with Walter Gwardyak, and plays with informal groups locally. He and his wife Ann are past co-Presidents of the Musical Club of Hartford.Dan Fine, a Hartford native who grew up in Mark Twain&#39;s neighborhood, graduated from Hartford Public High School, received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut with a minor in music and an MBA from Boston College.&nbsp; He studied piano with Ray Cassarino and Leonard Sieber. Dan has played professionally since the age of 14 and played with the Al Jarvis and Paul Landerman Orchestras locally. Dan has also played saxophone in the Simsbury Community Band for 28 years. Sharon B. Girard has loved music since she was a child. She studied dance, piano and voice and went on to college to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree from Western CT State College and a Master of Music Education Degree from the Hartt School, University of Hartford. Sharon is a member of the Music Teachers National Association and is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music. Sharon has taught piano for the last 40 years in her private studio, as well as in the public schools. She is a member of Musical Club&rsquo;s Vocal Ensemble and a member of the St. Gregory Choir of Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville. Most Monday evenings you can find Sharon and Larry at table #54 at Black Eyed Sally&rsquo;s listening to jazz.Lawrence E. &quot;Larry&quot; Girard, Jr. started playing brass instruments at age 7 when he joined a drum and bugle corps managed by his father. When he finished high school, Larry stopped playing for 20 years but on the advice of his wife, Sharon, Girard, never sold his trumpet.&nbsp; He began playing again in 1995.&nbsp; He has performed with the Skyliners Alumni Drum and Bugle Corps, the Contemporary Choir at St. Mary Church in Windsor Locks, the Hartt School&#39;s Jackie Mclean Institute of Jazz Big Band and at various jazz jam sessions in the Greater Hartford area.&nbsp; Currently, Larry performs with the South Windsor Community Band and is a volunteer with the Windsor Locks Middle School instrumental programs.&nbsp; He is owner and president of CBA Lighting and Controls Inc., and airfield lighting supplier in Windsor Locks.David Kennedy started singing under a grape arbor somewhere at the age of five and can&#39;t remember where he learned the songs. Ultimately he became a mechanical engineer with an MBA and wandered from job to job always singing somewhere except for a four-year stint in the US Navy. He has currently exceeded 25 years as a member of CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) and over the years has had major roles in 30 musical and operatic productions.Peter Greenfogel graduated from the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies. He has studied with Jackie McLean along with Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Chris Casey and many others. He performs with his own group throughout Connecticut as well as in New York and New Jersey. Peter also performs with Simply Swing throughout the State of Connecticut. He teaches at the Artists&rsquo; Collective in Hartford and as an assistant at the Hartt School Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz.&nbsp;

Music by Members - Jan 14, 2016

The mission of the Musical Club of Hartford includes the goal of giving assistance to promising young artists. Now in its 125th year, the Club provides cash awards from its Gifts and Scholarships Fund to the winners of the annual High School Competition.The young musicians who place first, second and third in each category of the Musical Club of Hartford High School Scholarship competition each receive a cash prize and an invitation to perform in the Winners Concert at the end of January.The performers who enter the competition come from towns all across Connecticut and have studied with teachers in both music schools and private studios. Their accomplishments as they enter the competition are impressive. Some of them have studied another instrument, or voice, in addition to the instrument on which they are competing.The winners of the 2016 High School Competition areon the next page. For more information on the performers and the pieces they will play on January 24th, please see the pages following that one. &nbsp; String competition winners: 1st Place: Alexandra Fitzgerald of Brookfield, CT 2nd Place Strings: Kayla Bryan of Guilford, CT 3rd Place Strings: Cameron Chase of Stratford CT &nbsp; Strings Honorable Mention: Dora DeCaprio, of Lebanon, CT &nbsp; Winds Competition Winners: 1st place: Nikki Pet, clarinet, of Glastonbury, CT 2nd Place: Eric Hirsch, flute, of Weston, CT 3rd Place: Katharine Jessen, of Winsted, CT &nbsp; &nbsp; Winds Honorable Mention: Grace Helmke, flute, South Windsor, CT &nbsp; Voice Competition Winners: First Place: Anneliese Lomas, soprano, of Weston, CT Second Place: Gabriel Garcia, tenor, of Simsbury, CT Third Place: Maggie Walsh, soprano, of Stratford, CT &nbsp; Voice Honorable Mentions: Chris Jillson, bass, of Middletown, CT Emma Kyzivat, alto, of Simsbury, CT &nbsp; Piano Competition Winners: First Place: Dax Avery of Enfield, CT Second Place: Stefanie Ma of East Hartford, CT Third Place: Leona Zhang of Simsbury, CT &nbsp; Piano Honorable Mentions: Caroline Ma of Unionville, CT Kelly Zheng of Avon, CTMore information on the Performers &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; 2016 Musical Club of Hartford High School Competition &nbsp; Strings Competition Winners &nbsp; 1st Place Strings: Alexandra Fitzgerald of Brookfield, will perform Romanian Dances 1,4,5,6 by Bela Bartok (1881-1945). &nbsp; Alexandra Fitzgerald, violin, is a sophomore at Brookfield High School, and a pupil of Mickey Reisman at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. During 2015, she was first violin in the Connecticut All-State Orchestra, a selected performer in the Charles Lang Masterclass, and a scholarship recipient in the DMS Chamber Music Intensive. Alexandra was a semi-finalist in the 2014 Mannes School of Music Pre-College Concerto Competition and soloist at the Southbury Fine Arts Festival. &nbsp; 2nd Place Strings: Kayla Bryan, violin, of Guilford, Connecticut will play Introduction and Tarantella, Op. 43 (Moderato and Allegro Vivace) by Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908). &nbsp; Kayln Bryan, violin, is a sophomore at Guilford High School, and a pupil of Donna Agai at the Hartt School community Division. She is concertmaster of the Connecticut Youth Symphony and the 2015-2016 Southern Regional Orchestra, and as a freshman, the Connecticut All-State Orchestra. She has performed in the Hartt Honors recitals. Kayla was a concerto competition winner in the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar in 2014, and attended the Preludio program at Ithaca College in 2015. &nbsp; 3rd Place Strings: Cameron Chase, violin, of Stratford Connecticut will play Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, 1st Movement - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). &nbsp; Cameron Chase, violin, is a sophomore, home schooled, and a pupil of Hyo Kang in the pre-college division at the Juilliard School. He is concertmaster of the Norwalk Youth Orchestra. &nbsp; During 2015, Cameron was an American Chamber Orchestra Competition winner and received Honorable Mention in the Norwalk Symphony Concerto Competition. 2014-2015 summer study included the Bowdoin International Festival and the Music Mountain Chamber program. &nbsp; Strings Honorable Mention: Dora DeCaprio, viola, is home schooled, grade 12, and lives in Lebanon &nbsp; &nbsp; 2016 Musical Club of Hartford High School Competition &nbsp; VOICE COMPETITION WINNERS &nbsp; First Place: Anneliese Lomas, Soprano, of Weston. concert pièce: Sposa son disprezzata,&nbsp; by Antonio Vivaldi &nbsp; Anneliese Lomas is a senior at Weston High School and is a student of Pamela Kuhn. During the summer of 2015, she took part in a master class with Lynn Eustis of Boston University.&nbsp; She has performed with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in the Boston University Tanglewood Chorus, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor. She is looking forward to pursuing a career in opera. &nbsp; Second Place: Gabriel Garcia, Tenor, of Simsbury concert piece: Non t&#39;amo piu!,&nbsp; by Francesco Paolo Tosti Accompanist: Robert James Tomasulo &nbsp; Gabriel Garcia is a senior at Simsbury High School where he is co-director of the men&#39;s acapella group &quot;Unaccompanied Minors&quot; and a member of the SHS Simsbury Singers. He is currently an Ensign-Darling Vocal Fellow at the Bushnell and received Honorable Mention in the 2015 Musical Club of Hartford&#39;s competition. He has been a member of several Regional and National Honor Choirs. Gabriel&#39;s on-stage performances have included Les Miserables, Beauty And The Beast, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. He studies voice with Joanne Scattergood Reeves and jazz piano at Hartt and plans to pursue a degree in vocal performance. &nbsp; Third Place: Maggie Walsh, Soprano, of Stratford, CT. concert piece: Als die late Mutter, by Antonin Dvorak &nbsp; Maggie Walsh is a junior at Stratford High School where she is currently preparing the role of &quot;Nellie&quot; in Stratford High&#39;s production of South Pacific. She has appeared as the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music and as Miss Flannery in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has been a cantor at her church and has sung for the Blue Star Mothers Memorial Day ceremony. She is a student of Allison Fay. &nbsp; Honorable Mention: Chris Jillson, Bass, student of Matthew Campisi, Xavier High School, Middletown &nbsp; Honorable Mention: Emma Kyzivat, Alto, student of Sarah Kohl Simsbury High School, Simsbury &nbsp; 2016 Musical Club of Hartford High School Competition WInds Competition Winners &nbsp; First Place: Nikki Pet, clarinet, of Glastonbury Concert performance piece: Claude Debussy, Premier Rhapsodie Accompanist: Mohamed Shams &nbsp; The First Place winner in the Musical Club of Hartford&rsquo;s Winds Competition was Nikki Pet, a senior at Glastonbury High School.&nbsp; She studies clarinet with Alan Kay of the Julliard Pre-College Program.&nbsp; Her most important performing experiences include: Puccini&rsquo;s Tosca, Brahms Symphony #3, Strauss Death and Transfiguration, and Mozart&rsquo;s Magic Flute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Shostakovich Sixth Symphony No,.2 with the Julliard Pre College Symphony,&nbsp;&nbsp; Mahler Symphony #6 with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artist Orchestra, and the Mozart Clarinet Quintet at Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts last summer. Nikki received the top chamber prize in the 2015 International Grande Music Competition, and first prize in the chamber division of the January 2015 Korean Radio Broadcast Competition. &nbsp; 2nd Place winner: Eric Hirsch, flute Concert performance piece: Georges Hue - Fantaisie Accompanist:&nbsp; Marguerita Nuller &nbsp; The Second Place winner in the Winds Competition was Eric Hirsch, a junior at Weston High School.&nbsp; He studies with both Wendy Stern and Gary Shocker, both of New York. Eric is principal flute of his school Wind Ensemble, as well as the Norwalk Youth Symphony Principal Orchestra.&nbsp; He won first place in this year&rsquo;s Norwalk Concerto competition. He was a blue ribbon winner in the 2014 New York Flute Club Young Artists Competition, and was first runner-up in the Danbury Symphony Concerto Competition in 2015.&nbsp; He is a seasoned participant in the CT Music Educator&rsquo;s Association Regional and All-State Band/Orchestra Festivals.&nbsp; Eric regularly attends Gary Shocker masterclasses in New York, and has also attended the Tanglewood 2015 Summer Flute Institute, where he studied with Linda Toote. &nbsp; 3rd Place Winner: Katharine Jessen, clarinet Concert performance piece: Johannes Brahms Second Sonata, Opus 120, No 2, Mvt. 1, Allegro Amabile Accompanist: Gay Chun The Third Place winner in the Winds Competition was Katharine Jessen, a junior at Northwest Catholic High School. She is a student of Alan Francis, and has also studied with Curt Blood.&nbsp; Katharine is principal clarinetist of the Connecticut Youth Symphony.&nbsp; For the past 2 years, she has been first chair in the Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, principal clarinet in the Northern Region Orchestra, and selected to play in the Honors Woodwind Recital at the Hartt School of Music Community Division.&nbsp; She participated in the Ct Music Educators All-State Festival in 2014 and 2015.&nbsp; This past summer, she played principal clarinet and e flat clarinet in the Prokofiev Fifth Symphony at the Luzerne Music Center in New York. &nbsp; Winds Honorable Mention: Grace Helmke, flute, is a freshman at South Windsor High School. She studies with Greig Shearer. &nbsp; Piano Competition Winners Dax Avery (1st Prize) &nbsp; Dax Avery is a 12th grader in Enfield, CT. He has been playing piano for eight years and he currently studies with Maggie Francis at The Hartt School. He has received several awards, including 1st place in the CSMTA Virtuoso Pianists competition in 2014; 3rd place in the same competition in 2013; and honorable mention in the Musical Club of Hartford&#39;s 2014 High School Piano Competition. Aside from his piano studies, Dax is an avid composer and has recently been selected as one of the winners of NAfME&#39;s Student Composers Competition. He hopes to study at The Hartt School, with a double major in piano and composition.His local newspaper is the Hartford CourantPiece for the Winner&#39;s Concert: Toccata op. 11, by Sergei Prokofiev. &nbsp; 2nd place winner Stefanie Ma Stefanie Ma is a junior who attends the Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy in East Hartford, CT. She has been playing piano for ten years. Currently, she studies with Maggie Francis at The Hartt School. She has been selected to play for Hartt&#39;s Community Division Honors recital for the past four years. Last year, she won the Evelyn Bonar Storrs scholarship for the best performance by a high school student in 9th-11th grade. Stefanie also received 2nd place in 2015 Musical Club of Hartford&#39;s Piano competition. In addition, Stefanie has been playing bassoon for three years, and is a member of the Connecticut Youth Symphony .Piece for the Winner&#39;s Concert: Miroirs: Une Barque sur L&#39;Ocean, by Maurice Ravel. &nbsp; Leona Zhang (3rd prize)Leona Zhang is a sophomore at Westminster School in Simsbury. She currently studies under the direction of Tamila Azadaliyeva. Leona started playing piano at the age of 4. She has participated in many competitions, recitals and masterclasses. Leona has won 2nd place in the 2009 Kawai Piano Competition in Shanghai, and Gold Prize in the 2010 Shanghai Piano Competition.Piece for the Winner&#39;s Concert: Soiree de Vienne, op. 56; Concert Paraphrase on Johann Strauss&#39; Waltz-motives from Die Fledermaus,&nbsp; by Alfred Grunfeld. &nbsp; Piano Honorable Mentions: &nbsp; Caroline Ma lives in Unionville. She attends Miss Porters School, and studies piano with Maggie Francis at The Hartt School. &nbsp; Kelly Zheng lives in Avon. She is a sophomore at Avon High School, and studies piano with Sima Brodsky at The Hartt School. &nbsp;This is one of our most well-attended programs of the year. Be sure not to miss the performances of these extraordinarily talented young students!Admission is free and all are welcome.&nbsp;Bridget Gilchrist, Coordinator and Winds Chair.David Garrido-Cid and Robert Connell, Piano Co-Chairs.Suzanne Hertel, Strings Chair.Helen Douglas and Elizabeth Carabillo, Voice Co-Chairs.The brass/woodwind, strings and voice scholarship prizes are awarded by the Musical Club Gifts and Scholarships Fund, which supports many other musical activities in the Hartford area.The Piano Competition is sponsored by the Musical Club&#39;s Evelyn Bonar Storrs Fund, set up by a bequest to provide funds for talented and advanced students of piano.

Performance by Winners of the 40th High School Competition

<div>The Musical Club of Hartford concert for Thursday, January 28, 2016, at 10:00 am, will be held in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT. This year, the Musical Club of Hartford celebrates its 125th anniversary year by presenting concerts reflecting back on ones given during the history of the club by renowned guest artists. The January 28, 2016 program commemorates one given by Francis Poulenc, pianist and composer, and Pierre Bernac, baritone, on January 17, 1950. Upon that occasion, the two guest artists had been invited to perform as part of the celebration of the 60th anniversary year of the Musical Club of Hartford.On the program in 1950, Mr. Poulenc played a number of his own compositions, including Mouvements Perpétuels, written in 1918. Mr. Poulenc and Mr. Bernac also presented songs by Campion, Dowland, Gounod, Schubert, Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel. In memory of that program, the concert on January 28 will begin with Claude Debussy&rsquo;s Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Piano, performed by Tony Gibbs, saxophone, and Benita Rose, piano. Commissioned by a Bostonian, and amateur saxophonist, Elise Hall, the original piece, Rapsodie arabe was scored for alto saxophone and orchestra, and completed in 1901, although it was not until 1918, after his death, that the piece was finally published.Ami Montstream will play an arrangement of the first two movements of Antonio Vivaldi&rsquo;s Concerto in D for Lute and Strings on hammered dulcimer with Susanne Shrader, violin, and Laura Mazza-Dixon, guitar, accompanying her.Ms. Shrader will play viola and Lean-Cheng Tan, piano, on Six Studies in English Folk Song, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. An English composer born in 1872, Vaughan Williams completed a degree in Music at Cambridge in 1899 and began collecting songs from the English countryside in 1904. He is best known for his symphonies, in which he incorporated many of those beloved melodies. For this piece he set each of six old songs as a separate movement: Lovely on the Water, Spurn Point, Van Diemans Land, She Borrowed Some of Her Mother&rsquo;s Gold, and As I walked Over London Bridge.Mezzo-soprano Betty Knorr will perform the song Soupir by French composer Eugène Marie Henri Fouques Duparc with pianist Alan Lurie. Henri Duparc was born in 1848 and was one of the first composition students of César Franck. He wrote Soupir at age twenty-one, setting a text by René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme.Susanne Shrader will join Ms. Knorr and Mr. Lurie on two songs by Johannes Brahms, a German composer born in 1833, written for violinist Joseph Joachim and his wife, mezzo-soprano Amalie Schneeweiss. Both were important musical partners for Brahms, as well as close personal friends. The composer wrote an enchanting cradle song, Geistliches Wiegenlied, (Sacred Lullaby) for their son, his namesake, which Amalie could sing with Joseph playing the viola, Brahms&rsquo; favorite string instrument. Later, when the couple&rsquo;s relationship became stormy, Brahms reworked the lullaby and wrote a new song, Gestillte Sehnsucht (Stilled Longing). The two songs were published together in 1884 as his Op. 91. Images of wind in trees &ndash; calming in Gestillte Sehnsucht, disturbing in Geistliches Wiegenlied &ndash; unite the two.The next section of the program will include folk music for hammered dulcimer, fiddle and guitar, with Ms. Shrader, Ms. Monstream and Ms. Mazza-Dixon performing a set of English Country Dances from the books published by John Playford between 1670 and 1710. The tunes will be Juice of Barley, Easter Thursday, and Dick&rsquo;s Maggot. They will also play two sets of traditional dance tunes from Scotland, Ireland, and the United States, including the fiddler&rsquo;s showpiece, Devil&rsquo;s Dream, and the Scottish favorite, Flowers of Edinburgh.Three pianists, Lean-Cheng Tan, Colette Switaj &amp; Gail Tanguay, will join forces on just one piano for the Galop Marche for 1 piano, 6 hands by Albert Lavignac, a French music scholar known for his essays on music theory. Born in Paris, in 1846, Lavignac studied at the Conservatoire de Paris where he later taught harmony. One of his pupils was composer Claude Debussy.To conclude the program, pianist Mo Tian will perform the third movement, Scarbo, of Maurice Ravel&rsquo;s Gaspard de la Nuit: Trois Poèmes pour piano d&rsquo;après Aloysius Bertrand. Born in 1875, Ravel studied composition at the Paris Conservatory but fell out of favor with his professors when he began combining styles in his music, drawing on Baroque and neo-classical idioms, and even jazz. Ravel&rsquo;s Scarbo is based on a poem by Bertrand about a tormenting spirit who troubles the sleep of the author. Ravel may have also intended to trouble the sleep of the performers of his piece. Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.<h2>About the performers:</h2>Betty Knorr, mezzo-soprano, majored in Music Education at the University of Texas at El Paso, and is a violinist as well as a singer. She is a founding member of CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists). She has been a soloist and section leader in several churches in the Hartford area. Betty has been a soloist with the Hartford, Manchester, and New Britain Chorales. She has sung in concerts in England, Israel, and Paris. Currently she sings with CONCORA and the Hartford Chorale and plays violin in the Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra. She lives in Berlin, CT.Alan Lurie, a Los Angeles native, has been at the keyboard since the age of 5. He has performed as a chamber music pianist and recitalist across the United States and internationally in Colombia, Chile, Puerto Rico and Japan, and has been piano soloist with the Farmington Valley and Connecticut String Orchestras. Alan gave the American premier performance of Robert Muczynski&rsquo;s Time Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, the world premier performances of Robert Dix&rsquo;s Trio for Flute, Viola and piano and Zeke Hecker&rsquo;s Duo for Clarinet and Piano, and conducted the American premiere performance of the original Nonet version of the Brahms Serenade #1 in D-Major. He has appeared on Morning Pro Musica, and was on the faculty of the Hartt Community Division as a Chamber Music teacher. Alan is Professor and Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and lives in West Hartford, CT with his wife, Dr. Susanne Shrader and their three parrots.Laura Mazza-Dixon, guitarist and viola da gambist, is the Director of the Windy Hill Guitar Studio in Granby, CT, now celebrating its 25th year. The Windy Hill Guitar Ensembles perform frequently at community events, churches and libraries in the area. Laura performed on classical guitar with Carrie Crompton on hammered dulcimer in the Village Fair Duo, listed on the Connecticut Roster of Performing Artists, from 2002-2007, and featured on two compilation CD&rsquo;s produced by the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society: A Winter Fantasy, and New England Landscapes. She also plays guitar and viola da gamba with the Celtic group, Ten Penny Bit and with that ensemble has directed programs of music from the British Isles and Appalachia. She founded the Granby Family Dance Series in 2002 and has directed the contradance band Heart&rsquo;s Ease for twenty years. Laura currently performs Baroque music on viola da gamba with the trio Les Amies de Théodore and directs Baroque and Renaissance Ensembles for the new program of Early Music at Windy Hill. She has directed early music programs for the music series at Trinity Church of Tariffville, First Church of Windsor and South Church of Granby. Laura has served on the board of the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society and is currently chair of the Publicity Committee for the Musical Club of Hartford. She is artistic co-director of the Bruce Porter Memorial Music Series in Granby, CT.Ami Montstream, hammered dulcimer, was born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She participated in the school choruses and played oboe in the orchestra, and was first oboist in the High School State Orchestra in her senior year. She continued her musical education at Connecticut College, majoring in piano and composition. She has sung with the Hartford Chorale for thirty-five years. Ami first heard a hammered dulcimer at a 1970&rsquo;s Folk Festival and has since attended many such festivals, where she has also taught workshops for dulcimers players. She presently plays with &ldquo;The Portables&rdquo;, a local folk group, regularly featured at the Sounding Board Coffeehouse in West Hartford. Ami lives in Wethersfield with her husband, Robert.Susanne Shrader, violin and viola, began study on the violin at age 10. At age 17 she played in the Princeton University Orchestra, and later in the Five-College Orchestra in western Massachusetts. At the age of 30 she learned viola. She subsequently studied with Lawrence Dutton, violist of the Emerson String Quartet. Susanne has held the Principal Viola and assistant concertmaster position in several Hartford area orchestras. She has performed chamber music throughout Connecticut in the Noteworthy Ensemble. She currently plays with the CT Valley Symphony Orchestra in either the violin or viola section. She is a retired physician. Susanne lives in West Hartford with 3 parrots and 1 husband, Dr. Alan Lurie.Benita Rose, pianist, and Tony Gibbs, saxophonist, form the Rose-Gibbs Duo. The Rose-Gibbs Duo was a top prize winner in the professional division of the 2008 International Chamber Music and Ensembles Competition. Tony Gibbs was formerly principal saxophonist with the US Coast Guard Band. As soloist with this ensemble he has toured the world and performed for US Presidents. He is currently a music teacher in Coventry. Benita Rose, piano has performed on 3 continents as soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician. Last October she gave a solo recital and masterclass in Utica, New York, and will be giving a solo recital in New York City on February 15, 2016. Benita is also a church and concert organist, currently serving Bethany Lutheran Church in West Hartford. A sought after pedagogue, Benita&#39;s students have won numerous high caliber piano competitions under her tutelage.Lean-Cheng Tan, piano, was born in Penang, Malaysia. She began her piano studies at age eleven with the Royal School Of Music of England. She was a music school teacher before she moved to the United States. In 2006-2008 she served as the Co-President of the Hartford Chapter, Connecticut State Music Teacher Association. She volunteered for the Position of Recording Secretary of the Connecticut State Music Teacher Association in 2000-2005. Lean-Cheng has taught piano for 25 years and has accompanied school choirs and the Chinese community choir. She sings in the Musical Club&rsquo;s Vocal Ensemble and she is also an active performer in an 8 hands piano ensemble for the Musical Club. Lean-Cheng lives in Rocky Hill with her husband and the youngest of her 3 sons.Mo Tian, piano, has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University and currently studies with Irma Vallecillo at the University of Connecticut in the Doctoral of Music Arts program in piano performance where he was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. He is also piano faculty, and teaches a studio of pianists of all levels, at the Community School of the Arts. Prior to his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Mo studied at the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in solo piano and chamber music, both of which he finds equally exciting and challenging. Mo is an active member of the Music Club of Hartford, which has generously supported him through scholarships for his higher music education.</div>

Music by Members - Jan 28, 2016

On February 4, 2016, from 10:15-11:15 a.m., the Musical Club will hold its Mid-Year Meeting and Reception, on the theme, &quot;Musical Club in 2020 and Beyond&quot;. The meeting will be held at Westminster&nbsp; Presbyterian Church in the Fireside Room. Plan to come at 10:00 a.m. to socialize with fellow members over a cup of coffee/tea and a plate of fruit and pastries, and then to participate in an Open Forum with members of the Executive Board and Committee Chairs. We will address your thoughts, ideas, questions, and suggestions for the Club in the years ahead. No business reports this time! - just some lively discussion.Please sign up by Feb. 1 for this meeting so we can plan ahead for refreshments. There will be a signup sheet at the Jan. 14 and Jan. 28 Member Programs, or you can email or call Anita Wilson (anita.wilson[at]snet.net or 860-667-2641) or Michelle Duffy (miduffy[at]comcast.net or 860-233-8486) to have your name added to the list.President Linda MacGougan would like to have your questions/suggestions for discussion ahead of time. Please send to macgougans[at]gmail.com or hand them to her at one of our January programs.

Mid-Year Meeting and Reception: The Musical Club in 2020 and Beyond

On February 18, 2016, the Musical Club of Hartford will present an unusual program in its Musical Exploration series. The November 12, 2015 Exploration looked at the 125-year history of the Club itself. February&#39;s Exploration will look ahead to the musical life of Hartford in coming generations.Much has been written and discussed about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Sistema" target="_blank">El Sistéma</a>, the revolutionary approach to music education developed by José Antonio Abreu and actually implemented by the government of Venezuela. We will view one or more film clips showing how &quot;the system&quot; has worked in Venezuela.Several experts will be on hand to talk about their own experience with &quot;the system&quot; right here in Connecticut. Speakers include:<ul><li><a href="http://www.waterburysymphony.org/bravo/C_Jones_BIO.pdf" target="_blank">Calida Jones</a>, Hartt graduate, former violin teacher in Hartford, and currently Program Director of <a href="http://www.waterburysymphony.org/bravo/" target="_blank">Bravo Waterbury!</a>.</li><li><a href="http://www.trinityhartford.org/About_Us/Clergy_and_Staff/Precentor/" target="_blank">Bert Landman</a>, Precentor at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford and Music Director of <a href="http://choirschoolofhartford.org/" target="_blank">The Choir School of Hartford</a>.</li><li><a href="http://susanmazermusic.com/wp/" target="_blank">Susan Mazer</a>, Professional guitarist and Director of the Hartford All-City Youth Orchestra, based at the <a href="http://www.charteroakcenter.org/" target="_blank">Charter Oak Cultural Center</a>.</li><li><a href="http://www.polyphonic.org/author/ann-drinan/" target="_blank">Ann Drinan</a>, long-time member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Executive Director of CONCORA, Editor of <a href="http://www.polyphonic.org/" target="_blank">Polyphonic.org</a>, and a blogger on topics including music education.</li></ul>Panelists will discuss the pros and cons of El Sistéma and its applicability locally. Expect to be entertained, informed, and challenged!Note that this event will take place, not in the Sanctuary, but in Fellowship Hall.

El Sistéma and Hartford - Feb 18, 2016

The Musical Club of Hartford continues the celebration of its 125th anniversary year on March 3, 2016, at 10:00 am in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford with a program of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and local composer Connie Hegarty. This concert commemorates a program presented fifty years ago, on April 21, 1966, in celebration of the Club&rsquo;s 75th anniversary.<div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Admission to this event is free to members of the Musical Club and $5 for the general public. The church is wheelchair accessible from the side entrance near Mountain Road.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">The first half of the program in April of 1966 was devoted to piano pieces performed by Karen Wolfe Shaw. She performed works by Haydn, Chopin, Stravinsky, and Scriabin. The program finished with a performance of the Beethoven Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70, no. 2, performed by Isaac Hurwitz, violin, Jane Hurwitz Rabin, cello, and Ruth Hurwitz, piano.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">On the upcoming concert on March 3, 2016, Allison K. Platt and Maryjane Peluso will perform Morceaux for Piano Duet, Op. 11 by Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.&nbsp; Born in 1873, Rachmaninoff entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at age ten and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1891, at eighteen. His Morceaux for Piano Duet were first published in Moscow in 1894.&nbsp; Ms. Platt and Ms. Peluso will play three movements of the six: the Scherzo, the Russian Theme, and the Waltz.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Following that, three pieces originally written for the musical clock, a mechanically operated miniature organ, which was the most popular mechanical musical instrument of the Rococo, will be performed by Bridget de Moura Castro on the organ.&nbsp; Joseph Haydn wrote these pieces for a friend of his, a musician who wanted his musical clock to play nothing but music from the Viennese master.&nbsp;&nbsp; Ms. de Moura Castro will play three sections of&nbsp; &lsquo;The Musical Clock&rsquo; transcribed for organ.&nbsp; They are Hoboken XIX:1 in F Major, Hoboken XIX:2 in F Major, and Hoboken XVII:10 in G Major.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Soprano Laura Cook will sing five songs composed by member Connie Hegarty, who will accompany Laura at the piano.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Ms. Hegarty set James Agee&#39;s poem, &quot;Lullaby&quot;, when she was a graduate student.&nbsp;Agee, who died in 1955, is mostly known for his autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family, for which he won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">Ms. Cook and Ms. Hegarty will also perform four settings of poems by Elizabeth Garber - Living in the Quiet House of Winter, What the Poet Doesn&#39;t Write to Him, Morning Light and An Invitation. </div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Ms. Hegarty has returned to composing upon encountering the poetry of Elizabeth Garber, who has published several collections of poetry reflecting her sensitivity to the changes in nature, life and love with a simple clarity that makes the listener feel they are experiencing the emotion or have lived it before. &nbsp;Ms. Garber begins one set with an epigraph from W. S. Merwin: &quot;One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there&#39;s still time.&quot; &nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">As Ms. Hegarty says, &ldquo;I set these poems to music because they suggest a color, a feeling, a response to what is evoked. &nbsp;The poet says the songs enhance her words. &nbsp;I say the words find their song.&rdquo;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Susan DeWolf, pianist, will perform Robert Schumann&rsquo;s Variations on the Name &lsquo;Abegg&rsquo;, Op. 1.&nbsp; Schumann was born in the Kingdom of Saxony in 1810 and was fascinated by both literature and poetry as a child, showing compositional talent very early in his life. Written as a musical puzzle on the letters of the last name of a young woman he had met in 1829, while he was studying law in Heidelberg, the composer was twenty years old when he published this piece.&nbsp; The piece includes the theme, three variations, a cantabile movement and a fantasia for the finale.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Born in 1797, in Austria, Franz Schubert&rsquo;s vocal ability had drawn the attention of the musical community, and of Antonio Salieri, the eminent Viennese musician who recognized Schubert&rsquo;s genius and took him on as a composition student. </div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Musical Club members Lisa Kugelman, violin, and Stacy Cahoon, piano, will perform two movements from Franz Schubert&rsquo;s Sonata No. 4 in A Major, D574, also known as the Grand Duo. Schubert had become a prolific composer of music for symphony orchestra and his famous lieder when he published this sonata for violin and piano in 1817. </div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Membership in this marvelous non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information please call 860-561- 1588.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">Please visit the website to see the concert schedule for the year. It is also possible to download a membership application at www.musical-club-of- hartford.org.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Information on the performers</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">Stacy Cahoon holds a piano performance degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music in Accompanying. She is an active accompanist in the area working with singers and instrumentalists. In addition, she is the accompanist for the Travelers Chorale and the CitySingers of Hartford.&nbsp; As a composer, she has had vocal compositions premiered at Bushnell Hall, and the Women Composers Festival of Hartford.&nbsp; Ms. Cahoon is an independent piano teacher in West Hartford teaching students of all ages.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Laura Cook began singing at an early age but started formal training with Frank Baker at Bennington College and went on to earn a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Yale University under the guidance of Phyllis Curtin and Joan Heller.&nbsp; Laura has always been drawn to the performance of new music and has premiered works by Neely Bruce, Sylvia Goldstein, Amy Snyder, Henry Brant, Sarah Meneely-Kyder and many other composers.&nbsp; She is delighted to be presenting Connie Hegarty&#39;s songs on today&#39;s program.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">Susan DeWolf received her BM from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Joseph Schwartz and her MM at the University of Illinois as a student of Malcolm Bilson.&nbsp; She recently retired from teaching piano and theory after teaching at the Detroit Institute of Musical Art, Cornell University and many years of working with private studio students.&nbsp; She is a <a name="_GoBack" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>past president of Hartford Chapter, CSMTA</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal">Constance Hegarty began work as Music Director/Organist at age 15, a position she held at many churches in MA, RI and ME for over 45 years.&nbsp; Connie did her graduate study in organ with Alessandro Esposito in Florence, Italy, on full scholarship.&nbsp; She studied piano with Donald Rankin&nbsp;at University of Rhode Island and taught piano and organ privately.&nbsp; In the last 15 years, she has performed numerous duo-piano concerts in Florida and Maine.&nbsp; She recently&nbsp;moved to Windsor Locks.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Lisa Kugelman, violinist, originally from West Hartford, studied with Bernard Lurie, Roman Totenberg, and Syoko Aki, and performs regularly with the Hartford Symphony, the Worthington Trio, and the Arensky Trio. Lisa has been a professional free-lance violinist in the Hartford area for the past 25 years.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Pianist Bridget de Moura Castro holds degrees from Reading University, in England, and from Texas Christian University where she studied with Lili Kraus.&nbsp; A British Council Scholarship recipient, she did graduate studies at Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, Hungary.&nbsp;&nbsp; Ms. de Moura Castro specializes in organ, piano, and chamber music and has recorded fifteen albums.&nbsp; Of those, seven are with her husband, pianist Luiz de Moura Castro.&nbsp; The recordings also include one of Baroque music for flute and piano, two of French music for flute and piano, and one of Mozart concertos and sonatas for flute and organ. Two of them are solo organ recordings and one is a recording of solo fortepiano. Ms. de Moura Castro has performed and taught in Spain, Czechoslovakia and Brazil.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">Maryjane Peluso , NCTM, has music degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the Crane School of Music, SUNY at Potsdam, and the Hartt School, University of Hartford. She is a committed piano teacher and performs locally as piano soloist, in chamber music, and as choral accompanist. Maryjane is delighted to perform these beautiful Rachmaninoff pieces with Allison for the Musical Club.</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged4-MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13pt;">Allison K. Platt has a Bachelor&rsquo;s of Music in piano from the Hartt School, where she studied with Luiz de Moura Castro. It&#39;s been many years since Allison has performed at Musical Club and she is excited to do so with her dear friend, Maryjane Peluso. Allison has taught piano, been an organist/choir director, and been involved with musical theatre as a director and pit orchestra member. While her family has taken much of her attention these days, she is thankful to be a part of today&#39;s program.</div>

Music by Members - Mar 3, 2016

Storrs Scholarship Winners in Recital March 17, 2016 at Westminster Presbyterian in West Hartford&nbsp;On Thursday March 17, 2016 at 10:00 am, The Musical Club of Hartford will proudly present nine of the spectacular pianists who received the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarships this year in a recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT. The accomplished young pianists who have been selected to perform on the recital are Sun-A Park, Henry Kramer, Hakyong Park, Mo Tian, Liana Panayeva, Anchie Donn and Augustin Muriago. The impressive performances each of them has already given and the prestigious international prizes they have won are listed on the Musical Club of Hartford Facebook page.&nbsp; Each of them is currently pursuing an advanced degree at music at schools such as The Hartt School of Music, Yale University, the University of Connecticut and New York University. In 1990, Evelyn Bonar Storrs made a bequest to the Musical Club to establish a piano scholarship. Each year selected Storrs Scholarship recipients present a recital for members of the Musical Club and the general public. Open to members of the Musical Club and to the general public, admission to this remarkable event is free.&nbsp; The church is wheelchair accessible from the entrance near Mountain Road.The Musical Club of Hartford is a non-profit all-volunteer organization. Membership is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. The club celebrates its 125th anniversary year this year and is welcoming new members. Admission is free.For more information please call 860-561-1588.&nbsp;The Evelyn Bonar Storrs Piano Scholarship Fund The intentions of Evelyn Bonar Storrs were stated in her will. &ldquo;I have tried to express my appreciation for the enjoyment and pleasure in having been a member of the Musical Club of Hartford...With this in mind, I have established the Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for talented and advanced students of piano...&rdquo; This past year the Storrs Committee, which administers the Storrs Scholarship Fund, granted cash awards to the winners of the Musical Club High School Competition for Piano. Additionally, the Committee awarded individual scholarships to fourteen advanced college-level pianists attending area colleges, and gave organization scholarships to Hartford Chapter, CSMTA, for the Audrey Thayer Competition; The Hartt School; The Hartt Community Division; and the University of Connecticut.About the performersTaiwanese-American pianist Anchie Donn has performed in major cities across Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. As a member of The Heron Trio, she has been featured on National Public Radio. Ms. Donn is the recipient of The Mary Primrose Fuller Fund. She is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance at The Hartt School, where she is also a teaching fellow. Past degrees include a Master of Music from Boston University and a Bachelor of Music with highest honors from University of Michigan. Ms. Donn also serves on the faculties of The Hartt School Community Division and Quinnipiac University. Henry Kramer, a Maine native, holds both a Master&rsquo;s and a Bachelor&rsquo;s degree from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he received the Charles S. Miller Prize for the most outstanding first-year pianist. He currently pursues doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music, and was recently appointed as the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College. Mr. Kramer has earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, the 2011 Montreal International Music Competition,&nbsp;and the 6th China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner in the 8th National Chopin Competition in Miami and received the 2014 Harvard Musical Association Arthur Foote Award. He is a winner of Astral&rsquo;s 2014 National Auditions and of the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School.In the 2015-2016 season, Mr. Kramer is featured at Portland Piano International (Oregon), The Cliburn Foundation, Symphony in C,&nbsp;and the Portland (Maine) International Chamber Music Festival.&nbsp;He recently appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier, and has also appeared with the Shanghai Philharmonic,&nbsp;the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montreal, and the Yale Philharmonia. In recent seasons, he performed Rachmaninov&rsquo;s Concerto No. 2 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Toshi Shimada, as well as Beethoven&rsquo;s Chorale Fantasy with Robert Moody and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. In the spring of 2012, Mr. Kramer made his European debut in a solo recital at Amsterdam&rsquo;s Concertgebouw. Agustin Muriago is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in piano performance at The Hartt School in Connecticut, where he is the recipient of a music talent scholarship, studying under the guidance of Luiz de Moura Castro. In 2013 he graduated from New York University with a Master of Music degree in piano performance as a student of Dr. José Ramón Méndez. Mr. Muriago has also served as adjunct piano faculty at New York University. Agustin Muriago holds degrees from Rowan University in New Jersey (Bachelor of Music in Piano performance, summa cum laude), the &ldquo;Manuel de Falla&rdquo; Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires (Piano Pedagogy and Performance degree), and from the Catholic University of Argentina (Bachelor of Music in Composition)Sun-A Park,&nbsp;born in Pusan, South Korea, began studying piano at the age of four with her mother and later studied with Seymour Bernstein of the New York University in New York.&nbsp;Currently she is studying at the Musik Hochschule in Hanover under the guidance of Professor Bernd Goetzke. Ms. Park won 4th prize at the 2013 Sendai International Piano Competition in Japan and 5th prize at the 2011 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. She has performed at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and in Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the United States. Liana Paniyeva&nbsp;began her musical studies at the Special Music School in Donetsk, Ukraine. In 2007 she graduated from Donetsk Music Academy, Ukraine. Her international prizes include Third Prize at the International Competition in Memory of E. Gilels, First Prize at the International Competition in Memory of Prokofiev in 2002. In 2014, Liana was awarded The W. A. Cargill Foundation Prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow.Ms. Paniyeva is a winner of the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition, recipient of the Grand Prize at the Metropolitan International Piano Competition, and winner of the AFAF Golden Era of Romantic Music International Competition. &nbsp;Hakyong Park earned a certificate in piano performance from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she studied with David Forbat. She is a graduate of Kaywon School of Arts and Yonsei University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree and worked with Youngho Kim. She holds a Master of Music degree from The Hartt School. For the past three years, she has been the recipient of the E.B. Storrs Scholarship. Hakyong Park now studies with Sasha Gorodnitzki at NYU, where she is also a member of the Adjunct Faculty in Piano Studies.Ms. Park recently performed with the NYU Orchestra at Frederick Loewe Theatre as the Winner of the Steinhardt Concerto Competition. She finished a recital tour of Connecticut as the Second Place Winner of the 2014 Young Artist Piano Competition. She has won prizes in Korean competitions such as the Eum-Youn Piano Competition and the Suri Piano Competition. Hakyong Park performed at the Seoul Arts Center, Korea&rsquo;s preeminent concert venue, as the winner of the Kaywon Concerto Competition. Also a chamber musician, Hakyong Park has worked with violist Rainer Moog, Principal Violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, and cellist Woong Whee Moon of the Novus String Quartet. She is the pianist of the NYU Symphony and Philharmonia and former pianist of the Hartt Orchestra and Symphony Band. Mo Tian has a B.A. from Brown University, an M.M. in piano performance from Indiana University and currently studies with Irma Vallecillo at the University of Connecticut in the Doctoral of Music Arts program in piano performance where he was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship. He is also piano faculty and teaches a studio of pianists of all levels and experiences at the Community School of the Arts. Prior to his undergraduate studies at Brown University, Mr. Tian studied at the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in solo piano and chamber music, both of which he finds equally exciting and challenging.&nbsp; Mo is an active member of the Music Club of Hartford, which has generously supported him through scholarships for his higher music education.

Storrs Scholarship Winners in Recital March 17, 2016

Evelyn Bonar Storrs Scholars Recital

Piano Ensemble Concert on Sunday, March 20 at 3 pm in Millard Auditorium at the Hartt School of MusicThe Musical Club of Hartford will present a concert of music for two pianos at 3:00 pm on Sunday, March 20th, 2016, in Millard Auditorium at The Hartt School of Music on the campus of the University of Hartford.Music by J.S. Bach, Samuel Barber, Reinhold Gliere, Alexander Arensky, Witold Lutoslawski and George Auric will be performed by Elizabeth Carabillo, Juliane Port, Jane Bugbee, Linda Pezzullo, Stacy Cahoon, Diane Day, Colette Switaj,&nbsp;Lean-Cheng Tan.&nbsp;Dorothy Bognar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Connie Hegarty&nbsp;Admission to this event is free. In celebration of the 125th Anniversary Year of the Musical Club of Hartford, the Piano Ensemble program commemorates a concert presented in 1941 during the club&#39;s 50th anniversary year by pianists Josef and Rosina Lhevinne.&nbsp; For that concert, held January 21, 1941 at the Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall, a second grand piano, a Baldwin, was provided by Gallup and Alfred of Hartford. For this performance, the Hartt School generously invites the Musical Club of Hartford to use Millard Auditorium and will provide two nine-foot concert grand pianos, one of which has been partially funded through donations from the Musical Club of Hartford.Jane Bugbee and Linda Pezzullo will perform a two-piano arrangement of J.S. Bach&rsquo;s Concerto in C minor for Two Harpsichords. The concerto begins with a majestic Allegro, continues with a lyrical Adagio and concludes with a dance-like Allegro. Originally thought to have been composed for two solo instruments, (probably violin and oboe) accompanied by strings and continuo, the Concerto in C minor was transcribed by Bach himself for two keyboard instruments and published in 1730.&nbsp; It may have been performed in the early 1730&rsquo;s by his sons, C.P.E. Bach and W. F. Bach, who were still living at home at the time. Variations on a Theme by Paganini, composed by Witold Lutoslawski, will be performed by Stacy Cahoon and Diane Day, who will also perform Vocalise, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and arranged for two pianos by Victor Babin.&nbsp;Witold Lutoslawski was born in Warsaw in 1913. He studied violin before turning to composition as a student in the Warsaw Conservatory, where he earned his diploma in 1937.&nbsp; Within a couple of years he had begun doing signal work for the military, but still managed to complete his Symphonic Variations. &nbsp;In 1941, the year that both Germany and Russia invaded Poland, Lutoslawski had begun composing a piece based on Paganini&rsquo;s 24th Caprice for solo violin, using the violin melody as the bass line for each of the variations. &nbsp;Life in Warsaw became increasingly difficult during the German occupation. Along with his duet partner, Andrezj Panufnik, Lutoslawski continued to play in cafés in Warsaw although musicians were not allowed to perform music by Polish composers. Lutosławski was mobilised with the radio unit for the Kraków Army. He was soon captured by German soldiers, but he escaped while being marched to prison camp, and walked 250 miles (400&nbsp;km) back to Warsaw. Most of his compositions were left behind when he and his mother fled the city in 1944. His Variations on a Theme by Paganini was the only piece that survived.&nbsp; (courtesy of Wikipedia) Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14,&nbsp;by Rachmaninoff, was written in 1915, for&nbsp;a&nbsp;high voice, either soprano or tenor, with no text for the singer.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is sung using any vowel&nbsp;that the singer wishes to use and also in the key that fits the range of the singer. &nbsp;&nbsp;It was dedicated to soprano&nbsp;Antonina Nezhdanova.&nbsp; Babin and his wife were good friends with Rachmaninoff and played and recorded much of Rachmaninoff&#39;s music. In addition, Musical Club member Elizabeth Carabillo and her niece, Julianne Port,&nbsp;will perform Six Pieces, Op. 41 by Reinhold Gliere. Reinhold Gliere was born in Kiev and lived in Moscow.&nbsp; He was taught by Tanayev, Ippolitov-Ivanov, and Arensky, among others, and in turn taught many other Russian musicians.&nbsp; He was strongly influenced by Russian nationalism, and received many awards in Russia, writing operas, symphonies, ballets, chamber music, and vocal works. Dorothy Bognar and Connie Hegarty will perform Souvenirs, Op. 28 by Samuel Barber, arranged for two pianos by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale. Barber composed &quot;Souvenirs&quot; in 1951 as a Ballet Suite for piano duet. The six pieces in the suite are lighthearted dances which depict cherished reminiscences which Barber associated with New York City around 1914 and have been characterized as being humorous, delightful, passionate and splashy. Colette Switaj and Lean-Cheng Tan will perform a Waltz and a Fugue on a Russian Theme from Alexander Arensky&rsquo;s Six Children&rsquo;s Pieces, Op. 34, followed by Five Bagatelles For Piano Four Hands by George Auric. Alexander Arensky was born in in Novgorod, Russia in 1861. He studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg conservatory before taking a position at the Moscow Conservatory, where he taught Scriabin and&nbsp;Rachmaninoff. &nbsp;A spiritual heir of Tchaikovsky, and a friend of Glazunov, Arensky has been called a&nbsp; &ldquo;watercolorist in his music with an 18th century refinement.&rdquo; Georges Auric, a French composer born in 1899, received a diploma from the Paris Conservatoire, where he was influenced by the music of Satie and the philosophy of Cocteau, with whom he collaborated on eleven films before taking the position of Director of the Paris Opera in 1962.&nbsp; A champion of avant-garde music, Auric followed Cocteau&#39;s manifesto of hostility toward Wagnerism&nbsp;and Impressionism. He cultivated a witty sharp-edged style opposed to all Romanticism. Later in his life he wrote music in more popular styles, drawing on the idioms of the music hall and jazz.&nbsp;More on the Performers Dorothy Bognar holds music degrees from the University of California (Santa Barbara and Berkeley) and an MLS from UC Berkeley. Since retiring from UConn as Head of the Music Library in 1997 she has been teaching piano, playing keyboard in the swing band Flamingo, and performing both solo and ensemble music. She belongs to the Music Teachers National Association, the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association and the Musical Club of Hartford. &nbsp;She lives in Tolland. Jane Bugbee is a graduate of Ithaca College, and a former school teacher, accompanist and choir director. She lives in Old Lyme teaching piano in her studio and enjoying making music with her partner, Linda. Stacy Cahoon holds performance degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music in Accompanying. She is an active accompanist in the area working with singers and instrumentalists. In addition, she is the accompanist for the Travelers Chorale and the CitySingers of Hartford.&nbsp; As a composer, she has had vocal compositions premiered at Bushnell Hall, and the Women Composers Festival of Hartford.&nbsp; She is an independent piano teacher in West Hartford teaching students of all ages. Elizabeth Carabillo was the director of the Whitechapel Handbell Choir at First Church of Christ in West Hartford Center for 17 years, currently rings in that very same choir, and accompanies the Connecticut Women&#39;s Chorale.&nbsp; She&nbsp;lives in West Hartford. Diane &nbsp;Day, a native of Simsbury, started studying piano at age 7. &nbsp;She graduated from the 4-year program at the Hartford Conservatory with an artist&rsquo;s diploma in Piano and a minor in Theory &amp; Composition. &nbsp;Having taught piano privately for over 40 years, she also performed chamber music, accompanied soloists and groups, including dance, and has performed many solo concerts over her career. &nbsp;She studied with Juan Nazarian, Maria Luisa Faini, and Howard Parsons. &nbsp;She lives in West Hartford with her husband. Constance Hegarty began work as Music Director/Organist at age 15, a position she held at many churches in MA, RI and ME for over 45 years. Connie did her graduate study in organ with Alessandro Esposito in Florence, Italy, on full scholarship.&nbsp; She studied piano with Donald Rankin&nbsp;at URI and taught piano and organ privately.&nbsp; In the last 15 years, she performed numerous duo-piano concerts in FL and ME.&nbsp; She recently&nbsp;moved to Windsor Locks. &nbsp;Lean-Cheng Tan, piano, was born in Penang, Malaysia. She began her piano studies at age eleven with the Royal School Of Music of England. She was a music school teacher before she moved to the United States. In 2006-2008 she served as the Co-President of the Hartford Chapter, Connecticut State Music Teacher Association. She volunteered for the Position of Recording Secretary of the Connecticut State Music Teacher Association in 2000-2005. Lean-Cheng has taught piano for 25 years and has accompanied school choirs and the Chinese community choir. She sings in the Musical Club&rsquo;s Vocal Ensemble and she is also an active performer in an 8 hands piano ensemble for the Musical Club. Lean-Cheng lives in Rocky Hill with her husband and the youngest of her 3 sons. Collette Switaj, a graduate of the Hartt School of Music, is currently teaching piano. Having served as the organist and choir director at Broad Brook Congregational&nbsp;Church for seven years, she is presently the organist at First Church of Christ Scientist in Hartford. &nbsp;She lives in Newington. Linda Pezzullo&nbsp;began formal classical piano studies at age 5.&nbsp; She received a BA and an MM in piano performance and pedagogy, with several years of studies at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.&nbsp; Her primary mentor is Dr. Pawel Checinski, a Fulbright scholar to Julliard and student of Claudio Arrau.&nbsp; Students from her studio have consistently rated highly in festivals and competitions, including winning Connecticut State Awards of Excellence and invitations to perform in Carnegie Hall from performance assessments with the Music Development Program, the American branch of the Canadian Royal Conservatory of Music. In addition to her degree recitals, Linda has performed at Brown University, Connecticut College, Providence College, Jamestown (RI) Community Piano Association, Courthouse Performing Arts Center in Kingston, RI, and Bozeman (MT) Public Library artist series.&nbsp; She has worked as a collaborative artist for University of Rhode Island, Connecticut College, and Rhode Island National Association of Teachers of Singing (RI-NATS).&nbsp; Active in Connecticut State Music Teachers Association (CSMTA), Linda served as interim president of the Middlesex-New London Chapter of MTNA.

Music by Members: Piano Ensemble Day

Musical Club of Hartford Celebrates the Music of Composer Elizabeth R. Austin on April 7 in West HartfordA choral setting of Robert Frost&rsquo;s poem &ldquo;The Road Not Taken&rdquo; will have its premiere performance on Thursday, April 7, 2016, at 10:00 am on a concert dedicated to the compositions of Elizabeth R. Austin. Austin&rsquo;s work has been described as &ldquo;glorious ...a sonorous landscape of individualistic sounds that blend beautifully together&hellip;&rdquo;About the work of setting poetry to music, composer Elizabeth R. Austin has written &hellip; &ldquo;The poetry that I couple to the music is highly charged. I use &lsquo;radical tonality&rsquo; to get to its essence. I work like a sculptor with sound surfaces, chipping away until there is a correspondence, a proportion that resonates.&rdquo;In 1958, French composer Nadia Boulanger granted Elizabeth Austin a scholarship to study at the Conservatoire Americaine in Fontainebleau, France, after hearing Austin&rsquo;s setting of Rilke&rsquo;s poems, Drei Rilke Lieder, one of the pieces to be presented on this concert by soprano Miriam Kennedy. The concert will be held in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT, as part of the 125th anniversary celebration of the Musical Club of Hartford. This concert is in memory of Viola Vanderbeek, a distinguished member of Musical Club for eighty-two years, who worked alongside many other members of the Club to find ways to contribute to the musical life of Hartford. She helped establish the Fund for Gifts and Scholarships for young artists. Viola Vanderbeek lived over 100 years.&nbsp; In 1961, she shared her memories of the beginnings of the club with historian Priscilla Rose during the Musical Club&rsquo;s&nbsp; 70th Anniversary Year. They were published in a book called &ldquo;In Pursuit of Music.&rdquo; Admission to the concert is $5 for the general public. It is free for students and members. The church is wheelchair accessible from the entrance near Mountain Road. For more information call 860-561-1588.About the MusicA composer known for her ability to draw inspiration from both the natural world and the musical and literary traditions of the past, Austin has described her music as based in pantonality, and mentions her recent exploration of geometric forms found in the natural world as a basis for her&nbsp; adventures in musical form.About the ProgramThe April 7, 2016 concert will begin with the premiere performance of Elizabeth R. Austin&rsquo;s setting of Robert Frost&rsquo;s poem &ldquo;The Road Not Taken&rdquo;&nbsp;performed by The Road Travelers Ensemble.&nbsp; Directed by Mattie Banzhaf, the Ensemble consists of singers Mark Child, Martha Child, John Church, Helen Douglas, Lydia McClain, Jane Penfield, Joe Scott, Tema Silk, and Howard Sprout. Stacy Cahoon will be their accompanist. For this concert Deborah Robin, recorder player, will play Austin&rsquo;s Sonata for Solo Recorder, written in 1991.&nbsp; The three movements are titled&nbsp; &ldquo;&hellip;a caged bird&rdquo;, &ldquo;Alma Redemptoris Mater&rdquo; and &ldquo; &hellip; a singing bird.&rdquo;Soprano Miriam Kennedy, accompanied by the composer, will perform Austin&rsquo;s settings of poems by e.e. cummings and Christina Rossetti in a piece entitled A Birthday Bouquet. Ms. Kennedy will also sing two song cycles written by Austin in 1958: Three Rilke Lieder, settings of poems by Rainier Maria Rilke, and The Heart&rsquo;s Journey, a setting of a poem by Siegfried Sassoon.&nbsp; Four poems by Johannes Bobrowski, a German poet who had been imprisoned by the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1949, were set by Austin in 1995 as her Lithuanian Lieder. On this program, baritone Christopher Grundy will perform the four sections of that piece: The Jura, The Lithuanian Well, The Horses and From the East, accompanied by the composer.Elizabeth Austin will join pianist Carolyn Woodard to conclude the program with selections from Austin&rsquo;s A Child&rsquo;s Garden of Music.About the ComposerElizabeth R. Austin was born in Baltimore in 1938. She received her early musical training at The Peabody Conservatory.&nbsp; Austin has taught composition and theory in Hartford, Connecticut. Her association with The Hartt School (University of Hartford), where she earned an M.M., included the establishment of a faculty/student exchange with the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Heidelberg-Mannheim. &nbsp;During her Ph.D. studies (University of Connecticut), she won First Prize in the Lipscomb Electronic Music Competition (Nashville).&nbsp;&nbsp; Other awards have included a Connecticut Commission on the Arts grant, First Prize in the IAWM&rsquo;s 1998 Miriam Gideon Competition, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, and an American Music Center grant. Performed in Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa, as well as in The United States and the Caribbean, Elizabeth Austin&rsquo;s music has been received with distinction and has been broadcast worldwide, especially featured on Germany&rsquo;s Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. GEDOK Mannheim (Germany) has sponsored many portrait concerts of her music.&nbsp; A composer known for her ability to draw inspiration from both the natural world and the musical and literary traditions of the past, Austin has described her music as based in pantonality, and mentions her recent exploration of geometric forms found in the natural world as a basis for her adventures in musical form.She serves as organist/choir director at St. Paul&rsquo;s Episcopal Church, Windham Center. &nbsp;About the Performers&ldquo;The Road Travelers Ensemble&rdquo;Mattie Banzhaf, director, is currently music director at South Congregational Church, Granby, and directs the Madrigal Sightsingers, or Madsingers, in West Hartford.&nbsp; She accompanies Suzuki string classes at Hartt and lives in Tariffville. Stacy Cahoon is an independent piano teacher in West Hartford, accompanist for the Travelers Chorale, Citysingers of Hartford, and active in the Hartford area&nbsp;as a freelance accompanist. Lydia McClain, soprano, is on the voice faculty at The Ethel Walker School and lives in Simsbury, CT, where she maintains a private studio and performs locally. Jane Penfield, soprano, of Coventry&nbsp;has worked professionally as a choral director and nonprofit executive, in addition to being a visual artist.&nbsp; Tema Kaiser Silk, soprano, lives in West Hartford.&nbsp; She is a member of the news department at New England Public Radio.&nbsp; Martha Child, alto, of Windsor, works as a piano teacher and a music&nbsp;therapist, in addition to being a member of the Hartford Chorale and the choir at Grace Episcopal Church. &nbsp; Helen Douglas, alto, is a piano teacher in West Hartford and enjoys singing with CitySingers of Hartford. Mark Child, tenor, a resident of Windsor, is the Director of Music Ministries at Grace Episcopal Church in Windsor, and sings with CONCORA. John Church, tenor, of West Hartford, works as an investment analyst, and currently sings with St. John&#39;s Episcopal Church, the Trinity Episcopal Compline Schola, and MadSingers. Joe Scott, bass, lives in South Windsor, and sings with the Vernon Chorale, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, and the choir of Immanuel Congregational Church, Hartford. Howard Sprout, bass, of Bloomfield, is a voice consultant and baritone soloist, currently serving on the CONCORA Board of Directors. Deborah Robin&nbsp;has been a recorder player for 50 years.&nbsp; As a teen, she was regularly featured as a recorder soloist with Alison Fowle, Glenn Giuttari and others in the Providence Recorder Society&#39;s performance ensemble under the direction&nbsp;of Ilse Schaler.&nbsp; Ms. Robin recorded and performed with the period orchestra Aston Magna under the direction of Albert Fuller in the late 1970&rsquo;s and performed with viola da gamba player Grace Feldman in the 1980&rsquo;s. In the 1990&rsquo;s, Ms. Robin performed regularly with the Center for Old Music in the New World, in Lexington, KY.&nbsp; Ms. Robin studied recorder with Ilse Schaler, Bernard Krainis, and Frans Brueggen.&nbsp;&nbsp;She received a BA in Art from Yale and an MBA from UCLA and is currently working as a market research consultant.Christopher Grundy, baritone soloist for this program, is a passionate advocate of song and chamber music. Christopher has given frequent recitals across the United States of repertoire spanning seven centuries. He is currently collaborating with composer and pianist Neely Bruce in a series of recitals of the songs of Neely Bruce, and will premiere &quot;The North Ship,&quot; Bruce&#39;s new work for baritone, flute and string quartet. Christopher has a particular interest in music of the 20th Century, and champions the vocal works of Ferruccio Busoni, Alban Berg, Othmar Schoeck and Georgii Sviridov. Christopher holds an M.M. from Indiana University, where he studied with Wolfgang Brendel, and a B.A. from Yale University, where he was the Assistant Conductor of the Yale Russian Chorus and the Yale Glee Club. Before attending graduate school, Christopher was a professional helicopter pilot and flight instructor. He has experience in Sikorsky, Eurocopter, Bell and Robinson helicopters. A member of The Musical Club of Hartford for more than forty years, soprano Miriam Kennedy sings annually on member programs and has performed as soloist with the Club&rsquo;s Chamber Orchestra.&nbsp; She has also served as the president of the Club. Ms. Kennedy has appeared as soloist with the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra, as well as in a Travelers Choral Club concert in the Bushnell&rsquo;s Mortenson Hall.&nbsp; A 38-year member&nbsp;of CONCORA, now retired, she sang numerous concerts and cabarets as both chorister and soloist. Ms. Kennedy also sang in the Connecticut Opera Chorus and served as soloist and section leader for choirs at The Universalist Church of West Hartford and South Church, New Britain, where she continues to sing as a member of the Chancel Choir. Carolyn Woodard, pianist, received a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music.&nbsp; She studied with William Harms, Edward Steuermann, and Raymond Hanson.Ms. Woodard was a founding member of The Camerata Ensemble and has also performed with the Connecticut String Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony and the New World Ensemble. &nbsp;She has given solo piano recitals in Pennsylvania and throughout New England. A well-known piano teacher in the area, Ms. Woodard has taught for both the Hartford Camerata Conservatory and the Hartt School of Music Community Division.&nbsp;

Music of Composer Elizabeth R. Austin - Apr 7, 2016

<div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Concert by Adriano Falcioni, organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano,10 am on April 14, 2016 at St. John&rsquo;s Episcopal Church in West Hartford, CT. &nbsp; <img src="/files/Falcioni_Vacatello.png"/>organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano, in the sanctuary of St. John&rsquo;s Episcopal Church at 679 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06119.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">The Musical Club of Hartford has been inviting internationally lauded artists to present recitals in Hartford since very early in its history. For this program, the remarkable Italian keyboardists Adriano Falcioni and Mariangela Vacatello will be performing solo organ and piano works by J.S. Bach, Alberto Ginastera, and Max Reger as well as a duo organ and piano transcription of Bach&rsquo;s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">The program will open with a transcription for organ by Ulisse Matthey of Johann Sebastian Bach&rsquo;s Chaconne in D minor for solo violin and will conclude with a transcription for organ and piano by Eugenio Maria Fagiani of Bach&rsquo;s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; J.S. Bach, born in Germany in 1685, came from a family of musicians and was himself an organist and composer.&nbsp; He was a master of the contrapuntal style of Baroque music and wrote many pieces for the organ solo and for the organ with choir.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Sometimes J.S. Bach re-composed the pieces he had written for one instrument to be played on another, so these two transcriptions of two of his most beloved compositions fall squarely in the tradition he established when he was alive.&nbsp; We look forward to hearing Falcioni and Vacatello transform the organ and piano in these transcriptions into first a solo violin and then an entire orchestra with a harpsichord soloist.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Several piano pieces by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera will also be on the program.&nbsp; His Milonga, Op. 3, Sonata No. 1 for piano, Op. 22 and his Danzas Argentinas, Op. 2. </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires in 1916.&nbsp; He studied music in the Conservatory in Buenos Aires, and later came to the USA to study with Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Festival.&nbsp; Upon his return to Argentina, Ginastera founded the League of Composers and taught composition to Astor Piazzola.&nbsp; Ginastera incorporated the folk music of his native land into his own compositions, even when his style of composition became more abstract. </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">The second half of the program will open with Max Reger&rsquo;s Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ, Op. 46.&nbsp; Johann Baptiste Joseph Maximilian Reger was born in Bavaria in 1873.&nbsp; He studied in Munich and Weisbaden with Hugo Reimann, taking a position teaching at the Conservatory in Leipzig in 1907.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Max Reger was fascinated with counterpoint in general and with fugal composition in particular. In 1900, Reger composed the Fantasie and Fugue,&nbsp; Op. 46 as a tribute to J.S. Bach. In response to a question posed to him in 1905, Reger said, &ldquo;To me Sebastian Bach is the be-all and end-all of music; true progress lies and resides with him alone.&rdquo; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">The cryptogram B-A-C-H stands for the notes Bb &ndash; A &ndash; C &ndash;B natural and was a frequent source of musical inspiration for composers who admired the work of the German Baroque musical genius. Bach himself used the four-note figure in his fugal compositions, as did Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Rimsky-Korsakov. With this piece Reger added his voice to that tradition as well, only fifteen years before his untimely death in 1915.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><h2 class="defanged2-MsoNormal">About the Musicians</h2><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Born in Naples, Italy, Mariangela Vacatello made her official debut at the age of fourteen, performing Liszt&#39;s First Piano Concerto with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in Milan. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist in the most prestigious venues and festivals worldwide, including the Teatro alla Scala, Parco della Musica Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome, Berlin Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall in London, Salle Cortot, Societè Chopin at Bagattelles in Paris, Festival Radio France in Montpellier, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Bargemusic in NY, Lisinsky Hall in Zagreb, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Festival in Bergamo and Brescia, Societa dei Concerti in Milan, MiTo Settembre Musica, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal" style="">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Ms. Vacatello is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, recognized for her passion, technical ability and magnificent musicality. She was a finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009 and winner of its Audience Favorite Award. Ms. Vacatello was also First Prize Winner of the Top of the World International Piano Competition in 2009, and Second Prize winner at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 2005. Ms. Vacatello recorded the Transcendental Etudes by Liszt and the Etudes by Debussy for the international label Brilliant Classics and in 2016 she has published the Complete Piano Works by A. Ginastera. Mariangela Vacatello is also Piano Professor at G. Briccialdi Conservatory in Terni, Italy. </div>This concert marks her fifth appearance in the Hartford area, having performed for the Hartford Piano Society in 2010, the Musical Club of Harford in 2011, the South Windsor Cultural Arts in 2012 and the Hartford Symphony in 2014.&nbsp; This past year, Mariangela released a new 2-CD set of Alberto Ginastera&rsquo;s Complete Piano Music on the Brilliante label and that recently, it was reviewed very favorably in Gramophone magazine, the world&rsquo;s leading magazine in reviewing classical music recordings.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/ginastera-complete-piano-music" target="_blank">Read the review.</a> Mariangela will be playing a few selections from this CD at the concert and she, will of course, have copies of this CD available for purchase at the concert.Mariangela will also be performing a solo piano recital in South Windsor at Wood Memorial Library, 783 Main St., on Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 2 p.m. &nbsp;Arrive early for best seating; seating is limited! &nbsp;<div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Italian organist Adriano Falcioni performs and directs sacred music all over Europe.&nbsp; After studying with W. Van de Pol&nbsp; and receiving a diploma in organ, pianoforte and harpsichord at the Conservatory of Perugia, he completed his organ studies in Freiburg Musikhochschule in&nbsp; Germany, with Klemens Schnorr, He then studied in London with Nicolas Kynaston and in Paris with famed organist, Marie Claire Alain. </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Mr. Falcioni has performed at the Duomo of Milan, at Westminster Cathedral in London, at Leeds Cathedral, Sala Tohnalle of Zurich in Switzerland, the Festival of Early Music in Brussels, Belgium, the Göteborg Festival in Sweden at St. Giles Cathedral Festival in Edinburgh and at cathedrals across Europe and the USA.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Mr. Falcioni has served the artistic director of the Festival Organistico Internazionale &ldquo;Laurentiano.&rdquo; His collaboration on François Couperin&rsquo;s Messe Messe pour les Couvents de Religieux et Religieuses with the ensemble Armonosio Incanto, a group specializing in the medieval music of Tuscany and Umbria, was presented at the Festival in 2015.&nbsp; Since 2004, a series of concerts he has given in Germany have encompassed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach.&nbsp; He has recently toured with major orchestras in Russia, concluding with a concert at the Cathedral in Moscow and in 2016 is performing on a series of concerts honoring the music of Max Reger at the Cathedrals of Magonza, Bremen and Regensburg.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">A docent in organ at the Conservatory of Sassari, Italy, Mr. Falcioni is a professor at the University of Praetoria, UNISA, in South Africa. He holds the position of Organist of the Cattedrale metropolitana di San Lorenzo in Perugia, Italy.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">His recordings include the complete Organ Music of Nicholas Bruhns, the Complete Organ Music of César Frank, and the work of Max Reger.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">The Musical Club of Hartford welcomes Mr. Falcioni back to the Hartford area with great anticipation.&nbsp;&nbsp; He last performed for the Musical Club in 2012.</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal"> The Musical Club of Hartford concerts are open to the public. &nbsp;Admission to this event is free to members of the Musical Club and $10 for the general public. The church is wheelchair accessible.&nbsp; </div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">&nbsp;</div><div class="defanged2-MsoNormal">Membership in this non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information please call 860-561-1588.&nbsp; Look under Events to see the program schedule for the year. &nbsp;It is also possible to download a <a href="http://musichartford.drupalgardens.com/content/membership" target="_self">membership application</a>.</div>

Adriano Falcioni, organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano, Apr 14, 2016

The Musical Club of Hartford continues its 125th anniversary season on Thursday, April 28, 2016, at 10:00 a.m., with a concert of music by Edward A. MacDowell, <div>Held in the sanctuary of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, at 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT, admission to the Musical Club concerts is $5 for the general public and free to members of the club. The church is wheelchair accessible from the side entrance nearest to Mountain Road.On our April 28th program, we will honor Edward Alexander MacDowell, the very first guest recitalist to be presented by the Musical Club of Hartford.Edward A. MacDowell appeared at Unity Hall on Pratt Street in Hartford on March 11th, 1898, about seven years after the girls in the studio of Mrs. Frances Johnson began to meet to perform for each other as a way to &ldquo;study and perform the best music.&rdquo; The Musical Club had chosen an Executive Committee and a Constitution and By-Laws had been instituted just a year before the invitation was extended to the very popular American composer MacDowell, who had recently moved back to the States from Germany to a beautiful property in the hills of New Hampshire.Born in New York City in 1860, MacDowell studied piano with Juan Buitrago, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia">Colombian</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin">violinist</a> who was living with the MacDowell family at the time. He also received music lessons from friends of Buitrago, including the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubans">Cuban</a> pianist Pablo Desverine and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela">Venezuelan</a> pianist and composer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Carreño">Teresa Carreño</a>. In 1877, he was admitted to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_conservatory">Paris conservatory</a> after receiving a competitive scholarship for international students.After a period in which he lived and studied in Germany, MacDowell returned to Boston, becoming well known as a pianist and composer of piano pieces in short forms. He was a professor of music at Columbia University from 1896-1903.Best known for his second <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_concerto">piano concerto</a> and his piano suites Woodland Sketches, Sea Pieces and New England Idylls, his name endures today with the famous MacDowell Colony, founded when he and his wife Marian MacDowell deeded their family farm, Hillcrest Farm, in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to the newly established Edward MacDowell Association.The March 11, 1898 solo recital by MacDowell featured&nbsp;works by Mozart, Rameau, Schubert and Grieg, as well as a number of his own compositions.Two of Edward MacDowell&#39;s compositions will be included on the program for April 28, 2016. Annette Shapiro, piano, will play the Largo con maestà&nbsp;movement from his Sonata Tragica, Op. 45, the first of his four piano sonatas. Composed in 1893, it reflects upon the loss of his teacher, Joachim Raff.Marc Levesque, mandolin, and Judy Handler, guitar, will perform an arrangement of MacDowell&rsquo;s beloved piece, To a Wild Rose from his Woodland Sketches.Handler and Levesque will perform a medley comprised of their arrangements of three Greek pieces with the mandolin imitating the bouzouki, Misirlou, Kritikos Syrtos and Xiotiz.Francisco Tárrega&rsquo;s well-known solo guitar piece, Recuerdos de la Alhambra uses the tremolo technique on the guitar to imitate the sound of water flowing in fountains at the Moorish Palace in Granada. Tárrega was born in 1852 in Spain and grew up hearing flamenco music. He studied music at the Madrid conservatory, and went on to teach many of the famous guitarists of the day, and to transcribed works by Beethoven and Chopin for solo guitar.Yutuma is a piece for mandolin and guitar written by American mandolinist/composer Chris Acquavella. It is inspired partly by Bulgarian folk dances.In addition, Annette Shapiro will play the first movement of Paul Ben-Haim&rsquo;s Sonatina for Piano.&nbsp;&nbsp;Paul Ben-Haim, born Frankenburger, in Munich in 1897, was a noted composer of the &ldquo;Eastern &ndash;Mediterranean School&rdquo; in Israel. The Sonatina was completed in 1946. The first movement, marked Allegretto Grazioso, is dance-like and pastoral with alternating&nbsp;moments of peaceful reflection and exuberance.Also on the program, Carolyn Woodard, piano, and Fran Bard cello, will perform the Sonata in D minor, Op. 40 by Dimitri Shostakovitch.&nbsp;Cellist Fran Bard has played with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for many years. She also performs with the Hop River Chamber Players in Andover, CT. Ms. Bard taught Elementary Strings in the Windsor Public Schools for most of her teaching career and finished in the Glastonbury Public Schools. Originally from Chicago, she received her Bachelors of Music from the Chicago Musical College and her Masters of Music and Music Educators Certification from the University of Connecticut. Her cello training was under the tutelage of Channing Robbins, Aldo Parisot, Raya Garbousova, Karl Fruh and Mary Lou Rylands.Judy Handler received a Master of Music in guitar performance from the Hartt School of Music, a Bachelor of Music from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, a Diploma of Merit from Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, a Certificate from Curs Internacional de Música at the Vila-Seca i Salou Conservatory in Spain and a Diploma from the Aspen Music School. She has performed and given workshops and classes throughout the United States. Judy also performs on period instruments in the Rosewood Chamber Ensemble with flutist Barbara Hopkins, teaches at a private studio in Vernon, CT and runs monthly performance classes. Judy is founder of the Connecticut Guitar Society.Mark Levesque has performed on guitar (classical, jazz archtop, 12 string, electric &amp; gypsy), mandolin, and cuatro in numerous ensembles throughout New England most recently with the CitySingers of Hartford. He has played and arranged world, jazz, Latin and blues music and has worked with synthesizer orchestration and studio recording. Mark&rsquo;s passion for guitar and mandolin music has led him to research music from all over the world and his creative ideas have been the stimulus for many of the arrangements performed by the group. He currently teaches mandolin and guitar at a private studio in Vernon, CT. Mark has taken courses at Central Connecticut State University and the Hartt School of Music as well as private instruction with guitarists in a variety of genres.Annette Shapiro, pianist, received her Master of Music from the University of Connecticut, where she studied with Joseph Villa and Neal Larrabee. Ms. Shapiro has been a member of Hop River Chamber Music since 1981, and continues to freelance as an accompanist and in chamber music performances at UConn and throughout the eastern Connecticut and Hartford areas. She has taught piano as a lecturer at UConn, for its Community School of the Arts and for the Hartford Conservatory of Music and Dance.Carolyn Woodard, pianist, received a Bachelor of Music Degree from The Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music. She studied with William Harms, Edward Steuermann, and Raymond Hanson .Carolyn was a founding member of the Camerata Ensemble and has also performed with the Connecticut String Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony and the New World Ensemble. She has given solo piano recitals in Pennsylvania and throughout New England. A well known piano teacher in the area, she was on the faculty of the Hartford Camerata Conservatory and the Hartt School, Community Division.&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div>

Music by Members - Apr 28, 2016

<div>Musical Club finishes off the 125th anniversary celebration at the Club&rsquo;s Annual Luncheon. Following a short business meeting, we&rsquo;ll hear a musical entertainment by Dr. Neely Bruce. The title of his presentation is &ldquo;Musical Club in the 19th Century.&rdquo; Dr. Bruce is Professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University and is a composer, conductor, pianist and scholar of American music. He is the chorus director for Connecticut Opera, and, with his wife Phyllis, co-director of music at South Congregational Church in Middletown, Connecticut.Please join us! You&rsquo;ll find out what we&rsquo;ve accomplished this year, hear details about next year, elect Executive Board officers, greet your friends, enjoy Dr. Bruce&rsquo;s entertainment, and toast our wonderful 125th Anniversary Year!Musical Club members will soon receive an invitation to this special luncheon in a separate mailing. A menu and detailed program, including the slate of officers to be voted on at the business meeting, are included on a separate page with this Bulletin. Your can make your reservation at the April 7 or 28 program meetings, or by mail to co-Treasurer Michelle Duffy.</div>

Annual Meeting and Luncheon - May 5, 2016

Most (but not all) Musical Club of Hartford events take place at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT (between Ridgewood and Mountain Roads). Location information is given at the bottom of each event description.​<a target="_blank" href="http://musicalclubhartford.org/files/performance_index_2022.pdf" alt="Current Performance Index" class="on">Current Performance Index</a>​

Musical Club of Hartford

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