Program Guide April 2025

From the General Manager

As I write this in late March, we are in the middle of our Spring Drive which will run through Sunday, April 6th. The amount of support we have received is proof that Public Alternative Radio, WWUH, is still an important part of people's lives and that we are still providing a unique service to the listening area. 

If you have already pledged, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

If you are in a position to pledge and haven't had a chance to do so, please consider making a donation to help keep this amazing community radio station on the air. You can donate in one of three ways:

1. Call 860 768-4008 during the drive.
2. Pledge securely online anytime at wwuh.org
3. Mail a check made out to WWUH to us at 200 Bloomfield Ave, W. Hartford, CT 06117

Both one-time and on-going/monthly pledge options are available. Premiums, available on request, include the WWUH cap, a new, black T-shirt and the WWUH Dickies-style jacket.

John Ramsey

ramsey@hartford.edu

In Central CT and Western MA, WWUH can be heard

at 91.3 on the FM dial. 

Our programs are also carried on:

WDJW, 89.7, Somers, CT



You can also Listen Online using your PC, tablet or

smart device.

We also recommend that you download the free app TuneIn to your mobile device for ease of listening. 

You can also access on demand any WWUH program which has aired in the last two weeks using our newly improved Program Archive.

Freedom Jazz Dancing: WWUH’s Commitment to Jazz

Continues to Grow

 By Chuck Obuchowski

WWUH Jazz Director

When I first discovered 91.3 on my FM dial during my early teens, I had no aspirations of ever becoming a broadcaster. In fact, although jazz music had begun to intrigue me, I had very little knowledge of its history nor even of the young artists who were beginning to employ elements of the rock music I listened to day and night.

Yet, many of the rock groups I’d heard on the right side of that beloved FM dial were themselves big jazz fans: Traffic, King Crimson, Chicago, Santana – even The Doors – to name but a few. And little did I know that a number of the announcers on Hartford’s WHCN (105.9), one of my favorite stations back then, had gotten their start in radio on WWUH while attending The University of Hartford.

As my tastes expanded, and my curiosity grew, I began listening to WWUH evening jazz programs to lessen the drudgery of doing homework. The days of live broadcasts of Paul Brown’s Monday Night Jazz Series were still to come, but I was one of many who fell under the spell of announcer Mort Fega, a transplanted New Yorker, whose hip on-air banter seemed to have been lifted straight out of a Jack Kerouac novel.

Fast-forward to the present. Those old jazz hipsters are long gone. Kids like me who used to listen to Public Alternative Radio on transistor radios are now grey-bearded and balding. But the music has evolved, its scope has continued to expand, and WWUH is still committed to its mission of sharing scintillating sounds with listeners far and wide (thanks to the ability to stream our signal around the globe since 1996).

We are pleased to announce that WWUH is now offering “round about” 37 hours of jazz programming per week. The exact number varies slightly every week, because two shows are not exclusively devoted to jazz.

Our longtime Monday – Friday schedule remains in place, with jazz from 9:00 a.m. – noon. Tuesday – Friday, 9:00 p.m. – midnight jazz programming has been expanded, with Maurice Robertson continuing Wednesday’s Accent on Creative Music until around 4:00 a.m. every Thursday! Joseph Celli’s My Other Music concludes Thursdays; Fridays are now ushered in at midnight by Ken Laster’s hour-long In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond. Many will remember Ken as our Friday a.m. host until he and his wife moved to the west coast upon retiring. He now hosts the show from his home studio in San Diego.

Our newest entry, Saturday Morning Jazz, is hosted by Kingsley Dougherty, aka KD. Tune him in from 6:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. to kick off your weekend. Spend nostalgic Saturday evenings with Bob Lazar’s Swing and Other Things from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Last but not least, Fran Karas presents Hartt of Darkness from midnight – 3:00 a.m., following three hours of blues on Blue Monday, soon to feature new host Larry Willey. Fran curates an eclectic program that almost always includes jazz, along with everything from rock to Indian classical music.

Longtime WWUH listeners are undoubtedly looking forward to our live broadcasts of the 58^th Annual Monday Night Bushnell Park Jazz Series, now produced by The Hartford Jazz Society. The series gets underway on July 7 at 6:00 p.m., and we’ll bring you every note of music from the series through its mid-August conclusion. Stay tuned to Public Alternative Radio to learn about the complete line-up as soon as we receive that information. We always encourage listeners to experience the concerts in person whenever possible, but we are pleased to make the music available to whomever is unable to attend.



WWUH Classical Programming

April 2025

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Sundays 1:00 – 4:30 pm

Evening Classics… Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 8:00 pm

Drake’s Village Brass Band… Tuesdays 7:00-8:00 pm

Tuesday 1st

Host's Choice

Wednesday 2d

Host's Choice

Thursday 3d

Vivaldi: Cello Concerto in A Minor, RV 418; Milhaud: Scaramouche; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in c, K. 491; Pergolesi: Flaminio: Sinfonia; Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1; Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60; Verdi: La Forza del Destino Overture; Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810 "Death & the Maiden"; Liszt: Transcendental Etudes: Harmonies du soir; Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G, BWV 1048; Boccherini: String Quintet in C, Op. 30 No. 6, G. 324 "La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid”.

Friday 4th

CDs I’ve never gotten around to play

Sunday 6th

Poulenc, Dialogues of the Carmelites 

Monday 7th

Host's Choice

Tuesday 8th

Host's Choice

Wednesday 9th

Giovanni Paisiello: Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville): Overture; Giovanni Paisiello: Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), Act I: Giusto ciel, che conoscete; Franz Krommer: Clarinet Concerto in E-Flat Major, Op. 36; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, "Haffner"; Daniel Francois Esprit Auber: La muette de Portici, S. 16: Overture; Daniel Francois Esprit Auber: La muette de Portici, S. 16, Act IV: Air et Cavatine: Spectacle affreux;  Sir Edward Elgar: Elgar: 5 Intermezzos for Wind Quintet;  Florence Price: Fantasie No. 1 in G Minor for Violin and Piano; Florence Price: Fantasie No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor;  Camille Saint-Saens: Tarentelle, Op. 6; Giovanni Pacini: Allan Cameron, Act 3 (Scena): "O d'un re martire, alma beata"; Alan Opie (baritone), Annick Massis (soprano); Antonio Pasculli: Le api (arr. for oboe and piano);   Hedwige Chretien: Petits Poemes au bord de l'eau;  Adolphus Hailstork: Piano Quintet, "Detroit": IV. Prayer - In Memoriam Brazeal Dennard;  Reynaldo Hahn: Sonatina in C Major: III. Finale - Vivo Assai; Franz Schubert: Overture in C Major, D. 591, "im italienischen Stile" (In the Italian Style); Wilhelm Fitzenhagen: Cello Concerto No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 2; Anton Rubinstein: Feramors: Ballet Music; Theodore Gouvy: Symphony No. 3 in C Major, Op. 20;

Thursday 10th

Fabricius: Deliciae harmonicae; Corrette: Sonata VI in D Major; Giroust: Messe de sacre de Louis XVI - Kyrie; Franchomme: Nocturnes for 2 Cellos; d'Albert: Cello Concerto in C Major Op. 20. New additions to the WWUH Library.

Friday 11th

Music to celebrate Passover and the end of tax season

Sunday 13th

Palm Sunday, Massenet, Herodiade

Monday 14th

Host's Choice

Tuesday 15th

Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast; Copland: 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson, Three Choruses; Sibelius: Humoresques, Serenades, Scèneshistoriques

Drake’s Village Brass Band United States Marine Band play Bryant, Holst, Walton and Thomas

Wednesday 16th

Host's Choice

Thursday 17th

Heinichen: Horn Concerto in F Major, Oboe Concerto in g minor, S. 237; Krause: Trio Sonata in d minor; Naumann: Amphion Overture; Tomasek: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major Op. 18; Mounsey: Erlkönig; Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in c sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight'; Burleigh: Nature's Voices; Saeverud: Peer Gynt, Op. 28 Suite No. 1; Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites 1, 2; Burkhard: Serenade Op. 71 No. 3; Hailstork: Celebration.

Friday 18th

Ferde Grofe vacations all around the USA 38. New additions to the WWUH Library.

Sunday 20th

Easter Isaac, Missa Paschalis, Orthodox Easter, Rachmaninoff, Vespers

Monday 21st

Host's Choice

Tuesday 22d

Earth Day Special – Lloyd: Fourth Symphony “Arctic”;

Runestad/Boss: Earth Symphony; Paul Winter Consort/Giono: The Man Who Planted Trees

Drake’s Village Brass Band – Clarke: Earthrise; Lovatt-Copper: Within Blue Empires; Hazell: Brass Cats

Wednesday 23d

Host's Choice

Thursday 24th

Lechler: Alma Redemptoris Mater; Boxberg: Sardanapalus – Orchestral excerpts; Martini: Music for Trumpet and Organ; Kirnberger: Cello Sonata in C Major; Hellmesberger: Duo for 2 Violins No. 3 in e minor; Thomas: Angel Tears and Earth Prayers. New additions to the WWUH Library.

Friday 25th

Music of women composers to celebrate “International Women’s Wellness Day”

Sunday 27th

Lortzing, Der Waffenschmied, Fanny Hensel, Lieder 

Monday 28th

Host's Choice

Tuesday 29th

Tuesday Night at the Movies – Constant: Twilight Zone, 24 Preludes for Orchestra; Herrmann: Walking Distance; Daniel Hope, Violin – Escape to Paradise The Hollywood Album; Skinner: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Drake’s Village Brass Band Constant: Concerto Gli Elements for Trombone, Choruses and Interludes for Horn and Orchestra, Addison: Trumpet Concerto

Wednesday 29th

Host's Choice

______________________________________________________________

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

your "lyric theater" program

with Keith Brown



Programming for April 2025

SUNDAY APRIL 6TH Poulenc, Dialogues of the Carmelites It's the fifth and final Sunday in Lent, that forty day penitential period leading up to Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter in the traditional Christian calendar. Throughout this period the opera houses in old Catholic Europe (and in Protestant lands, too) customarily closed down and sacred oratorio was substituted for opera. Over these Lenten Sundays I customarily feature devotional choral music in the Judeo-Christian tradition, but I will include certain operas on Biblical subjects. On this last Sunday in Lent 2025 (often referred to as Passion Sunday), I offer up again after a gap of fully four decades a very Catholic musico-religious drama: Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites (1957). The subject here is devotion and martyrdom. The typical romantic passions of opera play no part whatsoever. Poulenc adapted a play by George Bernanos about a convent of Carmelite nuns who are sacrificed to the guillotine at the command of a French revolutionary tribunal. I had previously scheduled this opera for broadcast on the first Sunday in Lent of this year in a 1958 mono recording made immediately following the opera's staged premiere. The Angel LP issue of the world premiere recording I featured on the last Sunday in Lent, March 24, 1985. There is an EMI Classics CD reissue of that recording, but now I turn instead to a 1992 Virgin Classics CD release. Recorded at the Maurice Ravel Auditorium in co-production with Radio France, Kent Nagano conducts the Chorus and Orchestra of Opera de Lyon. In the singing cast as the Prioress is the Belgian mezzo Rita Gorr, who sang the part of Mother Marie in the old mono EMI taping.

SUNDAY APRIL 13TH Massenet, Herodiade This opera, which premiered in Brussels in 1881 with great success, is Jules Massenet's angle on the story of Salome, and while his source material is the same (Gustave Flaubert's 1877 novel), Massenet's musical treatment is completely different from the better-known Salome opera of Richard Strauss. Massenet's Herodiade went on to triumph in Paris in 1884 and elsewhere, but it fell out of the repertoire in the 1920's, then disappeared until the general revival of the Massenet operas in the 1970's. San Francisco Opera revived Herodiade in 1994. Valery Gergiev led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with a cast of opera luminaries of the period. Soprano Renee Fleming tops the bill as the seductive princess Salome. John the Baptist is superstar tenor Placido Domingo. The live-in-performance recording of the SF Opera production came back into circulation in 2013 courtesy of the Newton Classics label of the UK. That was the CD release I featured on Sunday, June 22, 2014. I have recently acquired the original 1995 Sony Classical CD issue of Herodiade, which I present for a second time today. 

SUNDAY APRIL 20TH Catholic Easter, Isaac, Missa Paschalis, Orthodox Easter, Rachmaninoff, Vespers It does indeed happen this year, but it's unusual for Western Roman Catholic Easter and Orthodox Easter to fall upon the same Sunday, this having to do with the Eastern rite's adherence to an ancient unreformed liturgical calendar. So my programming for this Paschal Sunday, 2025 honors both sides of Christendom, beginning with the Western half and a setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for Easter I last broadcast on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005 (a particularly early date for the holiday that year). The Missa Paschalis that you will hear is Heinrich Isaac's polyphonic setting of the Latin liturgical text for six voices. Heinrich Isaac (c1450-1517) is one of the greatest of the many musicmasters of the fifteenth century who came from the Low Countries, now known as Belgium and The Netherlands. He wrote music for the Church but was not an ordained churchman. Isaac travelled widely throughout Western Europe, attaching himself to princely courts and the Papacy in Rome. He had an international reputation. It seems the Papal Council of Constance commissioned Isaac to compose complete polyphonic choral settings of the Mass and all the plainchants for all the Sundays and all the holy days of the Catholic liturgical year. The Choralis Contantinus was a gigantic project that Isaac did not live long enough to complete. From the hundreds of choral pieces in Isaac's printed collections and manuscripts it is possible to put together a plenary Mass for Easter Sunday. That's precisely what German choral director and musicologist Wilfried Rombach did in preparing his recording of Isaac's Missa Paschalis. Rombach leads the a capella voices of the Ensemble Officium. A Christophorus compact disc release from 2004.

   The All-Night Vigil or "Vespers" (Op. 37, 1915) of Sergei Rachmaninoff has come to be regarded as the greatest music for the Russian Orthodox Church ever written. It was intended for performance by an a capella choir, usually of mixed men's and women's voices, with no instrumental accompaniment. (That means no pipe organ!). The actual Orthodox vigil service does indeed last throughout the night on Holy Saturday leading up to the dawning of Easter Sunday, What is usually recorded or performed of this music in concert hall situations is a small portion of the entire liturgy. The Rachmaninoff Vespers have been fairly frequently recorded and I have featured one or another recording of this choral masterpiece at Eastertide. There's a new one that came out in 2023 under the German Pentatone label, as sung by the Clarion Choir, conducted by Steven Fox. This is a professional American vocal ensemble making use of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City. On their recording certain multivoice movements are preceded by the ancient monodic Kiev and Znameny chants, as pronounced in the Old Church Slavonic tongue.

SUNDAY APRIL 27TH Lortzing, Der Waffenschmied, Fanny Hensel, The Early Songs  Like his older contemporary Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), Albert Lortzing (1801-51) was from Berlin and pursued a career in opera. Both Meyerbeer and Lortzing suffered neglect and obscurity after their glory days in the earlier Romantic era had passed. Lprtzing's fairy opera Undine (1845) was once enormously popular, and even more so his satirical comedy Der Wildschutz ("The Poacher," 1848). Recordings of both operas I have featured on this program long ago, Undine on Sunday, June 8, 1986 and Wildschutz on two occasions, Sunday, January 18, 1987 and August 2, 1998. Now you get to hear Lortzing's romantic comedy Der Waffenschmied ("The Armorer of Worms," 1846), also a great crowdpleaser immediately upon its premiere in Vienna, with subsequent productions all over Europe and in New York, too. Lortzing's "Armorer" was revived where it was first performed, at the famous Theater an der Wien, in a 150th anniversary staging. It was recorded live in performance in 2021, with Leo Hussain leading the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony and Arnold Schoenberg Choir, with a cast of seven vocal soloists. A 2023 release on compact disc through the Austrian Capriccio record label. Der Waffenschmied is a German language Singspiel with passages of spoken dialog that Capriccio has omitted. As a consequence the shorter duration in airplay leaves time for the songs of yet another contemporary of Lortzing, Felix Mendelssohn's gifted sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-47). Keep listening for Forgotten Spring: The Early Lieder of Fanny Hensel. Baritone Harry Bechtel is accompanied by Chuck Dillard at the piano. A 2024 Acis CD release.        

keithsbrown1948@gmail.com

Boomer's Paradise

Monday's 1-4 PM with your host, The Turtle Man

The showers give way to flowers so is the promise of the month of April. And so is the promise of music to bring a smile to your face here on Boomers Paradise with your host, The Turtle Man.

As tradition dictates we kick off the month with a listen to what was new, album wise 50 years ago (April 1975). This should bring back fond memories for those of you around at the time. Since this is the early beginnings of warmer weather we also present songs around "The Birth of Surf".

Next we revisit the realm of power ballads and songs whose title deal with speaking and talking.

From there it's a step back to a key period in the rock era, 1964-1966 where the airwaves were bursting with all kinds of new sounds. We also feature songs whose titles deal with time.

Finally we'll end the month with songs whose titles deal with air movement of various degrees of intensity and some more from the bottomless well of the digital jukebox. 

So musical path has been charted and to reach this musical destination all you need to do is tune in to WWUH 91.3 fm or wwuh.org every Monday from 1-4 PM and join me, your host The Turtle Man.

Tune in on the radio (91.3 FM) or streaming online at wwuh.org.

If you have an idea for a radio program and are available to volunteer late at night, please let us know.

We may have some midnight and/or 3am slots available later this year. Email station manager John Ramsey to find out more about this unique and exciting opportunity for the right person.

Qualified candidates will have access to the full WWUH programmer orientation program so no experience is necessary. He/she will also need to attend the monthly WWUH staff meetings (held on Tuesday or Sunday evenings) and do behind the scenes volunteer work from time to time. This is a volunteer position.



After completing this process, we will review the candidate's assets and accomplishments and they will be considered for any open slots in our schedule.

Leaving Your Legacy

Have you ever considered making a planned gift to UHart Radio? Those that do so provide vital support to ensure the future of WWUH while securing benefits for themselves and their loved ones now.

Some of the types of planned giving include:

Bequests - A gift made through your estate, which can provide estate tax and capital gains savings.

Charitable gift annuities - An irrevocable contract where an annual payment is received for life in exchange for a gift to the station. 

Charitable remainder trusts - A gift that allows you to maintain income while providing a tax deduction for the future IRAs or qualified plans. A charitable bequest funded with an IRA or retirement plan can be made with pre-tax dollars. 

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) - A DAF can be used to give now or later, or both, and can include a succession plan for members of your family. 

With a variety of options to choose from, your gift can offer the advantages of an income stream or tax savings. UHart has a team that is here to guide you through your options and can help tailor a plan to your interests and philanthropic goals. You can contact then today at founders@hartford.edu or by calling 860.768.2400.

CT Blues Society

Founded in 1993, the Connecticut Blues Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Blues music in our state. CTBS is an affiliated member of The Blues Foundation, a worldwide network of 185 affiliates with an international membership in 12 countries.

The CT Blues Society January Update

The Fall/Winter series of CTBS Blues Jams continues this month with The CTBS All-Stars as the house band. The series runs through April 2025 on the first Sunday of the month at 1 PM at The Pine Loft, 1468 Berlin Turnpike in Berlin CT. Schedule of featured artists:

Here is a link to CT Blues Society with events and venues.

The mission of the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra is to provide opportunities for advanced musicians and emerging professionals to perform a high level of repertoire while engaging and collaborating with diverse communities in mutual growth through the joy

of making music.

Coming Up

Past Prologues

The Connecticut Symphony Orchestra presents a glimpse at culture’s memory on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 3 p.m. at Congregation Beth Israel, 701 Farmington Ave. West Hartford, CT. The program includes Bal Masque by Amy Beach, Roman Carnival Overture by Hector Berlioz, Simple Symphony by Benjamin Britten and concludes with Brahms’ moving Symphony No. 4. Each marks a moment of transition in the course of the development of orchestral literature.

Please join the musicians for a reception following the concert.

https://connecticutsymphony.org

The Musical Club of Hartford

The Musical Club of Hartford is a non-profit organization founded in 1891. Membership is open to performers or to those who simply enjoy classical music, providing a network for musicians from the Greater Hartford area. Club events take place normally on selected Thursday mornings at 10:00 a.m, Fall through Spring. The usual location is the sanctuary at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT (between Ridgewood and Mountain Avenues). Information on time and location is given at the bottom of each event description.

Coming Up



Thursday, April 10, 2025 10:00 am

Westminster Presbyterian Church

2080 Boulevard, West Hartford. CT

Members of the Musical Club of Hartford will present a concert of pieces from the Baroque period by Giovanni Platti and Couperin, performed on instruments of that period; a flute, bassoon and piano trio by Donizetti; and vocal ensemble music of the Renaissance and the 20th century. It will include the following works.

Sonata Opus III No. 6 in G Major for Flute and Basso Continuo by Italian composer and court musician Giovanni Platti, with Leo Snow, Baroque flute, Laura Mazza-Dixon, viola da gamba, and Anne Mayo, harpsichord

Les Nations: Espagne by François Couperin, a suite of dance movements with a concluding Passacaglia performed by Deborah Robin, recorders, Leo Snow, baroque flute, Laura Mazza-Dixon, viola da gamba, Anne Mayo, harpsichord.

Trio for Flute, Bassoon and Piano by Gaetano Donizetti. Donizetti, a composer known for his choral and chamber music in addition to his operas, was born in Italy and worked in Paris. Performed by Cynthia Lang, flute, Fred Fenn, bassoon, and guest artist Sarah Schiener-Redenz, piano.

Singing together for over twenty years, Greenwoods Consort is an a cappella madrigal group of musicians who love vocal harmony and the music of the Renaissance. Claudia Buick, soprano, Anne Fenn, alto, Payton Turpin, tenor, Ken Andresen, bass will sing pieces by Thomas Morley, John Wilbye, contemporary composers Billy Joel and English guitarist and songwriter John Renbourn.

For more information about the Musical Club, including a full schedule of concerts and special events, please visit https://musicalclubhartford.org

Connecticut Lyric Opera

Connecticut Lyric Opera is the state’s leading opera company, performing to thousands in Hartford, Middletown, New Britain, and New London. We have earned the reputation as an innovative company that is renowned for our world-class singers, phenomenal concert-quality orchestra and programming choices that go beyond the well-loved standards of the repertoire to include lesser-performed yet equally compelling works.

Coming Up

Presents Love, Loss, Exile

Connecticut Lyric Opera presents Love, Loss, Exile on Friday April 4, 2025, at Harkness Chapel, Connecticut College, New London at 7:30pm.

This program brings together acclaimed artists Anastasia Rege (soprano), Samuel DeCaprio (cello), and Min Young Kang (piano) to explore themes of love, longing, and displacement through a captivating selection of works:

🎶 Maurice Ravel – Five Greek Popular Songs (French folk melodies filled with joy and nostalgia)

🎶 André Previn & Toni Morrison – Four Songs (a powerful fusion of poetry and music)

🎶 Béla Bartók – Roumanian Folk Dances (vibrant and rhythmically dynamic pieces)

🎶 Juhi Bansal – Love, Loss, Exile (Afghan women’s poetry set to hauntingly beautiful music)

🎶 Richard Strauss – Morgen! (a delicate and hopeful vision of tomorrow)

Friday, April 4th at 7:30pm

Harkness Chapel at Connecticut College

New London, CT

https://ctlyricopera.org/

Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra

The Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra is the state’s premier professional chamber orchestra dedicated to presenting both traditional and contemporary classical chamber works to the public. The Orchestra, led by Founder and Artistic Director Adrian Sylveen, continues to grow in size and repertoire, presenting approximately 35 times a year in many major performing arts centers throughout Connecticut and New York.

Coming Up

Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto

Thursday, May 1 @ 7:30 pm

Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi – Concert Version

First Presbyterian Church in Hartford 136 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT

A Concert Version of the opera by Giuseppe Verdi.

Saturday, May 3 @ 7:30 pm

Garde Arts Center 325 State St., New London, CT

A Full Production the opera by Giuseppe Verdi.

The Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo. The opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. The work, Verdi’s sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi’s middle-to-late career. The tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda. The opera’s original title, La Maledizion (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by the Count Monterone, whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto’s encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father.

http://thevirtuosi.org/

The Hartford Choral

The Hartford Choralehttp://www.hartfordchorale.org/The Hartford Chorale is a volunteer not-for-profit organization that presents, on a symphonic scale, masterpieces of great choral art throughout southern New England and beyond, serving as the primary symphonic chorus for the Greater Hartford community. Through its concerts and collaborations with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and other organizations, the Hartford Chorale engages the widest possible audiences with exceptional performances of a broad range of choral literature, providing talented singers with the opportunity to study and perform at a professional level.

hartfordchorale.org

Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale

Tickets can be purchased at the door. For further information, visit the MSOC Web site at www.msoc.org or the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale Facebook page.

http://www.msoc.org

Beth El Temple Music & Art

/

WHERE ELSE COULD MUSIC BE THIS HEAVENLY? Music at Beth El Temple in West Hartford is under the direction of The Beth El Music & Arts Committee (BEMA). With the leadership of Cantor Joseph Ness, it educates and entertains the community through music. The BEMA committee helps conceive and produce musical performances of all genres, while supporting the commemoration of Jewish celebrations and prayer services.

https://www.bethelwesthartford.org/community/get-involved/bema

Voce

Founded in 2006 by Mark Singleton, Artistic Director, and Tom Cooke, President, Voce has grown to become New England’s premier chamber choral ensemble. With a mission to Serve Harmony, Voce is best known for its unique sound; for bringing new works to a wide range of audiences; and for collaborating with middle school, high school and collegiate ensembles to instill the values of living and singing in harmony, further developing the next generation of choral artist

https://www.voceinc.org/

Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra

Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra is one of Connecticut’s premier community orchestras dedicated to promoting musical excellence. We believe that classical music provides a magical experience that inspires, delights, and brings our community together.

Founded in 1981, the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra performs 6-7 concerts each season with a variety of classical, romantic and popular holiday favorites. The orchestra serves Farmington, Canton, Avon, Simsbury, Burlington, Bloomfield, West Hartford & Hartford, as well as Greater Hartford and the Connecticut River Valley. We are your local, civic orchestra and look forward to seeing you at one of our concerts!

Coming Up

FVSO at the Movies II

Sunday, May 4, 2025, 3:00 pm

Hoffman Auditorium, Bruyette Athenaeum

University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, CT

CARWITHEN: Bishop Rock Overture (US Premiere)

CARWITHEN: Suffolk Suite (US Premiere)

MOZART: Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165 (Katherine Reardon, soprano)

TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Further information is available at FVSO.org or by calling 800-975-FVSO.

www.fvso.org

West Hartford Symphony Orchestra (whso.org)

South Windsor Cultural Arts

For information, call (860)-416-6920

https://www.facebook.com/SouthWindsorCulturalArts

The New Britain Symphony Orchestra

The New Britain Symphony Orchestra is a professional orchestra which presents several concerts each season in the Greater New Britain area, performing works from all periods in a wide range of musical styles. In addition to its full orchestra concerts under the direction of Music Director and Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada, including a free concert for children, members of the orchestra perform in various free chamber music concerts during the concert season.

https://newbritainsymphony.org/