Calendar of Events

The Wadsworth is pleased to host the season finale performance of the Arazzo Music Festival, a new initiative building community through musical performances here in Connecticut. Join Connecticut cellist and festival director Samuel DeCaprio as he performs an evening of string music in Morgan Great Hall with musicians from across the region. The program centers around Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s String Sextet in D minor “Souvenir de Florence”, Op. 70 (1890). Free with required registration. 

Catalan painter Francisco Ribalta vividly captured religious images at the turn of the seventeenth century, positioning himself as one of the major figures of the early Baroque. Paintings conservator Allen Kosanovich examines an in-process treatment of Ribalta’s The Ecstasy of Saint Francis: The Vision of the Musical Angel (c. 1620–1625), discussing how these efforts address the results of four hundred years of aging and numerous restoration attempts. Free with museum admission. Meet in front of the Museum Shop.

5pm gallery viewing, 6pm conversation

Artist Matt Paweski and curator Jared Quinton discuss the new suite of tabletop and wall-mounted works made for the artist’s MATRIX exhibition. Join us in the galleries before the program for a first look at the exhibition. Free with required registration.   

1pm gallery talk with Philippe Halbert
2pm concert

Members of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra present an afternoon of chamber music inspired by cities around the world. Kenji Bunch’s dynamic 26.2 is based on the first time the composer and his wife ran the New York City marathon. Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 2 is a rich and enchanting work that reflects on his time in Vienna. Prior to the concert, join Philippe Halbert, interim curator
of American decorative arts, for a gallery talk highlighting Hartford’s storied Charter Oak. $30; $25 for HSO subscribers and Wadsworth members; $10 for students with ID (limited availability). For tickets and information, visit hartfordsymphony.org or call (860) 987-5900. Click here to register for the gallery talk.

The Sunday Serenades Chamber Music Series is made possible in part by The Saunders Foundation Music Endowment at the Wadsworth Atheneum; Nancy D. Grover in honor of Leonid Sigal, concertmaster, Hartford Symphony Orchestra; and Suzanne Hopgood in memory of Frank Lord.

Image: Charles De Wolf Brownell, The Charter Oak (detail), 1857. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Josephine Marshall Dodge and Marshall Jewell Dodge, in memory of Marshall Jewell, 1898.10

Natural Information Society’s hypnotic sound celebrates rhythm and collective listening through its approach to structured improvisation. Hailed by The New York Times as “patient, layered music that’s always heading somewhere, sometimes spare and sometimes complex and shimmering,” Natural Information Society fuses elements of minimalism and jazz with sounds from across the globe. Led by Joshua Abrams—composer, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of The Roots—the ensemble incorporates free-hanging paintings by artist and band member Lisa Alvarado (MATRIX 192) into its performances, setting the stage for a multisensory journey through the ensemble’s colorful world. $15; $10 members, Wadsworth Welcome, and students with ID. Museum admission not included.

Joshua Abrams – guimbri, Lisa Alvarado – harmonium, Mikel Avery – drums & cymbals, Jason Stein – bass clarinet 

Presented in conjunction with the Lisa Alvarado / MATRIX 192 exhibition and generously supported by the Wadsworth’s Contemporary Coalition. Additional support for the performance is provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund at the Wadsworth Atheneum.  

Image: Photo by Mikel Patrick Avery, Courtesy of Natural Information Society and Front Porch Productions