Calendar of Events

Jaston Castonguay (piano) performs live music in the galleries. Museum ticket required. No seating will be available and visitors will be required to observe gallery capacity limits. 

Voices of the vibrant musicians in the regional choral group Voices of Concinnity resonate through the museum as they perform in our open-air courtyard. Free with museum admission.

Presented in celebration of the exhibition By Her Hand, this comic opera in four scenes tells the story of two sorceresses and their competition to own the body and soul of the warrior Ruggiero. Written by Italian composer, singer, and poet Francesca Caccini (1587–1640), a contemporary of Artemisia Gentileschi. For information and tickets, visit ctlyricopera.org.

*Opera is preceded at 1pm by a docent-led tour of By Her Hand. The tour is free with admission to either the opera or the museum. Tour attendees will be asked to present their opera or general admission tickets. Space is limited and registration is strongly encouraged.

1pm Gallery talk with curator Oliver Tostmann
2pm Sunday Serenades Concert with Hartford Symphony

This performance by the Hartford Symphony chamber musicians takes inspiration from two artists on view, Artemisia Gentileschi and Alice Neel, who were making art four hundred years apart. Hear musical works by female composers spanning four centuries, including Isabella Leonarda, Fanny Mendelssohn, Lili Boulanger, and Kaija Saariaho.

Tickets: $30 each; $25 for HSO subscribers and Wadsworth members. For tickets and information, visit hartfordsymphony.org or call (860) 987-5900.

Image: Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25. Oil on canvas. Venice Fondazione Musei Civici, Palazzo Ducale on long-term loan from a private collection. Photo by Dominique Provost Art Photography – Bruges, Belgium

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

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

Join the Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus for their 10th Anniversary Concert Singing from the Heart of Hartford. For the past decade, HGMC has journeyed through songs from Broadway, popular artists, holidays music, and classics from many cultures and decades. The evening features some of the chorus’s favorite songs in a celebratory performance to remember. $30-45. For tickets and information, visit www.hgmc.org.

Join the Hartford Gay Men’s Chorus for their 10th Anniversary Concert Singing from the Heart of Hartford. For the past decade, HGMC has journeyed through songs from Broadway, popular artists, holidays music, and classics from many cultures and decades. The evening features some of the chorus’s favorite songs in a celebratory performance to remember. $30-45. For tickets and information, visit www.hgmc.org.

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. 

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