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Eleanor Anderson
Cambridge MA
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Since September 2018, the Leroy Anderson House has welcomed over three thousand, three hundred visitors to enjoy live music performances and guided tours of this historic home of the American composer Leroy Anderson.
The series of presentations titled Exploring the Creative Process, represents our initiative to embrace visual artists as well as performing musicians and contemporary composers in our cultural programs. We are grateful to the artists and to Sandy Carlson for organizing the presenters.
The full Calendar of Concerts, Presentations and other Events can be found on the Concerts and Events page. To see photos and read details of past programs, scroll down to the "Past Events" organized by year and type of program. Look for the links to "Program and Biographies".
Thank you to everyone who has supported the programs at the Leroy Anderson House with your donations. Many thanks to the volunteers who greet guests, direct parking, and introduce the programs. Thanks also to the Arts Alliance of Woodbury for their recognition of our work honoring Eleanor Anderson's vision of welcoming the public to the Leroy Anderson House for concerts.
CONCERT / PRESENTATION CALENDAR > 2026
See the Concerts page for the current calendar of Concerts, Presentations and Exhibits for 2026: Concerts
EXHIBITS CALENDAR > 2026
See the Exhibits page for the current calendar of Exhibits for 2026: Exhibits
OPEN DAYS > 2026
See the House Museum page for the current calendar of Open Days when the Leroy Anderson House is open for visits and tours in Spring 2026: Open Days
Music from the Leroy Anderson House
STRINGS AT A COMPOSER'S HOME
by Howard Fielding
Sept. 12, 2022
Leroy Anderson was the mid-century modern composer whose home in Woodbury, Connecticut was appropriately Mid-Century Modern. The house is owned by the composer's family foundation and is open on select weekends as a museum of his life and legacy. Several times a year, the home hosts concerts as part of a series. Usually these are outdoors on the lawn, but some more intimate performances have been in the living room around the composer's piano.
The Leroy Anderson House is in a quiet residential neighborhood perfect for an afternoon concert. Acoustics were fine for the nuanced performance of Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 2 in A Minor Op. 13 and Haydn's "Sunrise" Quartet No. 63 in Bb Major, Op. 76, No. 4. The quartet was accompanied only by the birds and crickets of the surrounding woods.
The quartet performed Anderson's "Blue Tango" as an encore, much as the Boston Pops would with the composer's works at the end of a concert. "Blue Tango," Anderson's first big hit, sounds quite different when played by a string quartet but still delighted the audience.
Afterward, a newcomer to the concert series described the afternoon as "a little bit of Tanglewood" - which is exactly what it was meant to be.
Tanglewoodbury. It sort of has a ring to it, doesn't it?
Howard Fielding
Blog: Living Here Together
Photo: Marc Russell