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Eleanor Anderson
Cambridge MA
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Since September 2018, the Leroy Anderson House has welcomed thousands of 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 who spoke about their art, sang and recited poetry from August 2023 to April 2024. Special thanks go to Sandy Carlson for organizing the presenters and the publicity for the events. We intend to resume the series from Autumn 2024 to Spring 2025.
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.
CONCERT / EVENT CALENDAR > 2024
Jaclyn Breeze
Saturday, March 2, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Music for solo flute by Arthur Honegger, Claude Debussy, Edgar Varèse, Holden Shea, Katherine Hoover, Pierre Octave Ferroud, and John La Montaine.
Matt Wood, multimedia artist
March 3, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Matt Wood, whose works range from photography to oils to interior design, will reflect on how his projects find him and how he realizes the best medium for a project. Wood says his art reflects his life: "Art is how I interact with the world. My thoughts, my experiences, my reactions, and my hopes are all mediated through my canvas or my lens, and I find that for me it can't be any other way."
Some of Wood's work, including four 48" x 48" iceberg paintings, is currently on display in the group exhibit at the Mattatuck museum titled "Sea Change, See Change," running from January 21 to May 19, 2024.
Daniel Corr
Saturday, March 9, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Music for classical guitar by Albert, Sor, Shand, Hasenöhrl, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and a new transcription of Forgotten Dreams by Leroy Anderson.
Cynthia Gillette, painter
March 17, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Woodbury artist Cynthia Gillette will present on her odyssey as a painter in a variety of media. Well-known in Woodbury for her support of local arts and her presence at summer Arts Walk events, Gillette is renowned for her sensitive renderings of animals and highly detailed, lifelike natural and architectural details in her work.
She says, "I am really enjoying the process in my painting at this time. My portraits of people and animals have led me to meet new wonderful people, and my travels have enriched the landscapes I see. I do observe all with a more critical, collective eye and due to this I plan my ideas with future compositions and new techniques in mind. Painting and designing are an evolving organic learning experience, albeit sometimes challenging, but they can also be so exciting. That is all inspiring to me."
Melody Asbury, painter
April 7, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Woodbury artist Melody Asbury will share how she has come to explore the spirit of wild animals through painting. A signature member of the Society of Animal Artists, Asbury is an accomplished painter admired for her intimate portrayal of animals. Her love of painting animals came after a lengthy career as a portrait and courtroom sketch artist for TV. She says, "Growing up with an artist mother, I had a paintbrush in my hand at a very early age. Art has always been a means of expression, of focusing attention on what I feel is important. It is a lifelong journey with many different paths I have taken."
Note: The presentations are free and open to the public. However, reservations are required. Contact the Foundation at leroyandersonfoundation@gmail.com to reserve seats.
Yale String Quartet
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 2:00 p.m.
Yaira Matyakubova, violin 1, Gregory Tompkins, violin 2, Riana Heath, viola, Philip Boulanger, cello; Indoor concert to include Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" Quartet, and more to be announced. PROGRAM + Biographies pdf
Hampton Trio
Saturday, May 18, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Mark Davis, mandolin, Beverly Davis, classical guitar, Robert Margo, madola in G; Indoor concert to include Baroque to Contemporary music arranged by the Hampton Trio. Complete program to be announced.
Check back for details which will be posted here in coming days and weeks.
Deming String Quartet
Saturday, June 8, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Larry Deming and Claudia Tondi, violins, Yaroslav Kargin, viola, Mary Costanza, cello. Program will include music by Ellington, Gershwin, Ives, J. Mitchell, T. Monk, W.G. Still and Larry Deming. Rain date: Saturday, June 15, 2024 at 3 pm.
Note: For all concerts at the Leroy Anderson House, admission is free but email reservations are required. For outdoor concerts, bring your own folding chair and sit anywhere on the lawn that you like. The acoustics are excellent no matter where you sit.
No programs in July.
Candlewood Brass Quintet
Saturday, August, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Date, time and program to be announced.
Westfarms Quartet
Saturday, September 7, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
Program to be announced. Rain date is Sunday, Sept 8, 2024.
Note: For outdoor concerts at the Leroy Anderson House, admission is free but email reservations are required. Bring your own folding chair and sit anywhere on the lawn that you like. The acoustics are excellent no matter where you sit. Create your own social distancing.
The Leroy Anderson Foundation will host its third series of presentations titled Exploring the Creative Process at the Leroy Anderson House between late September and early November 2024. Artists will share how they found their passion for their art medium, how they develop their projects, and how others might find their way into the art. The Leroy Anderson House is at 33 Grassy Hill Road, Woodbury. The presentations are free and open to the public. Contact the Foundation at leroyandersonfoundation@gmail.com to reserve seats.
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