Wilton Library To Resurrect

‘Connecticut’s Own’ Music Series

WILTON — Wilton Library’s popular Sunday afternoon concert series, Connecticut’s Own, will begin its 2008-09 offerings with a performance by the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, October 5, from 4 to 5 pm.

The orchestra is an ensemble of artists performing masterworks of all periods with Sayard Stone, music director and conductor, and Bernice Stochek Friedson, concertmaster, violin soloist and assistant conductor of the orchestra. The afternoon program for October, “From Bach to Broadway,” will include selections from Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Lowe, among others. The orchestra’s members for the performance will include Denise Chividian and Corinne Metter on violins, Miriam Giannone on viola, Charlotte Moulyn on cello and Milton Beisiegel on double bass.

The orchestra has been an entity since 1962, when it was founded and first directed by Sayard Stone. Mr Stone has conducted orchestras in over a dozen European countries, Canada and Mexico. He studied at

Juilliard School of Music, and has directed the Queens Symphony Orchestra and co-directed the Manhattan Opera Theatre. He is also artistic director for the “America’s Youth in Concert” festival at Carnegie Hall.

Maestro Kousevitsky and Leonard Bernstein were Mr Stone’s teachers when he studied at Tanglewood. For the past 39 years, he has been a member of the music faculty at the University of Connecticut.

Bernice Stochek Friedson trained in New York at the Juilliard and Mannes Schools of Music. She gave her first recital at the age of seven, performed in solo recitals in the tri-state area and on WQXR and WNYC. She has been concertmaster for Bridgeport Symphony, Danbury Symphony, Connecticut Ballet and Connecticut Grand Opera Orchestra and currently performs with Greater Bridgeport Symphony as well as other area ensembles. A Westport resident, she teaches in her home and at the MACH School of Music in Bridgeport, where she is a string and chamber music specialist. She plays exclusively on a violin made by her father, Samuel A. Stochek.

The Connecticut’s Own series is on Sunday afternoons at 4 pm in Wilton Library’s Brubeck Room.

Additional dates in the music series are November 9, with Igor Lovchinsky; February 1, Double Reed; March 1, Rex Cadwallader; and May 3, Amore Trio. Concerts are free and advance registration is strongly recommended due to the community’s overwhelming enthusiasm for the series.

Pre-registrants must arrive by 3:50 pm to be guaranteed seating. After 3:50 and if space is available, wait-listed and walk-in registrants will be admitted. To register, visit www.WiltonLibrary.org/events or call 203-762-3950.

Wilton Library is at 137 Old Ridgefield Road in the heart of Wilton Center.