This Weekend

Written by Sally Sanders
Thursday, 04 February 2010 00:00

It's Super Bowl weekend, but there's plenty going on that has nothing to do with football: Music, comedy, art, even two celebrations of Chinese New Year. This evening, Thursday, Feb. 4, there's a cocktail party with an Irish theme at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield.

First Thursday

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will feature live Irish music along with Irish beer and wine at the First Thursday Contemporary Cocktails Thursday, Feb. 4, at 6:30 p.m.

The museum is at 258 Main Street in Ridgefield; admission to First Thursday is $15, which includes tours of the new exhibit by Irish artist Tom Malloy. For more information, call 203-438-4519 or visit aldrichart.org.

Love Letters

Anticipating Valentine’s Day, the Brookfield Theatre for the Arts will present A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters this weekend, featuring Thomas Sheehan and Marilyn Olsen as two friends who exchange thoughts via the mail throughout their lives.

Performances will take place at 8, Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 4-6, and Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 or two for $25, general admission. For reservations, visit brookfieldtheatre.org or call 203-775-0023.

Light Spaces

Ridgefield artist Hans Fischer, whose paintings, mixed media works and encaustics, focuses on light to produce mood, will show his work at the Rockwell Art Gallery/New Canaan, 9 Burtis Avenue.  There will be a reception for the show, which was curated by Dara Polenghi-Quinn, on Friday evening, Feb. 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit will continue through March 31; for more information, call 203-594-7177 or visit rockwellartgalleries.com.

Comedy night

Comics Maureen Langan and Bonnie Levison will perform a show to benefit the Horizons Student Enrichment Program in New Canaan on Friday, Feb. 5, at the New Canaan Country School. A cocktails and hors d’oeuvres reception will take place at 6:30, and the show will follow at 8. Tickets are $100 or $200; all proceeds benefit Horizons, a year-round academic, cultural and athletic program for K-12 students from low-income families.

For tickets or more information, call 203-972-7005.

Noble or serf?

There will be auditions on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 6 and 7, for a spring Renaissance Festival to take place at Danbury’s Ives Concert Park. Positions open include nobility, paupers, village characters, singers, squires, gate attendants and game and booth attendants. Behind-the-scenes crew are also needed and professional acts are welcome.

The auditions will take place from 1 to 7 on Saturday and noon to 6 on Sunday in the President’s Reception Room (Room 218) of the Westside Campus Building on the Western Connecticut State University Westside Campus, 43 Lake Avenue Extension, Danbury. For more information, call 203-888-6204 or visit thescrf.com.

Plácido as baritone

The Met: Live in HD at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts will feature Verdi’s political thriller, Simon Boccanegra, with tenor Plácido Domingo singing the baritone title role. James Levine conducts the Metropolitan Opera production. The presentation will take place at 1 on Saturday, Feb. 6, with an encore performance at 6.

Reserved seating is $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for children/students. For reservations, call 1-877-ARTS-396 or visit quickcenter.com.

Weir Farm time travel

Cliff Laube, the former Park ranger at Weir Farm National Historic Site, will return on Saturday, Feb. 6, to lead an architecture walk at the farm on the Wilton-Ridgefield border. (Mr. Laube currently works for the National Archives at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y.)

On Saturday, he’ll give a short presentation in the Burlingham barn and then lead a 45-minute walk, discussing how the property went from working farm to gentleman’s farmstead to artist’s retreat. The program is free, but registration is required; call 203-834-1896 x12 to register or for more information.

Relay for Life concerts

Wilton musicians who’ve been putting together a CD to raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Wilton will perform a pair of preview concerts on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 6 and 8 p.m. in the Brubeck Room at the Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road.

Audiences will learn more about the upcoming CD, Acoustic Wilton — The Relay Sessions, which features Joan Wallace, Dave Keefe, Kim Troy, Lauren Mirabile, Patty Perry, Tim Geaney, Chris Brown, Amy Jonsson and organizer/producer Scott Weber. Donations will be accepted at the door. For reservations, call 203-762-3950 or visit wiltonlibrary.org.

Young voices

The Fairfield County Children’s Choir will kick off the new year with a  Broadway Concert and Auction on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Klein Memorial Auditorium, 910 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport. The revue will include highlights from Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, South Pacific and Bye, Bye Birdie, with soloists including Kristin Caolo of Weston. The FCCC Orchestra will accompany the performance and guest artist will be Ivan Rutherford, who appeared as Jean Valjean in the Broadway production of Les Miserables.

The silent auction will open at 5:30 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $15 and $20, available at the door. For more information, call 203-414-4292.

Mendelssohn Choir

Frost-Bite, Music of the Cold & Fugue Season, Collage Concert I by the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut will take place Saturday, Feb. 6, at 8 p.m. in Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Avenue.

The program will include a collage of Randall Thompson’s Frostiana and the premiere of EdWard Thompson’s What the Ivy Said to the Snow and other works. A silent auction will begin at 7 p.m. Concert tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for students up to age 18. For tickets and information, call 1-800-663-9018 or visit mendelssohnchoir.com.

Chamber Orchestra

The American Chamber Orchestra’s winter concert on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 8 p.m. will take place Saturday, Feb. 6, at 8 at the First Presbyterian Church of Fairfield, 2475 Easton Turnpike. The program includes the Organ Concerto No. 1 by Joseph Rheinberger, Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 (Spring), and Smetana’s The Moldau. Leslie Smith will be the organ soloist.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students; for information, call 203-255-7661 or visit americanchamberorchestra.org.

Men without Instruments

Carlos Sousa and his a cappella group, Men Without Instruments, will perform swing, rock ‘n’ roll, and other popular music, in four-part harmony, on Saturday evening at the Danbury Music Centre. The concert will begin at 8 in the Marian Anderson Recital Hall, 256 Main Street.

Admission is $10 person, which includes a post-concert reception. Tickets will be available at the door; for more information, call 203-748-1716 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Chinese New Year

Two Chinese New Year Festivals are planned on Sunday to mark The Year of The Tiger, which begins this month.

The Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s eighth annual fundraiser will take place from noon to 4 at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, 2701 Summer Street. Tickets for adults are $60 and for children ages 3-16, $40, which includes an authentic Chinese buffet, the traditional Lion Dance and other entertainments, children’s arts and crafts, a silent auction, Asian market and more. The acclaimed forensics specialist, Dr. Henry Lee, will speak and sign books during the afternoon. For more information, visit chineselanguageschool.org or call 866-301-4906.

The Greenwich Library will have a Chinese New Year Celebration on Sunday at 2 in the library’s Cole Auditorium, presented by the CBA Culture & Arts Center of New York City. Activities, which are free, will include dancing, acrobatics, magic, martial arts and music. No registration is necessary; for more information, call 203-622-7924.

Broadway Sing-Along

Chris Coogan will be at the piano for the Connecticut Playmakers’ A Broadway Sing-Along’ on Sunday, Feb. 7, from 2 to 4 at the First Congregational Church, 108 Sound Beach Avenue, Old Greenwich. The program will feature music from Broadway shows from 1924 to 1928.

Admission and refreshments are free; for more information, call 203-977-8627.

Young Artists 2010

The Katonah Museum of Art’s 27th annual showcase for student artists in the area will open Sunday afternoon with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. The exhibit, Young Artists 2010, will remain on view through Feb. 14. Paintings and sculpture have been installed by a group of students working with the museum’s curatorial staff.

The museum is at 134 Jay Street (Route 22) in Katonah, N.Y.; for more information, call 914-232-9555 or visit katonahmuseum.org.

Youth symphony

The Norwalk Youth Symphony’s winter concert will feature performances by the symphony’s five tiered orchestras, which include musicians in grades four through 12. The concert will take place at 3 Sunday afternoon, Feb. 7, at the Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Avenue. Tickets, $15 for adults and $8 for seniors, will be available at the door. Admission is free to potential members and their families, to music teachers, students and children five and younger. For more information, call 203-866-4100 or visit norwalkyouthsymphony.org.

Free chamber concert

Musicians from Cleveland, New York and Boston will play works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven in a free chamber music concert at Christ Church Greenwich, 254 East Putnam Avenue, on Sunday, Feb. 7, at 3. For more information, call 203-869-6600 x23 or visit christchurchgreenwich.org.

Fountain Music Series

Trinidad and Tobago native Earl Phillip Mentor will perform a concert of song and story-telling on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 7, at 4 in the First Congregational Church of Ridgefield, 103 Main Street.

Mr. Mentor, a classically trained baritone, has a repertoire that includes opera, songs in German, French and Italian, as well as gospel and spirituals.

For more information, call 203-438-8077 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Photography show

The 30th Annual Juried Photography Exhibition sponsored by the New Canaan Society for the Arts will open at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in Waveny Park on Sunday, Feb. 7. There will be a reception from 4 to 6 p.m., with presentation of awards by juror Kristen Lubben at 5 p.m. Ms. Lubben is the associate curator at the International Center of Photography.

Gallery hours after the opening are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 4, and Saturdays and Sundays, 1 to 5. For more information, call 203-972-1895 or visit carriagebarn.org.

Harp and flute

Solo and duo works for harp and flute by Bach, Britten, Paganini, Takemitsu, Piazzolla and Elliott Carter will be performed by harpist Bridget Kibbey and flutist Claire Chase on Sunday at 4 at the Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Avenue. The two young musicians are winners of the Concert Artists Guild Auditions.

Tickets for the concert are $25, $5 for those 18 and younger. For reservations and information, call 203-222-7070 or visit westportartscenter.org.

And coming up...

New Canaan-based adventurer and author Jeff Blumenfeld will speak to the Appalachian Mountain Club of Fairfield County on Tuesday, Feb. 9, at St. Thomas Church, 95 Greenwood Avenue, Bethel. There will be wine, cheese, appetizers, coffee and dessert at 6:30 followed by Mr. Blumenfeld’s presentation, “You Want to Go Where?”, at 8. Admission is $8; pay at the door. For more information, visit ct-amc.org/Fairfield or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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Yale Professor Charles Bailyn, an astrophysicist, will speak at the Second Annual Darwin Day Dinner on Friday, Feb. 12, at Quattro Pazzi Restaurant, Norwalk. Cocktails will be at 7, with dinner at 8; cost is $60 per person. For information, call 646-371-9280 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .