This afternoon, the Westport Police Department responded to a report received through the Veterans Suicide Hotline. It involved a threatening text allegedly targeting Greens Farms Elementary School.
The same threat was reported in several other towns in Connecticut.
GFS enacted a “shelter in place” order.
Officers conducted a thorough investigation, and determined that the threat was not valid.
Greens Farms Elementary School.
It is suspected to be a case of “swatting”: making a false report to emergency services, to cause a large-scale response.
Though the threat was unfounded, the WPD implemented several measures out of an abundance of caution. Officers were stationed at all schools in the district until dismissal to ensure the safety of students and staff, and provide reassurance to the community.
Westport Police say they “take all threats seriously, regardless of their validity, and will continue to work closely with local organizations, school administrators, and law enforcement partners to address these incidents and prevent disruptions to public safety.
“Swatting not only diverts critical emergency resources but also causes unnecessary fear and anxiety within the community.
“The safety and security of our community remain our highest priorities, and we appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our residents as we respond to these situations.”
Superintendent of School Thomas Scarice says, “I arrived at GFS shortly after the call was made, and was greeted by 6 officers, including the deputy chief.
“I want to recognize and thank the WPD for their rapid response, and I want to thank the administration and faculty of GFS for their responsive actions.”
As audiences settle in for Staples High School’s Candlelight Concert tonight and tomorrow, they’ll become part of an 84-year tradition.
The Candlelight Concert is timeless. This shot, from 2011, was taken by Lynn U. Miller — a Staples choir member in the early 1970s.
Wonderful music, exceptional performances, the warmth of the holidays — all make “Candlelight” one of Westport’s premier events.
Among the concert’s most anticipated moments is the processional. Holding candles and moving solemnly, the choir sings a lovely, majestic carol.
“Sing We Noel” has become Staples’ own special song. You won’t hear it on the radio, or in church. The sheet music is out of print. It’s so obscure, you can’t even Google it. (The links that come up are not to the “real” one.)
“Sing We Noel” is such a tradition, it must have been sung at the 1st-ever concert — then called “Christmas Candlelight” — in 1940. Right?
Wrong.
John Ohanian
The background of this majestic melody could have been lost forever. But in March of 2015, “06880” reader Linda Frazer emailed Donald Freeman. A resident of Westport for more than 30 years, and a 1967 graduate of Northfield School in Massachusetts, she had a question for him. Freeman is the stepson of John Ohanian, Staples’ music director who organized that inaugural Candlelight concert.
Frazer said that when she was at Northfield, “Sing We Noel” was the processional at their annual Christmas vespers concert. She checked with the archivist at what is now called Northfield Mount Hermon School. He traced the first mention of it back to 1916 (when it was listed as “Dost Thou Remember,” the opening words).
Frazer noted too that Freeman had attended Mount Hermon in the 1950s. (He used the surname Ohanian when he was at Bedford Elementary School. Entering Bedford Junior High, he changed back to his birth name. After 8th grade, he left Westport for boarding school.)
Believing “Sing We Noel” to have been part of Candlelight since 1940, Frazer asked Freeman if he had any older relatives who attended Northfield, and might have inspired Ohanian to bring the song to Staples.
Frazer was right — sort of. It came from the private school — but not when she thought.
Freeman said that Ohanian first heard “Sing We Noel” when he and his wife — who died in September 2014, at 101 — attended a Christmas vespers concert in 1954. Ohanian introduced it the next year.
I can vouch for that. I’ve been privileged — in the days before the 84th anniversary concert — to listen to early recordings. The first time it appears on a record was 1955.
The song sounded as beautiful then as it does now. And though it took 15 years for Ohanian to add “Sing We Noel” to the program, it’s impressive to think that for nearly 70 years, Staples and Northfield share a song that has been lost everywhere else in the world.
BONUS FUN FACT:The rousing “Hallelujah Chorus” that concludes Candlelight was not part of the original program either. Ohanian introduced Handel’s very well-known oratorio in 1954 — the year before he brought “Sing We Noel” here.
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Each Christmas season, the Wreaths Across America program honors fallen servicemembers, and all who serve. Over 2 million volunteers take part, in all 50 states and overseas.
Tomorrow (Saturday, December 14, 11:30 a.m., Assumption Cemetery, Greens Farms Road), Westport joins it. It’s our town’s third year with the project.
Everyone is invited to join VFW Post 399 and American Legion Post 63, their Auxiliaries, Sons of American Legion, and Scouts from Troops 39 and 139.
After a short ceremony, everyone will place a wreath on a veteran’s grave, and thank that veteran for their service.
Then, from 1 to 6 p.m., the community is invited to an Army-Navy football game watch party at the VFW (465 Riverside Avenue).
None of this would happen without Patty Kondub. The popular Westport Family YMCA and Senior Center fitness instructor (and Staples High School girls golf coach) is the local coordinator.
As part of her many other Westport activities, she’s also vice president of the VFW Joseph J. Clinton Post 399 Auxiliary.
Click here to sponsor a wreath. To designate a wreath for a specific veteran at the Assumption cemetery, email Patty: nortonpk@aol.com.
For Patty, the project is personal. Her father — John Kondub — was a World War II Marine, and VFW Post 399 member. He earned a Purple Heart, for hand-to-hand combat in the Marianas Islands (Saipan).
He is buried at Assumption Greens Farms Cemetery — almost across from the farm where he was born, before I-95 was built.
“There are over 350 veterans buried in this cemetery,” Patty says. “I hope they all get wreaths.”
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We’ve got justices. And peace!
Yesterday morning, a new class of justices of the peace were sworn in at Town Hall.
Another group was sworn in last week. Town Clerk Jeffrey Dunkerton did the honors both times.
Westport’s 60 justices of the peace are evenly split between Democrats, Republicans and independents.
Community volunteers, they officiate weddings, sign affidavits, and perform arcane and archaic tasks like issuing tax warrants.
Justices of the peace serve 4-year terms, and can perform their services across the state.
For more information, and to engage the services of a justice of the peace, click here. (Hat tip: Jonathan Alloy)
Sworn in yesterday as justices of the peace (from left): Robin Weinberg, Christopher Buckley, Nicole Klein, Alma Sarelli, Ifeseyi Gayle, Jonathan Alloy, Denise Nicoletti, Jim Marpe, Jeff Wieser.
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In all his years in New York, Donald Trump never rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell.
Until yesterday.
The president-elect was there as part of Time magazine’s Person of the Year celebration.
Dave Briggs, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. President-elect Trump, family members and officials stand near a mockup of Time magazine’s Man of the Year cover.
La Plage closes for a few months on January 2. It’s part of the Inn at Longshore renovation.
Before their hiatus, they offer some holiday specials.
La Plage’s Christmas Eve dinner (4 to 10 p.m.) includes a 3-course prix fixe menu. They’ll be open on Christmas Day too (noon to 7 p.m.).
Prices for both days are $90 per person, $55 for young adults (12 and under), $20 for the kiddy menu.
New Year’s Eve begins with a la carte seating, from 5 to 7 p.m. At 8:30, a gala dinner includes a 5-course tasting menu, with live music by Jay Prince & Friends. The cost is $185 per person.
New Year’s Day brunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Menna Olvera, former program director for Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Integrative Therapy program, and co-founder of New York’s wellness The Oleon House, is bringing her healing services to Westport.
Menna, her husband Yanni and young son moved here from New York City during COVID. Yanni grew up in Westport.
As a functional medicine health coach, yoga instructor, caregiver coach, palliative caregiver, integrative wellness specialist and Reiki practitioner, Menna crafts tailored to each client’s journey.
Recently, Menna supported a Westport client through the emotional turbulence of divorce and the sale of her home. Combining mindful yoga movements, Reiki energy work and touch therapy, she helped calm and balance the woman’s nervous system, providing strength and resilience.
In addition to private wellness sessions, Menna teaches integrative yoga classes at Studio45 on Main Street.
For more information about Menna’s services, click here.
Menna Olvera
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If you’ve lived in Westport for more than a day or two, you know that deer go pretty much anywhere they please.
These 3, however, recently met their match, at Gray’s Creek.
And finally … following up on Dave Briggs’ morning with President-elect Trump yesterday:
(Another day, another Roundup filled with interesting, important and random stuff. If you enjoy our this — or anything else on “06880” — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Yesterday’s “06880” Opinion piece by Jennifer Johnson urged town officials — who have authorized $5.58 million to rebuild 2 tidal gates at Sherwood Mill Pond — to ensure pedestrian access to Compo Cove, just beyond the project.
A locked gate — with a large “Private Property/No Trespassing/Walkway for Residents & Guests Only” — sign was erected 10 years ago. Previously, the path was open to all.
The Compo Cove gate.
Not surprisingly, about 2 dozen commenters wondered exactly why taxpayers should fund work that would benefit only a very few residents.
Johnson noted that legally, the mean high water line belongs to the public. How, she wondered, could they be denied access to it?
What was surprising was an email from Betsy Kahn.
She no longer lives here. But during her many years as a Westport realtor, she learned a thing or two about Compo Cove.
Betsy says that one way to access the mean high water line is via a town-owned, 25 foot-wide easement.
It’s relatively secret. Not many people besides Betsy know it exists.
It’s overgrown. The town has not maintained it.
“From the pathway, you’d guess it’s just a side yard,” Betsy says.
But it is an easement. And it’s right there between 2 homes (#54 and #56), in plain sight.
If, of course, you get past the locked gate.
Betsy Kahn marked the easement on this aerial view of Compo Cove.
Every once in a while, Betsy said, builders had to get heavy equipment back to the beach side, without damaging the small parcels of land they were working on.
They used the easement to the beach side between #54 and #56. Then it would grow over again, and be forgotten.
Thanks to the easement, Betsy says, at low tide one could legally walk all the way to Sherwood Island State Park — bordering the eastern end of Compo Cove — or around the point of the iconic brown house near Old Mill Beach, currently lifted up for renovation.
The beach in front of this house is accessible to the public, at the mean high water line. But first you have to get there. (Photo/Matt Murray)
Betsy says that the “beautiful pathway should be available to town residents to walk and enjoy— as it used to be.
“The pond and estuary behind these few beach mansions and homes on the Cove is the most beautiful place in town, in my opinion.
“It’s about a quarter mile to the end of the path. It ends at a private residence. You have to turn around and go back.”
Close-up of the easement.
Betsy notes that there’s another easement there, at the end: for emergency vehicles to use, entering from Sherwood Island.
Westporters — including those who will foot the bill for the new tidal gates and footbridge — don’t need that state park easement.
But we sure would like to access the one leading to the mean high water line.
It’s priceless.
The pedestrian path on Compo Cove. The easement between #54 and #56 is beyond the bend.
(Just when you think you’ve heard everything about Westport … “06880” tells you something more. If you enjoy our coverage of hyper-local news, please click here to support our work. Thanks!)
Carole Schweid — an actor, playwright, author, and a Westport icon as co-founder and artistic director of “Play With Your Food,” the local lunchtime play-reading program — died earlier today at her Westport home.
Carole was also a member of the original cast of “A Chorus Line.”
After graduating from the Juilliard School, she began her Broadway career as an original cast member of “Minnie’s Boys,” the Marx Brothers musical starring Shelley Winters.
On television she was a member of “Fitz & Bones,” the Smothers Brothers’ series.
Carole Schweid
In addition to working regularly as a dancer, singer and actor, Carole wrote 2 plays: the off-Broadway “On The Bench,” and “Agnes.” The latter — a one-woman show about choreographer Agnes de Mille — was performed at the Smithsonian Institution theater.
The success of Carole’s Play With Your Food led her to write “Staged Reading Magic: A Play Producer’s Quick Guide for Turning a Free Staged Reading into a Hot Theater Ticket.”
Carole is survived by sons Max Lance and Daniel Lance; grandchildren Bailey and Leo Lance; her brother Robert Schweid, and her former husband, Steven Lance.
A memorial service will be scheduled for Westport in January.
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This past July, “06880” honored the final “Play With Your Food” shows with this tribute:
Play With Your Food” — the staged reading, script-in-hand series (plus delicious lunch) that has entertained and delighted audiences at local venues for 20 years — has reached the final curtain.
“All good things must come to an end,” says Carole, Schweid, artistic director for the series’ organizer, JIB Productions. She has had health issues, and executive producer Diana Muller is retiring.
Carole Schweid
After 350 performances, with 200 professional actors and 135 playwrights, the final performances are October 15 (MoCA CT), October 16 (Pequot Library, Southport) and October 17 (Greenwich Arts Council). All performances are noon to 2 p.m.
“Theater, lunch and hijinks await,” Schweid promises. “Plus cake!”
“Twenty years is a long time,” she notes. She looks back fondly on those 2 decades — and the beginning, when she and fellow PTA Cultural Arts Committee member Nancy Diamond were talking about their 2 passions: theater and food.
Realizing there was no theatrical entertainment around lunchtime, they had a “let’s put on a show!” moment.
Carole Schweid and Nancy Diamond, “Play With Your Food” founders.
Schweid has a BFA from Juilliard, and Broadway stage experience in “Pippin” and the original cast of “A Chorus Line.”
She and Diamond knew there were plenty of actors in the area — and plenty in New York who would be interested in a lunch-hour gig.
They also knew everyone’s time was tight. So they focused on one-acts. There would be a staged reading, followed by a compelling talkback with the director, actors and/or playwright — and lunch, catered by a local restaurant.
“Play With Your Food” would nourish the heart and soul — and stomach. And it would all take place relatively quickly, during lunch hour (okay, hour-and-a-half).
Let’s eat!
The first “Play With Your Food” was at Toquet Hall. Schweid and Diamond marketed it through postcards to friends.
It was an instant hit. The audience wanted more.
Over the next 20 years, they got it.
Schweid and Muller searched all over, for the best one-acts. They traveled to one-act festivals around the country. They prowled book fairs and libraries.
From Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes, Tom Stoppard and Ray Bradbury to Mark Twain; from up-and-coming playwrights to obscure, semi-forgotten ones — if Schweid and her colleagues liked a show, they figured, audiences would too.
There were 3 productions a year. Schweid likens them to a sandwich: a couple of “funny or wacky” shows at the top and bottom of the schedule; another with “heft” in the middle.
The plays range from comedies and romances to mysteries and musicals, from classics to unpublished works. Despite the wide variety, all share one element: The audience must leave in an uplifted mood.
A lively scene from a staged reading.
“Play With Your Food” expanded to Southport, Stamford and Greenwich. The Fairfield Theatre Company provided “the perfect black box” experience. In Westport, they outgrew Toquet Hall. MoCA, on Newtown Turnpike, offered more space, and an artsy vibe.
Big names graced the “Play With Your Food” stage. James Naughton, Mia Dillon, Stacy Morgain Lewis, Scott Bryce, Mark Shanahan and many others embraced the chance to do a different, unique and fun kind of theater.
“Who gets to hear people like this, in a setting like that?” Schweid asks.
Plus, she notes, “You didn’t have to travel. This was all home-grown.”
When COVID struck, Schweid and her crew pivoted. “If Joe Papp can do Shakespeare in the Park, why couldn’t we do Chekhov in the parking lot?” she wondered.
Former Staples High School Players actors like Matt Van Gessel and Max Samuels helped audiences weather that storm.
Lunch was an essential part of the experience. Popular places like The Porch, Blue Lemon, Da Pietro, Matsu Sushi and Spic & Span made meals almost as memorable as the plays.
“We celebrated good acting, good writing, good food, a good community coming together, and intellectual or emotional stimulation,” Schweid says.
“That’s how people will remember ‘Play With Your Food.’
Downtown parking has gotten “lots” of attention lately.
In meetings and online, Westporters have talked discussed the lack of spots, and/or the distance they walk from them.
This holiday season, the Westport Transit District has a solution.
Wheels2U — their on-demand train station service — will operate this weekend and next.
Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on December 14 -15 and 20 -21, Wheels2U will pick you up anywhere in Westport. They’ll take you downtown, then back home again when you’re through.
Stops are at Jesup Green opposite the Westport Book Shop, and Elm Street across from Serena & Lily.
Download the Wheels2U app, and book your ride 20 minutes before you want to leave. Rides are just $2 per passenger, open to all Westport residents and visitors. Children 12 and under must ride with an adult.
Club203 — Westport’s social organization for adults with disaiblities — celebrated the holidays last night at the VFW.
It was another great evening. And — as with all of the club’s events — many people and businesses made it rock.
The VFW donated its popular space. Delicious food was made by Carmine Cenatiempo, of Calise’s Market. Desserts and gingerbread cookies for decorating came courtesy of Chef Avery (@chefaveryw).
Marcello scontributed a holiday-themed photo booth (@Marcello.DEF).
Club203 gives a huge shoutout to the Westport Woman’s Club. Its Ruegg Grant will enable them to offer more social and educational events for Westport’s neurodiverse community.
Audiences at the Westport Country Playhouse’s production of “A Sherlock Carol” (December 17 through 22) can get in the holiday spirit even before the curtain rises.
Collection boxes for 4 local charities — Domestic Violence Crisis Center, Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Norwalk Toys for Tots, and Westport Homes with Hope Food Pantry — will be set up in the lobby during performances.
They’re also available during box office hours (Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m.). You don’t have to see the show to help!
Click here for details on each charity, and wish lists for all 4.
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Speaking of Christmas wishes: There are 13 days till Christmas.
Which means there is still time for kids to drop off letters to Santa, at the Greens Farms post office.
Where — unlike the always-crammed Playhouse Square location — there is never a line.
(Photo/Johanna Keyser Rossi)
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It was a full — but unintended — Westport moment yesterday, on “Today.”
He did not realize until later that Lifelines is the company started by Melissa & Doug to “help individuals rediscover wonder and relieve stress through their senses.”
Of course, he knows that “Melissa & Doug” are the Bernsteins.
And that the husband and wife team are — like Craig himself — Westport residents. (Hat tip: Dave Briggs)
Westport Police made 2 custodial arrests between December 4 and 11.
A 21-year-old Bronx man was charged with 2 counts of larceny, and 2 counts of conspiracy to commit larceny, following an investigation into 2 shoplifting incidents at Ulta Beauty in 2021. His bond was $100,000.
A 51-year-old Bronx man was arrested for identity theft, after a report from TD Bank of a suspect using fraudulent identifaction to obtain a debit card. He was released on $10,000 bond.
Police also issued these citations:
Traveling unreasonably fast: 13 citations
Failure to comply with state traffic commission regulations: 3
Operating a motor vehicle under suspension: 2
Operating an unregistered motor vehicle: 2
Failure to obey stop sign: 2
Failure to obey traffic control signals: 2
School zone violation: 1
Opoerating a motor vehicle without a license: 1
Failure to renew registration: 1
Failure to drive in the proper lane: 1
Ulta Beauty is a frequent target of shoplifters. Many are arrested.
Westport continues to raising funds, to ensure that 200 children in our sister city of Lyman, Ukraine enjoy time away from the wartime terrors of the past 3 years.
Our goal of $56,000 will pay for them — scattered now, evacuated from their homes — to get together, with friends, teachers and counselors, at a therapeutic camp in the Carpathian Mountains.
To help, please click here. Under “Designation,” choose “Westport-Lyman sister city” from the dropdown menu. You can also choose a monthly or one-time donation. If you use the mail or Venmo option, please make a note: “For Westport-Lyman.”
A bit of normalcy in war-torn Ukraine.
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Westporter Warren Hammer is a chiropractor in Norwalk
For years he has specialized in fascial manipulation. It is taught in 50 countries, and used by many professional teams for chronic pain.
Last weekend, in Port St. Lucie, Florida, he introduced the method to the trainers who treat the New York Mets.
And finally … in honor of Warren Hammer’s recent gig (story above):
(As this Roundup shows, “06880” is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: You never know what you’ll get. If you like most of what we offer, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Jennifer Johnson, her husband and 2 daughters moved to Westport in 2006.
She has worked in financial services, and for open space and land preservation organizations.
Jennifer has served on Westport’s Westport Parks & Recreation Commission, Compo Beach Site Improvement Committee, and is an executive committee member for the South Western Regional Planning Agency. She was a director of the Westport Transit District, and is a member of the Representative Town Meeting.
Following a recent vote by the legislative body, she writes:
Last month the RTM and Board of Finance voted to approve an expenditure of $5.58 million to rebuild 2 tidal gates at Sherwood Mill Pond.
The funding also includes rebuilding the pedestrian walkway that connects Sherwood Mill Beach to Compo Cove. There is a locked gate on the eastern end of the walkway. It was installed by Cove residents, and prevents public access to the Compo Mill Cove pathway along the southeastern shore of the Mill Pond.
Locked gate at the entrance to Compo Cove.
During the RTM meeting, questions arose regarding the gate: Why is it locked? Why can’t pedestrians walk along the Compo Mill Cove pathway like they used to? What about access to the mean high water line that belongs to all residents? Can the plan for the new taxpayer-funded walkway include some form of reclaimed access to the Compo Mill Cove pathway and/or tideland that is now blocked by the gate?
Given that the funding approval was time-sensitive, the RTM correctly approved the funding and tabled the pedestrian access issue. With the funding secured and the construction period deferred until spring, now is the time for Westport to find a solution to reclaim pedestrian access to the Compo Mill Cove pathway and tidelands once enjoyed by all, not just the dozen or so homeowners who live there (some part time).
While rebuilding the tide gate and walkway is both expensive and complicated, regaining public access to the Compo Mill Cove pathway and/or tidelands should be fairly straightforward.
Compo Cove residents should simply agree to open the gate between sunrise and sunset (an easy solution that could be programmed into the gate’s lock). Since the public is paying the hefty price tag to fund the walkway’s reconstruction — a walkway that Cove residents rely on to access their property — this seems like a fair and reasonable tradeoff.
Pedestrian path, and Compo Cove. The locked gate is near the bottom of the photo.
This simple solution reflects an increasing trend across the country. Private property owners are granting pedestrian easements to their land, for the express purpose of allowing the public to respectfully walk across a defined pathway during daylight hours.
The public historically had access, until the locked gate appeared about 20 years ago. As the years passed, and one by one the island’s historic bungalows were replaced with sizable rebuilds (like this $12.250 million recent listing), public access vanished.
I anticipate some Cove residents may raise security concerns. But those could readily be addressed by a police camera at the gate and/or residents installing readily-available security systems, if they haven’t already. The timed gate — combined with the general lack of car access — should prevent any opportunities for mischief, beyond the kinds of things beach residents typically contend with currently.
Alternatively, the town could initiate a small project to construct access points from the rebuilt walkway to the tidal land along either side of the walkway. This solution would only provide access at low tide. But some access is better than none.
If you are interested in joining this effort, please send contact information to millpondwalkway@gmail.com.
Aerial view of Compo Cove, with Sherwood Mill Pond (top). The arrow shows the gate location.
(“06880” welcomes Opinion pieces. We also welcome — and rely on — reader donations, to support our work. Please click here to contribute. Thank you!)
Lynn Untermeyer Miller hasn’t seen every Candlelight Concert.
There have been 84 years of them. The Staples High School Class of 1971 graduate is only 71 years old.
But she’s been to plenty, beginning with her years as a student.
She’ll be there again this week, for the Staples Music Department’s annual gift to the town.
She’ll be joined by hundreds of other grateful Westporters. Parents will proudly watch their teenage singers, and orchestra and band members, as they perform complex pieces with talent, passion and pride.
A small part of the large Candlelight Concert.
Westporters whose own kid have long graduated — or never went to Staples, or are not yet there — will thrill to the concert too, appreciating the mix of tradition and change that has sustained the Candlelight Concert for over 8 decades.
Middle and elementary school boys and girls will dream of the day they can take part in the remarkable event.
And alumni will stride, with excitement and smiles, onto the stage for the finale: a rousing rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.” The massed group — a couple of hundred current musicians, and dozens who preceded them — is part of what makes the Candlelight Concert so special.
The “Hallelujah Chorus” ends the Candlelight Concert. The “Sing We Noel” processional begins it. (Photos/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)
But none of it would happen without this week’s Unsung Heroes: the Music Department.
The staff — Jeri Brima, Carrie Mascaro, Kevin Mazzarella, Lauren Pine, Caitlin Serpliss and Gregg Winters, plus townwide music coordinator Steve Zimmerman and administrative assistant Liz Shaffer — have been working toward this moment since the summer.
They have great talent to work with. Our superb middle and elementary school music teachers deserve a great hand, for preparing the high schoolers so well.
John Ohanian created the first Candlelight Concert, in 1940.
No list of Unsung Heroes would be complete without the men and women who created, nurtured and grew the Candlelight Concert, from before World War II to today.
John Ohanian, George Weigle, John Hanulik, Bob Genualdi, Jack Adams, Nick Mariconda, Alice Lipson, Luke Rosenberg, and many other music educators, are the reason Candlelight has evolved, flourished — and made the holidays special — for over 80 years.
They, and everyone else associated with the Candlelight Concert, are true Unsung Heroes.
Take a bow!
ENCORE: One of the great Candlelight traditions is the “Sing We Noel” processional. Click here to learn about its unique back story.
(Unsung Hero is a weekly “06880” feature. To nominate a hero, email 06880blog@gmail.com. To support our work, please click here. Thank you!)
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