Tag Archives: Suzuki Music School of Westport

Roundup: State Of The Town, Playground Renovation, Joe Tacopina …

Posted on January 21, 2024 | 17 comments

If it’s mid-winter, it must be time for the “State of the Town” forum.

The annual event — featuring 1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Board of Education chair Lee Goldstein — is Sunday, February 4 (2 to 3:30 p.m., Westport Library; click here for livestream).

As always, it’s a co-production of Westport Sunrise Rotary, and the Rotary Club of Westport.

1st Selectwoman Jen Tooker and Board of Education chair Lee Goldstein.

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Leaders of the 1989 and 2006 Compo Beach playground committees joined leaders of the 2024 committee yesterday at Bedford Middle School, to show their support for  the proposed design improvements to Westport’s most popular playground.

Among the attendees: former 1st Selectman Jim Marpe, Parks & Recreation Commission chair David Floyd, Parks & Recreation Department director Jen Fava, Representative Town Meeting member Julie Whamond, architect Lisa Deshano of Play by Design, and members of the public, from young parents to grandparents.

Westport Rotary Club’s centennial gift to the own is serving as lead sponsor for renovations of the playground. Fifty members of the public participated yesterday, offering suggestions to make the playground more accessible, more open, more code compliant and more suitable for the next generation of Westport youngsters.

This renovation marks the third time Westport Rotary has partnered with the Westport Young Woman’s League to build and enhance the playground.

Participants in yesterday’s Compo Beach playground renovation meeting (from left): Alison Reilly, Suzanne Dodge, Rick Benson, Totney Benson, Bridget Flynn, RB Benson, Samantha Owades, Josh Sterling (and son), Alex Cohen. RB and Samantha were 4 and 3 years old, respectively, when their parents worked together on the 1989 playground. 

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Tickets are on sale for the 4th annual Fashionably Westport runway show. Presented by the Westport Downtown Association, it features styles from dozens of Westport merchants and salons. Models — local friends and celebrities — walk a raised runway in the Trefz Forum. The night includes music, cocktails and light bites.

A portion of the proceeds benefit Homes with Hope, the local non-profit dedicated to ending homelessness in Fairfield County. Enjoy a social night of fashion, music, cocktails and light bites.

Click here for tickets, and more information.

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Why did Joe Tacopina leave Donald Trump’s legal team?

In what he said was his only interview on the subject, the Westport attorney told MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday: “It was just my time. I had to follow my compass. My compass told me it was my time there was done. There are a lot of personal reasons that went into that. Things that I can’t and won’t discuss.”

Click below for a longer clip.

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Medieval music through a sacred lens comes to Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on February 3 (5 p.m.).

Eya — lauded as “remarkable” and “gorgeous” by The Washington Post —has been featured on Voice of America and NPR.

Their concert by candlelight will reflect the themes of flame and light that characterize St. Brigid’s feast day on February 1 and Candlemas on February 2.

Eya will be accompanied on clársach (wire-stringed harp), with additional support from Brigid’s Circle, a volunteer women’s treble singer ensemble formed for this performance.

A workshop for the Brigid’s Circle singers will be held for experienced choral singers the evening before, and be part of the performance if desired. For more information, email vshields@chtwestport.org.

For tickets and more information, click here.

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Three Westport Suzuki Music School students have earned honors.

Rohan Gowthaman finished first at the 11th Festival Audition, sponsored by Connecticut State Music Teachers Association’s Fairfield Chapter.

Zachary Feuer auditioned for and won a place at the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Regional Festival on violin.

Kirthana Gowthaman took second at inthe Crescendo Music Competition, earning a chance to play at Carnegie Hall.

Rohan and Kirthana Gowthaman.

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The Weston History & Culture Center celebrates Black History Month and Women’s History Month with historian/storyteller Tammy Denease.

She’ll portray Bessie Coleman, America’s first African-American female aviator, during an educational and entertaining performance March 2 (3 p.m.).

Click here for tickets ($5 adults, $3 children).

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It took a while, but Jay Babina finally got the “Westport … Naturally” photo he wanted yesterday, near the Library:

(Photo/Jay Babina)

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And finally … speaking of Fashionably Westport (above): Hey, it’s not just the women who are models!

(If you’re a dedicated follower of “06880,” please click here to support your hyper-local blog. Thank you!)

17 Comments

Posted in Beach, Children, Education, History, Library, Local politics

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Roundup: Capuli Restaurant, Suzuki Music, Starbucks, More

Posted on January 19, 2021 | 9 comments

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Despite the pandemic headwinds, new restaurants continue to open in Westport.

Don Memo, Walrus Alley, Manna Toast, Hudson Malone, Outpost Pizza and Basso have all opened their doors, despite restrictions on dining.

Yesterday, Capuli joined them.

Like its predecessors in the Post Road East space opposite Bank of America — Westport Pizzeria, and before that Joe’s Pizza and S&M Pizza — it will serve pies.

But the cuisine is called California-Mediterranean fusion, featuring “a variety of fresh ingredients, low in saturated fats, whole grains, seasonal vegetables, lean meats and seafood.”

They plan on primarily takeout meals at the start. Call 203-557-9340, or email capuli.westport@gmail.com for more information.

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The pandemic has also affected Suzuki Music Schools. But their classical music education and performance schedule has simply moved from Colonial Green to cyberspace.

The popular children’s “Pillow Concert” series returns January 24, and continues through spring. Family-friendly concerts give children a chance to be up close and personal with performers beyond the front row (and they’re encouraged to bring pillows to create seats at the artists’ feet).

Online master classes and interactive workshops will be conducted by widely acclaimed artists like violinists Rachel Barton Pine and Regina Carter. They’re open to audit for non-students for the first time (for a small suggested donation to the school).

The 4th annual Connecticut Guitar Festival returns March 5-7. It goes global virtually this year, featuring international artists. Attendees can tune check out Suzuki Schools’ social media pages every week leading up to the festival for discussions famed guitarists about how they’ve performed during the pandemic.

For more information on Suzuki Music Schools, click here.

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To celebrate Martin Luther King Day, the Westport Public Art Collections announced a series of small rotating exhibitions. They’re part of a larger initiative to support nondiscrimination in the arts.

The first — opening at Town Hall on February 1 — explores longtime Westporter Tracy Sugarman’s civil rights activities during the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Mississippi.

The artist-reporter wrote, “I was determined to bring back real images of real people and real places so everyone could see American apartheid for what it really was.”

Tracy Sugarman died in 2013, at 91. To learn more about him, click here.

“July and 100 Degrees in the Shade at the Sanctified Church for Freedom School Kids, Ruleville”

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Colin Livingston writes:

“Has anyone ever mentioned the overflow Post Road traffic at the Starbucks drive-thru?

“I can’t tell you how many time I’ve driven by and thought it’s an accident in the making. I snapped this the other day leaving the Bank of America ATM next door. I could barely see the approaching traffic.

“I’ve got nothing against Starbucks. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

Colin, the topic has been addressed before. This has been going on for months — ever since the pandemic began.

I am stupefied that anyone would sit in a car for so long at any drive-thru. It’s particularly mind-boggling because there is a perfectly good Starbucks a mile or so down the road, at Stop & Shop. The biggest line I’ve ever seen there is one person.

You could drive, park, get your coffee, drink it — and do all your grocery shopping — in the time you’d spend on that Post Road Line.

Of course, it would mean getting out of your car …

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And finally … Phil Spector — the influential record producer who went from creating the famous Wall of Sound to prison for the murder of a woman in his home — died Saturday, of complications from COVID. He was 81.

9 Comments

Posted in Arts, Children, Downtown, Local business, Restaurants

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Roundup: Woodstock, Teachers, Movies, Music, More

Posted on September 15, 2020 | 4 comments

Last week, Peter Gambaccini saw that TCM was running the director’s cut of “Woodstock.”

Peter was there in the Catskills hills, 51 years ago this month. Now in his early 70s, he was not ready to sit through all those hours of music and more (particularly not Ten Years After).

But he tried to time it so that he’d tune in to see some of the Westporters he knew were there (though he never saw them “live”).

In a segment showing people sliding through the mud after a torrential rain, he suddenly spotted Bill Davidson. He was a Staples High School hockey star, and drummer with local bands.

In the movie, Bill had a line about what a “mess” the hillside was. Peter had not seen him in the movie before, so he guesses that was part of the expanded version.

Then — after a brief bit of other business — Pete Krieg and Peter Cannon came into view. Cannon flashed the peace sign at the camera.

They were so close in the footage to Davidson, Gambaccini assumed they’d all gone to Woodstock together.

Nope.

In a Facebook discussion about another musical topic on Facebook, Gambaccini asked Krieg about the weekend. He said:

“I’ve gotten close to Bill in the past 10 years, since he’s the head bartender at Aspetuck Club. It was just last year (50 years later) that we realized we were 20 yards/60 seconds apart on that road, at that moment, at Woodstock.”

Far out!

Phaedra Taft — science coach at Greens Farms and Long Lots Elementary Schools — has received the Connecticut Science Teachers Association award for “Excellence in Elementary Science Teaching 2020.” 

During her 12 years in the Westport schools, Taft has been a leader in the development and implementation of the elementary school science curriculum. She has also played an instrumental role in leading the District’s adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. 

In other education news, 2 Westport teachers — Staples High School’s Suzanne Kammerman and Courtney Ruggiero of Bedford Middle School — were featured on a Channel 8 story about teaching 9/11 to today’s students. Click here to see.

Phaedra Taft

The Artists Collective of Westport is helping another arts group: the Remarkable Theater.

They’re collaborating on Thursday’s drive-in movie. “Best in Show” — a biting satire about dog shows — will be shown September 17 at 8 p.m. at the Imperial Avenue parking lot. The gate opens at 7.

Tickets are $50 per car. Click here to reserve.

Westport’s Suzuki Music School is beefing up its presence. New Visiting Artist courses have been added, with Grammy Award-winning instructors like percussionist Joe McCarthy, and subjects including the history of jazz, movie soundtrack composition amd contemporary fiddling.

Suzuki is also streaming more free public events, with jazz pianist Sumi Tonooka and cellist Matt Haimovitz and more. The popular children’s Pillow Concert series continues online, and the Connecticut Guitar Festival returns for a 4th year (virtually this time).

Suzuki’s season kicks off this Sunday (September 20) with a master class by Grammy-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich. Click here for tickets to that class; click here for an overview of events.

And finally … since we’re honoring Woodstock (above), here’s a “trip” down memory lane. In deference to Peter Gambaccini, it’s not Ten Years After. It’s Bert Sommer. He was accompanied at Woodstock by local resident Ira Stone. If you’ve never heard of them — or at least didn’t know they were at Woodstock — well, they never made it off the film’s cutting room floor. NOTE: The Woodstock recording is poor. I’ve also included a studio version (I’m not sure if it includes Ira).

 

 

4 Comments

Posted in Arts, Education, Entertainment, History, Organizations, People, Staples HS

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Do You Hear What I Hear?

Posted on December 7, 2019 | 3 comments

In the holiday spirit, there was music a-plenty downtown today.

The Staples High School Orphenians sang outside the Pop’TArt gallery …

(Photo/Mark Yurkiw)

… while across Main Street, the Suzuki School of Music played in front of Anthropologie.

(Photo/Mark Jacobs)

3 Comments

Posted in Downtown, Entertainment, Staples HS, Teenagers

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Be AWARE: Unique Photographer Honors Special Women

Posted on March 12, 2019 | 2 comments

International Day of the Woman was last Friday.

But you can celebrate it this coming Friday.

And you’ll not only honor some outstanding women — you’ll help young refugee girls.

Rebecca Rose is a photographer. She specializes in “classical painterly portraits” — photographs that look almost like paintings. In fact, she provides dresses, gowns, hair and makeup for her subjects.

On Friday (March 15) she’ll open an exhibit at Suzuki Music School. She’ll show some of our state’s most remarkable women: senior journalists, presidents of non-profits, Mrs. Connecticut — you name it, Rebecca has photographed her.

Two Westporters are among those honored.

Amy Saperstein and her daughter. (Photo/Rebecca Rose)

Amy Saperstein is a founder and co-director of AWARE, both in New York and Fairfield County. The acronym stands for Assisting Women with Actions, Resources and Education. Each year, members partner with a local non-profit. They volunteer with that group, organize an educational event and host a fundraiser.

AWARE CT has already aided the International Institute of Connecticut (human trafficking), Mercy Learning Center (education), Female Soldiers: Forgotten Heroes (veterans) and Malta House (pregnant and new mothers).

Previously, Amy — who earned an MBA at Columbia — was executive director of Project Sunshine. She grew the nonprofit, which serves children in hospitals, from a small community group to an international organization, with programs in the US, Mexico, Israel, Africa and China.

Nicole Gerber (Photo/Rebecca Rose)

Nicole Gerber will also have her Rebecca Ross portrait hung at Suzuki. With over 20 years experience in project management and event planning, she’s currently director of operations for AWARE CT.

Nicole also sits on the board of advisors for Unite the World with Africa, a foundation that provides opportunities for marginalized women and youth in Tanzania. She has raised over $25,000 a year for Unite, for the past 3 years.

Amy and Nicole’s connections with AWARE are not coincidences.

Soon, Rebecca will take photos of immigrant girls. They come from Eritrea, Congo, Tanzania and Sudan, and live in Fairfield and New Haven Counties. They’re sponsored by the Connecticut institute for Refugees and Immigrants — the organization that AWARE is partnering with this year.

Portraits are something tangible, Rebecca says, that they are their families and cherish for generations.

Portraits are dear to Rebecca’s heart. Her great-grandfather lived in Czechoslovakia, when World War II broke out. He prepared his family as best he could — including having a family portrait taken just before Germany seized the country.

That family portrait is all Rebecca’s mother knew of her grandparents. They were killed by the Nazis.

Rebecca’s mission is to ensure that all generations can admire their families, remembering them through portraits that bring out their true beauty and personalities.

(The portrait show opening is this Friday, March 15, 6 to 7 p.m. at Suzuki Music School, 246 Post Road East — the lower level of Colonial Green.)

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Posted in Arts, Local business, People

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Give The Ukulele Some Props

Posted on September 7, 2018 | 3 comments

In high school, Peter Propp’s rock band played covers of the Clash, Talking Heads and Pink Floyd all around Albany. Later, in New York in the 1980s, he had a (quick) gig at CBGB. He went corporate, then got into tech. But he never left music behind.

Growing up in Westport, Orphenian and 1981 Staples High School graduate Suzanne Sherman liked James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. She earned an MBA at Columbia, worked in the recording industry, and is now a longtime and much-loved music teacher at Greens Farms Elementary School.

Peter and Suzanne got married. They share a love of all kinds of music.

Including ukulele.

Suzanne Sherman Propp and Peter Propp, ukes in hand.

They started playing last year, in a Westport YMCA group led by Steve Forlano. When they heard about Connecticut’s Got Talent competition in Norwalk, they submitted a video.

They were selected, and played the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon.” That advanced them to the finals, where they performed the Turtles’ “Happy Together.”

Excited by the competition, Steve and Peter decided to produce a Ukulele Festival. They found a perfect, intimate venue: Westport’s Suzuki Music School, on the lower level of Colonial Green.

The event is set for Saturday, September 29. Workshops run from noon to 5 p.m. Concert doors open at 6.

Peter has plenty of experience running tech and business events, for IBM and as CMO for the Stamford Innovation Center.

A music festival is a wee bit different.

He booked national talent like Victoria Vox, and organized a great lineup including the CUkes from Westport, Abe Deshotel (Norwalk) and the Educated Fleas (Bethel).

The Ukulele Festival also features food trucks and local music vendors. Instruments will also be available to borrow.

Peter has had plenty of help, including Factory Underground (handling the live sound). Steve Forlano will be MC and workshop leader.

So who will come? With ukulele’s growing popularity, Peter expects people ages 10 to 70, from all over New York and New England.

Tiny Tim died in 1996. But I’m sure he’ll be there in spirit too.

(Click here for tickets and more information.)

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Posted in Entertainment, People

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