
Kenneth Weiss (above) will play a solo recital performance in honor of Wanda Landowska, a harpischord virtuoso, who lived in Lakeville for many years.
Provided
Kenneth Weiss (above) will play a solo recital performance in honor of Wanda Landowska, a harpischord virtuoso, who lived in Lakeville for many years.
On Sept. 14, Crescendo, the award-winning music program based in Lakeville, will present a harpsichord solo recital by Kenneth Weiss in honor of world-renowned harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. Landowska lived in Lakeville from 1941 to 1959. Weiss is a professor at the Paris Conservatoire and has taught at Julliard. Born in New York, he now resides in Europe.
Weiss will play selections from “A Treasury of Harpsichord Music.” It includes works by Baroque composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Handel. It was recorded by Landowska in New York City in 1946 while she was living in her Lakeville home at 63 Millerton Road, which overlooks Lakeville Lake. Weiss said, “I am honored and excited to play in Lakeville, where Wanda Landowska lived.”
Landowska fled Nazi Germany in 1941 with two of her students, one of whom was Denise Restout, who later became her companion of many years, and a harpsichord in a box. They landed in New York. Landowski performed the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach at New York Town Hall to “Incredible success.” She then looked around for a place to live and found Lakeville where she resided until her death in 1959.
Kenneth Weiss made “a pilgrimage “to Lakeville in the 1980’s. “Madame Restout received us in the kitchen of the home she shared with Landowska. From the two Pleyel Harpsichords to Landowska concert gowns on display it felt as if Landowska had just stepped out.”
Madame Wanda Landowska, world famous harpsichordist and resident of Lakeville from 1941 until her death in 1959, will be honored in a concert presented by Crescendo and featuring a performance by Kenneth Weiss, renowned harpsichord soloist and professor at the Paris Conservatoire.Provided
Wanda Landowska was a child prodigy. Christine Gevert, Founding Artistic Director of Crescendo said that Landowska “went way beyond the harpsichord to other instruments.”
Landowska commissioned music from composers and wrote some of her own. She also had harpsichords built to order. She founded a music school in Paris where she “invited her students to come and stay on the property as if they were her own children.” She often became a lifelong mentor to students.
Landowska also authored many articles, some of which were translated from Polish and French and made into a book by her life partner Denise Restout who was left to take care of Landowska’s legacy when she died. Most of Landowska’s papers are in the Smithsonian, unfortunately still boxed up.
One reason for Landowska’s fame was that “she changed the course of music and how people perceived and enjoyed it.” She had a Bauhaus architect, Jean-Charles Moreux, design a concert hall, near Paris in the 1920’s, which was filled with light, in contrast to most darkened theaters. She had a low stage built so she could be close to the audience and would bring a carpet and lamp from home “to create ambience” said Gevert. Landowska had a “Holistic concept and made performances more attractive and accessible. She was one of the first performers to talk to the audience.”
The concert will be at the Lakeville Methodist Church at 6 p.m. on Sept. 14. It is presented with special support by Leszek Wojcik, famed Carnegie Hall recording engineer who lives in Lakeville. Wojcik “understands the importance of Landowska’s legacy,” said Gevert, and works with Crescendo to preserve it.
Tickets are available at www.crescendomusic.org or at the door, first come, first serve, forty-five minutes before the concert. Prices are forty dollars for general seats, ten dollars for youths or seventy-five for an up-close seat.
Support for the concert has also been provided to Crescendo by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature, and NBT Bank.
A previous version of this article did not state that "A Treasury of Harpsichord Music," was recorded in New York City.
Bill Dinneen, left, and Ivan Kotchoubey, age 7, place a recently restored grave marker at the headstone of David Mallery, a Revolutionary War veteran, in Cornwall Sunday, May 25.
CORNWALL — On Sunday, May 25, Cornwall held a powerful ceremony to honor local veterans of the Revolutionary War.
At the cemetery on Route 4, about 25 attendees gathered to witness the placement of 10 grave markers. Bill Dinneen of the Cornwall Historical Society and Warren Stevens led the ceremony.
“These markers had gone missing from the cemetery, we don’t know when,” Dinneen said, showing six bronze and four cast iron markers that were recently restored and painted.
He explained the markers were found in bushes at the edge of the cemetery by Gene Swanson, of Washington Depot. It was unclear why they were removed from the gravestones, and Dinneen said there could be more elsewhere in the cemetery.
Bill Dinneen, left, and Warren Stevens explain the history, discovery and restoration process of the grave markers to attendees May 25.Photo by Riley Klein
“Today we have 10 markers. We have 32 names” of buried Revolutionary War veterans, Dinneen said. “The bronze markers will go to ranked soldiers,” such as sergeants, and “the cast ones will go to the oldest” of the infantry soldiers.
The restoration process included sandblasting, priming and painting. He was not certain, but Dinneen said the markers may have been originally placed by the government around World War I, at which time the original tombstones were replaced with harder stone.
Stevens explained the symbolism of the markers: A big star in the middle represents one of the colonies, 13 little stars represent all the colonies, the years 1775 and 1783 show the duration of the war, the words “A Patriot’s Grave” and “E Pluribus Unum. From many, there is one,” he said.
Susan Hellmann placed a bronze marker at the grave of her ancestor Noah Harrison. Photo by Riley Klein
Attendees, some of them descendants of the veterans, assisted in the placement of the markers.
Susan Hellmann, of Cornwall, said she would be placing a restored marker at the grave of “my great, great, great grandfather Noah Harrison” who served in the Revolution. “I feel like I’m going to cry. It’s just very touching, very powerful,” she said.
Dinneen read the rank, company and lifespan of each veteran as the markers were being placed, then Stevens fired a blast from his musket. When all the markers were set, the names of the other Revolutionary veterans buried in town were read aloud.
Warren Stevens fires his musket.Photo by Riley Klein
The ceremony was held as part of Memorial Day remembrances in Cornwall. It also marked the first official event in town for the nation’s 250th birthday with more to come.
As the occasion came to an end, a light rain began.
A bronze marker was placed at the grave of James Bierce, who lived to the age of 94 after serving in the Revolution with Captain Smith's Company. Bill Dinneen noted many of the Revolutionary War veterans buried in Cornwall lived to old ages. "The average age that these veterans died was 72 years old," he said.Photo by Riley Klein
LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School girls lacrosse won the 2025 Founders League championship with an 11-10 victory over Choate Rosemary Hall May 21.
The Bearcats battled back from behind by as many as four points.
MaryHelen McCooey scored the game-winning goal with about two minutes remaining.
The win marked the fourth consecutive Founders League title for Hotchkiss girls lacrosse.
The Marvelwood lacrosse team poses for a group photo May 20 after winning the HVAL title for the second year in row.
KENT — On Tuesday, May 20, Marvelwood School lacrosse defeated Woodhall School 15-9 in the Housatonic Valley Athletic League tournament final.
It was second straight HVAL championship win for the Pterodactyls and their fifth league title since 2018.
Marvelwood and Woodhall played twice this past season with Marvelwood winning both games. They met in the championship as the first and second ranked teams in the league.
In the pre-game huddle, Marvelwood Coach Zach Maizel pumped up his players and urged them to “be aggressive early.”
Eli Jamieson, No. 4, congratulates teammate C. Jones after a goal.Photo by Lans Christensen
Taking his message to heart, attackman Eli Jamieson scored in the first minute of game play. He scored twice more in the first period, which ended with Marvelwood ahead 6-3.
Woodhall played aggressively and stayed on the attack, but the first half ended 9-4 in favor of Marvelwood.
Jamieson was the key player on the Marvelwood squad, and he scored twice more in the final period to maintain the Pterodactyls’ lead.
Woodhall fought hard and possessed control for most of the final period, scoring five goals but falling to a final 15-9 Marvelwood victory.
HVRHS sophomore Ryan Segalla went three-for-three May 17 with Berkshire League gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m races. He was also on the gold-winning 4x400m relay team.
Berkshire League track and field wrapped up a season of competition with the league finals in Litchfield May 17. The BL festival followed with decathlon, heptathlon, steeplechase and hammer in Falls Village May 20 and Thomaston May 21.
The events included athletes from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Gilbert School, Lakeview High School, Nonnewaug High School, Northwestern Regional High School, Shepaug Valley High School, Terryville High School and Thomaston High School.
In the gold medal tally, Nonnewaug led with 12 golds, Housatonic won 10, Northwestern won six, Thomaston won six, Lakeview won five and Shepaug won three.
For Housatonic, Senior Mia Dodge won the girls 300m hurdles.
Mia DodgePhoto by Riley Klein
Sophomore Ryan Segalla won the boys 100m, 200m and 400m races.
Senior Kyle McCarron won the boys 800m and 1600m races.
The boys 4x400m relay team of Anthony Labbadia, Patrick Money, Kyle McCarron and Ryan Segalla won gold.
Junior Anthony Labbadia won the boys triple jump by a margin of more than three feet. He also earned second place in the boys 400m race.
Senior Patrick Money won the decathlon.
Senior Gabi Titone won the steeplechase. Junior Olivia Brooks took bronze.
The girls 4x400m relay team of Mckenzie Lotz, Harper Howe, Mia Dodge and Maddy Johnson took silver. The same team took bronze in the 4x100m relay.
Harper Howe took silver in the girls 400m race.
Gabi Titone took silver in the girls 800m race.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class S state track and field meet will be held in New Britain on June 2.
Patrick Money
Photo by Riley Klein