Latest News
Auto Repair
Blinds
Building/Remodeling
Floor Refinishing
Insulation
Landscaping
Landscaping
Lightning Rods
Moving
Overhead Doors
The Music in the Nave series presented at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent is branching out, bringing ever more diverse entertainment to patrons.
On Sunday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m., it will present Francis Poulenc’s classic composition, “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant” its first-ever concert aimed at a very young audience.
The program will be narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Margo Martindale, who has appeared on television, film and stage, and who has owned a home in Kent since 2015.
The program will begin with cellist Eliot Bailen playing his “Ferdinand the Bull” with daughter Julia Bailen narrating, followed by Bailen and pianist Margarita Nuller performing Saint-Saens’ “The Swan” from “Carnival of the Animals.”
“Basically, we have rethought the whole series,” said Matthew Harris, head of the Music Commission for the church. “We wanted the series to not be confined to one style or genre — to have it be a nice smorgasbord. So we started two years with Steve Katz, who was with Blood, Sweat & Tears, and we did a cabaret-style concert with wine and cheese in the Parish House. People loved it and said, ‘Find more old classic rockers.’”
The response was encouraging, but the commission members did not completely abandon their previous core music. They continued with the popular “Messiah Sing-in,” at Christmas, but instead of hiring local voices, brought in a conductor from New Haven and let him “find the hottest young singers” from that city.
That program was followed by an appearance of the Manhattan String Quartet and concerts by Livingston Taylor and the Whiffinpoofs, the a cappella singing group from Yale. “They were great, and we sold out,” reported Harris. And, instead of an “old rocker,” they reached out to a young performer who plays modern folk music on acoustic instruments.
“That was our second season and now we have a full-fledged children’s concert,” said Harris, a composer, educator and musicologist. “We’re excited we can now bring in the whole family and have little kids.”
Their choice for the program fell on Poulenc’s charming little adaptation of “Babar.” “This is still serious music, even though it will be a lot of fun,” said Harris. “The story is that Poulenc was visiting relatives in 1940 and was playing the piano when a little niece came over to him and said, ‘Play this.’”
Poulenc obliged and improvised around the spoken narrative. “It works perfectly well with a piano,” Harris observed.
Poulenc enjoyed the memory of that day and in 1946, played it on the air assisted by French singer Pierre Bernac, who did the narration. “L’histoire de Babar” became one of Poulenc’s most popular compositions.
The narrator is central to the production, however, and Bernac being long since gone, Harris and his colleagues cast around for a candidate. They found the perfect choice in Martindale, who agreed to participate. “We were all excited to have a big name,” said Harris.
“Babar” lasts only a half-hour, so to fill out the program, the commission reached out to the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, which has long performed in the Music in the Nave series. “We went to Eliot [Bailen, founder of the ensemble], and said, ‘You do children’s concerts, what do you have?’ He had ‘Ferdinand the Bull.’ Then, we needed one more thing, so we picked ‘Swan Song’ by Saint-Saens and decided that would be nice between the two narrated pieces.”
There is special pricing for this children’s concert. Tickets for adults are $20 and are available here or at the door. Young people 18 and younger will be admitted free.
The series will have two other concerts this year, one with Kent’s own George Potts, who brought out an album a year ago that is currently in the Top 40 listing for folk music. The second concert will revisit the concept of Mozart in May and will feature the Manhattan String Quartet.
Courtesy of The Kent Good Times Dispatch.
Related Stories
Get Local News Delivered To Your Inbox
Subscribe to receive stories reported for, by, and about our neighbors, on the issues affecting you.
By signing up you agree to our
privacy policy
.
Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.