Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

If you are looking for an inexpensive evening out where you may bring your children, a picnic basket, blankets and chairs, look no further than Westport's Levitt Pavilion. The Connecticut Chamber Orchestra consisting of local freelance musicians, will be gracing the stage with a pops theme entitled Bach to Broadway. This diverse group led by conductor Sayard Stone, will showcase the violin artistry of Westport's own Bernice Stochek Friedson.

Sayard Stone was a student at the Juilliard School of Music and the Tanglewood Music Festival. He has directed the Queens Symphony Orchestra, the Manhattan Opera Theatre and the “America’s Youth in Concert” festival at Carnegie Hall. His other engagements have included the Concertgebow Orchestra in Amsterdam, and the Munich and Vienna Chamber Orchestras. His recent discovery of an unknown Mendelssohn Piano Concerto #3 led him to record it with the esteemed English Chamber Orchestra in London.

Ms. Friedson began her career at the age of seven, and has been concertizing in solo and chamber music performances ever since, including appearances on WQXR and WNYC. She studied at the Juilliard and Mannes Schools of Music and has been concertmaster for many area orchestras, most notably the Greater Bridgeport Symphony. She is a founder and first violinist of the Connecticut String Quartet. and plays exclusively on a violin made by her father, Samuel A. Stochek.

If you would like other suggestions of chamber music works, please feel free to contact me