Fantasy of Lights runs Friday, November 18, 2011 to Saturday, January 7, 2012

New Haven, CT - The Fantasy of Lights, presented by Easter Seals Goodwill Industries and sponsored by PSEG, has become a holiday tradition for thousands of families. This dazzling holiday light display illuminates Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, CT for the holiday season. This year, the Fantasy of Lights will open on Friday, November 18, 2011 and run an extra week, ending on Saturday, January 7, 2012. The Fantasy of Lights is adding the extra week to be open on Three Kings Day, which is celebrated on January 6^th, twelve days after Christmas and often viewed as the last day of the Christmas season. The park opens nightly at 5pm and is open until 9pm on Sundays through Thursdays, and until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Each display is sponsored by a local area business, corporation, individual or organization. This year, the Fantasy of Lights will feature two brand new displays. A Fire Dog with Santa is sponsored by Honeywell Fire Systems and a Nativity Scene is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. The Nativity Scene display will have a sign in both English and Spanish saying “Keep Christ in Christmas.”

The Fantasy of Lights is also going green this year, with fourteen of the over 60 displays featuring LED light bulbs. These new bulbs not only save energy and electricity, they also make the displays more colorful and more vibrant. We are working with display sponsors to convert more and more displays to LED bulbs in the future.

Admission to the Fantasy of Lights is $10 for passenger cars/family fans, $25 for 15-passenger cans or mini-buses and $50 for full sized buses. All proceeds go to support Easter Seals Goodwill Industries’ mission to enhance employment, educational, social and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities and other challenges.

For more information about the Fantasy of Lights or how you can help out, contact the Development Department at (203) 777-2000 x263, email them at events@esginh.org or visit our website at www.eastersealsgoodwill.org/fantasyoflights.

New Haven, CT

The tree lighting celebration will be highlighted by over 20,000 LED lights on a 65 foot tall Norway spruce tree in the heart of the downtown area. The event will also include children’s activities, as well as food and snacks provided by multiple area organizations. Kids will also get the chance to take pictures with some great holiday characters such as Rudolph and Santa. With one of the largest tree lighting ceremonies in the state of Connecticut, this is certain to attract visitors from all over.

One great part of the December downtown celebration in New Haven is Festival Fridays. On December 3, 10 and 17 the downtown district will be home to a weekly, area wide holiday celebration. These weekly festivals will include wine tastings at multiple stores, as well as free holiday trolley rides. On these Fridays, all area shoppers will receive a 20 percent discount at a local store.

Following up the festival Fridays, the downtown area will be home to some great deals in the form of Saturday Shopping Strolls. Taking place on December 4, 11 and 18 these events will offer up the opportunity to take in over 50 shops in the downtown area. The stores will be offering up excellent promotional deals as well as some treats and beverages. Carolers will also be performing throughout the day, filling the air with holiday music.

The celebration weekends will be closed out by Sunday Singing events on December 5, 12 and 19 in downtown New Haven. A number of local school music ensembles will take to the streets and take part in great performances every Sunday. The ensembles will be singing along two separate streets, both Broadway and Chapel Street.

On top of the weekend events taking place, children will also have the chance to go downtown with their parents and take free pictures with Santa this December. The free photos will be offered at the Yale Barnes & Noble Bookstore in the Broadway District on both Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of December. All guests will receive a digital and print photograph to keep for the holidays. Certainly the New Haven area will be home to some great holiday events throughout the month, but the downtown districts will be home to some great opportunities every weekend this December.

Remember Lennon: Imagine 70

New Haven, CT - Tomorrow, John Lennon would have turned 70 years of age. On the weekend of this momentous occasion, a very special theatrical concert event entitled “Remember Lennon: Imagine 70″ will be staged over at 2 select locations in Connecticut.

On Saturday, October 9, the exact date of his 70th birthday, the remarkable live production takes place at the historic Shubert Theater in New Haven, CT at 7pm.

And on Sunday afternoon, 10/10/10, the day after John’s 70th birthday, there will be a special 3pm matinee performance at the Garde Arts Center Theater in New London, CT.

“Remember Lennon: Imagine 70″ presents one of the greatest John Lennon impersonators in existence, a world-class backing band, and audio-visual accompaniment, adding up to a show that is a respectful tribute recreating the concert John may have performed had he still been with us.

With most of the world-renowned Lennon tribute acts, close your eyes and you think you’re listening to John. With this production, keep them open and you’ll be equally amazed.

Tickets are currently on sale for all three shows, and great seats are still available. Shubert Theater proceeds benefit the Ethnic Heritage Center.

For 10/9 tickets, visit the Shubert Theater Box Office, 247 College Street, Downtown New Haven, CT or call (203)562-5666 or toll-free (888)736-2663 (website www.Shubert.com). For 10/10 tickets, visit the Garde Arts Center Box Office, 325 State Street, New London, CT or call (860) 444-4410 (website: www.gardearts.org).

“Remember Lennon: Imagine 70″ is a unique extraordinary musical theater experience celebrating the music, the memory, the magic and the LIFE of John Lennon. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime concert event.

Imagine…70.

http://www.imagine70.com

Ingrid Michaelson

New Haven, CT - Ingrid Michaelson is coming to Toads Place this coming Monday (8/2) and we’ve got two pairs of tickets to give away!  Best known for her song “The Way I Am”, Michaelson first saw success after being featured on the show Grey’s Anatomy in 2007.  Her most recent album Everybody jumped to #1 on iTunes Top Albums sales charts. Currently touring with Keane, Michaelson is taking a  break to headline her own show at Toad’s.

We’re giving you two easy ways to win tickets. Try both and you double your chances!  The two winners will be selected Sunday evening at 9:00pm.

• On Facebook: Post your top 3 favorite places to visit in your hometown on our Facebook Wall.
• On Twitter: Follow @CTWeekender and then tweet the following message:  RT @CTWeekender Win a pair of tickets to see Ingrid Michaelson (@ingridmusic) at Toad’s Place in New Haven on 8/2!

Michaelson took a few moments before a recent show to talk to the Connecticut Weekender’s Ryan Spain about her new album and her upcoming show. Listen to the interview below:

AUDIO: Ingrid Michaelson talks about upcoming show at Toad’s Place

Tickets for the show are on sale here.  For more information about Ingrid Michaelson, please visit http://www.ingridmichaelson.com.

On display at the Kehler Liddell Gallery

New Haven, CT – This month the Kehler Liddell Gallery presents ARTIST AS CURATOR, an exhibition curated by the gallery’s artists, who live and work in New Haven and surrounding areas. The exhibition began on July 1st and continues until August 8, 2010. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, July 11 from 3–6pm, with an artist talk at 3pm.

Connecticut has a rich history of attracting artists to settle along its shoreline. Over the past decade, New Haven has established itself as one of the Northeast’s most densely populated, academically minded artist enclaves, poised to become an alternative to the New York art scene.

For this exhibition, each Kehler Liddell Gallery artist has invited one regional guest artist, whom he or she thinks is making exceptional work, to partake in the show. The result is a compelling installation of new painting, sculpture, mixed media constructions, and works on paper.

ARTIST AS CURATOR explores tacit dynamics of the curatorial experience, possibly offering concrete examples of what it means to be an “Aritst’s Artist.” The 22 pairings between artist and their invitees document idea-exchanges that many outsiders have no means of detecting. In many instances, these collaborative relationships are unbound by medium, age or art world status.

Following is the list of artist curators and their invited guests: Joseph Adolphe to Ting Ou-Yang; Amy Browning to Lori Glavin; Frank Bruckmann to Jason Noushin; Jason Buening to Gulgun Aliriza; Susan Clinard to Janice Bielawa; Rod Cook to Melody Best; Emilia Dubicki to Jonathan Waters; Matthew Garrett to Kevin Van Aelst; John Harris to Tom Reilly; Lisa Hess Hesselgrave to Alanna Fagan; Blinn Jacobs to Richard Lytle; Keith Johnson to Andrew Hogan; Gigi Horr Liverant to Jean Dalton; William McCarthy to Catherine Doocy; Lawrence Morelli to Chris Durante; Hank Paper to Terry Dagradi; Joseph Saccio to Fethi Meghelli; Gerald Saladyga to Jeremy Keats Saladyga; Deirdre Schiffer to Thomas Stavovy; Alan Shulik to Douglas Nygren; Gar Waterman to
Richard Carleton; Marjorie Wolfe to Susan Cutler Tremaine.

Gallery Hours are Thursday and Friday, 10am-4pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm, or by appointment.

Azalea Quartet - One of several finalists

New Haven, CT – The Hugo Kauder Society is pleased to present its 6th annual International Hugo Kauder Competition in New Haven, Connecticut.  Five string quartets (with musicians aged under 35) have been selected to perform in front of a live jury. The groups are the Hausmann Quartet from San Francisco, the Linden String Quartet and the Azalea Quartet, both from Ohio, the Bryant Park Quartet from New York, and the Amphion String Quartet from New Haven (pictured left to right, below).  They will compete for ?rst, second and third place and cash prizes by performing classical music pieces composed by Hugo Kauder, as well as a selection of Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary works. The ?rst prize winner will also receive a concert opportunity in New York City.

The distinguished Competition judges are Nicholas Eanet, ?rst violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, Ettore Causa,
professor of viola at Yale University, and Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist of the Kronos Quartet. The Competition will be held at
Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall, 470 College Street, New Haven, on June 11th, from 10am to 4pm. The Winners Concert follows on Saturday, June 12th, 2pm to 4pm, also at Sprague Hall. This year’s program is dedicated to the memory of Siegmund Levarie (1914-2010), distinguished musicologist and life-long friend and colleague of Hugo Kauder. Levarie was a founding member of the Hugo Kauder Society.

The Hugo Kauder Society’s mission is to foster awareness and appreciation of the work of Viennese composer Hugo
Kauder (1888-1972), to create opportunities for emerging musicians to gain wider exposure, and to provide audiences with the unique opportunity to encounter Kauder premieres. Hugo Kauder came to the United States as a refugee in 1940, and many of his works have not yet been performed publicly in the U.S. Several pieces performed in this Competition will be world or U.S. premieres.

The public is invited to attend the Competition, which is free, as well as the Winners Concert (suggested contribution $10). A silent auction for music lovers will take place on site.

For more information on the participating musicians please visit www.hugokauder.org.

The CT Folk Festival and Green Expo kicks off on Friday Sept. 10, with the Grassy Hill Song Circle, a unique evening of collaborative entertainment. Four of the hottest musicians on the indie/Americana scene will play solo work and then accompany each other in a jam-session atmosphere: Trina Hamlin, Reed Waddle, Seth Glier, and Mark von Em. For the first time, the Grassy Hill Song Circle will also be held in the magical atmosphere of Edgerton Park, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday afternoon, Edgerton Park will be the site of CT Folk’s fifth annual annual Green Expo, a free afternoon event (11 a.m. – 4 p.m.) featuring 75 exhibitors, demonstrations and activities to promote living a sustainable life, as well as a free family concert and activities for kids. This year, the Connecticut Green Expo will focus on the theme “Local is green.” Local food, local farming, local services, local transportation options and local musicians will all be highlighted.

As part of its annual family programming, CT Folk’s World Stage will offer a free family concert during the Green Expo on Saturday afternoon. For the first time, the Expo’s World Stage will feature the top five artists from our CT Folk’s 2010 songwriting contest in a competitive showcase. A judging panel made up of accomplished musicians and community leaders will select one outstanding performer to join the Main Stage line-up later that evening. The Festival will conclude at noon on Sunday, September 12 with the Dava Hoot, an informal community singalong hosted by Connecticut’s own Pierce Campbell, at noon in Edgerton Park.

Now in its second decade, the Connecticut Folk Festival & Green Expo is a nonprofit, primarily volunteer organization based in New Haven. The Festival & Green Expo’s parent organization, CT Folk, is dedicated to traditional and contemporary roots music and to caring for the earth.

Join us Friday evening, May 7 from 5-9pm for kick-off events throughout the Village featuring live music, gallery openings, artist receptions, ribbon cuttings, merchant open houses, fashion shows, wine tastings, and more.

For more info and a full schedule of events, go to www.westvilleCT.org

ArtWalk is an annual event of the Westville Village Renaissance Alliance (WVRA), a non-profit organization dedicated to the revitalization, celebration, and enhancement of historic Westville Village.

ArtWalk 2010 is sponsored by Webster Bank, The Tremaine Foundation, The New Haven Register, The United Illuminating Company, Southern Connecticut State University, The City of New Haven Department of Cultural Affairs, International Association of New Haven, Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, and Pellegrino & Pellegrino, LLC.

Blues Traveler & Toads May 22nd

New Haven, CT - The New York-based blues-rock quartet Blues Traveler returns to Toadsplace on Saturday, May 22nd. Tickets are $25 if purchased in advance $30 the day of the show. Doors open at 6:30 and the show begins at 7:45. For tickets, please visit toadsplace.com.

Formed in 1988 by singer/harmonica player John Popper, guitarist Chan Kinchla, bassist Bobby Sheehan, and drummer Brendan Hill, Blues Traveler were part of a revival of the extended jamming style of ’60s and ’70s groups like the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin. Signed to A&M, they released their first album, Blues Traveler, in May 1990 and followed it with Travelers & Thieves in September 1991. Popper was in a serious car accident in 1992, leaving him unable to perform for a number of months. Fortunately, he recovered, yet he still had to perform in a wheelchair for a period of time. In April 1993, Blues Traveler released their third album, Save His Soul, which became the band’s first to make the Top 100. Blues Traveler’s aptly named fourth album, Four, released in September 1994, at first looked like a sales disappointment, but it rebounded in 1995 when “Run-Around,” a single taken from it, became the group’s first chart hit. “Run-Around” became one of the biggest singles of 1995, spending nearly a full year on the charts and sending Four into quintuple platinum status.

As the group prepared the follow-up to Four, Blues Traveler released the live double-album Live from the Fall in the summer of 1996. The group returned in the summer of 1997 with its fifth studio album, Straight on Till Morning. After completing his 1999 debut solo effort, Zygote, Popper — who’d been experiencing chest pains for months — was forced to undergo an angioplasty; weeks later, tragedy struck on August 20, 1999, when Sheehan was found dead in his New Orleans home. He was just 31 years old. The new millennium saw a newly charged Blues Traveler, and their sixth record, Bridge, appeared in May 2001. The next winter, Blues Traveler released the live What You and I Have Been Through. The studio record Truth Be Told followed in 2003, and another concert album, Live on the Rocks, appeared in 2004. The group returned to the studio in 2004, releasing the Jay Bennett-produced Bastardos! in September of the following year. In 2007, Blues Traveler released Cover Yourself, a collection of previous hits reworked with acoustic arrangements. The David Bianco-produced North Hollywood Shootout appeared from Verve Forecast in 2008.

For the past 23 years, the May Day Celebration Committee has honored International Workers’ Day by organizing an annual event on the New Haven Green. 2010 is the 24th year of May Day on the Green. Immigration Reform Now, part of a unified, nationwide march, starts at Front Street and Grand Avenue near the Quinnipiac Bridge in the Fair Haven section of New Haven; meeting at 10:30 and departing at 11am.

Schedule of events

• 12:00 May Day Statement
• 12:05 Mariachi Music and Speeches
• 1:00 History of May Day by Greater New Haven Labor History Association (dramatic reading) www.laborhistory.org
• 1:30 Age Of Reason (Acoustic Rock) www.AgeOfReasonMusic.com
• 1:50 Jane LaTour, author, Sisters in the Brotherhood, speaking about women in blue collar jobs
  2:00 Moonshine Kellie (folk rock)
• 2:20 Speak Out Time
• 2:30 Slam Poetry Master, Ngoma www.NgomazWorld.com
• 2:50 Bread is Rising Poetry Collective www.TheBreadIsRising.org
• 3:00 Capoeira demonstration by Master Efraim www.ConnecticutCapoeira.com and UrsaMajor.HartNet.org/iccd/artists/silva
• 3:20 Brandon McMahon (Contemporary Poet)
• 3:30 Joseph FireCrow (Native American music) www.JosephFireCrow.com
• 4:00 Maypole Dance : Led by Out On A Whim featuring Bill Fischer and Mickey Koth
• 4:30 Katie Wilson and the Low Tide Boys (Bluegrass Music) www.KatieWilsonMusic.com
• 4:50 Speak Out Time
• 5:00 Eula (Alternative Rock) www.EulaMusic.com
• 5:20 Speak Out Time 5:30Mista Mayday and The Hired Gun featuring West Road
  (Conscious Rap Music) MySpace.com/MistaMayDay
• 6:00 East Village Pharmacy (Latin Reggae from NYC) www.EastVillagePharmacy.com

In most countries, International Workers’ Day is celebrated as the official Labor Day. In New Haven, in these days of economic devastation, U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, covert wars, and assaults upon hard won political rights, we raise the old banner and say “Working people of all countries, unite!”

Volunteers are needed.

Rain space is United Church at The Parish House at 323 Temple Street.

For information, contact Jeff Spalter (203) 843-3069 or Shadow at (203) 606-2456, or visit www.maydaynewhaven.org.

The 2010 May Day celebration is made possible with the support of the City of New Haven Mayor’s Community Grants Program.