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First prize winner Sue Amholter with her blue ribbon painting titled "Race Day."
Patrick L. Sullivan
Sue Arnholter’s watercolor painting, “Race Day,” took first prize in the Trinity Episcopal Church juried art show.
The awards were announced at a reception at the church Friday, Sept. 13.
Arnholter, of Hillsdale, said she doesn’t regularly follow horse racing but “I was struck by the movement” during a horse race.
Second prize was an oil painting of three cows in a field by Michael Spross of Millbrook. A retired art teacher, Spross said he started painting the sky at the top of the composition with brushes.
“This is going to take forever,” he thought to himself, so he switched to palette knives and completed the painting that way.
Third prize went to Pamela Berkeley’s oil painting “Bidet and Pussy Willows,” and the People’s Choice award to Gary Finelli’s “Jesus and Me” (pencil and chalk dust).
The judges were Jason Losh and Karin Wexler.
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Francine Prose in author talk
Sep 18, 2024
Francine Prose will be in conversation at Cornwall Library Sept. 21.
Dee Salomon
The Cornwall Library (30 Pine St., Cornwall, CT) will host Francine Prose, the award-winning American novelist and critic, for an in-person author talk on “1974,” her newest memoir, on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. Prose will be in conversation with eminent writer Roxana Robinson, offering an engaging discussion about the book and the turbulent cultural landscape it explores.
“1974” takes readers back to a formative period in Prose’s life, as she reflects on her youth and experiences in San Francisco during the countercultural 1970s. A captivating memoir, it intertwines personal narrative with the political and social upheaval of the time, particularly focusing on her relationship with Tony Russo, a figure central to the Pentagon Papers leak. Through the memoir, Prose paints a vivid picture of a changing America, using her wit and insight to draw connections between the past and the present.
In addition to discussing her memoir, Prose will explore her distinguished career as the author of twenty novels, several collections of nonfiction, and essays, and share her thoughts on becoming a writer during an era of radical change.
Acclaimed novelist and biographer, Roxana Robinson will lead the conversation. Known for her biography of Georgia O’Keeffe and her seven novels, Robinson brings her own literary expertise to the event, promising a thoughtful and engaging dialogue.
This is an in-person event, and registration is required. Please sign up at cornwalllibrary.org. Copies of “1974” will be available for purchase and signing.
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Charity tennis match raises $4K
Sep 18, 2024
Jeff Kivitz played in the Little Guild’s charity match.
Matthew Kreta
SHARON — The Sharon Country Club (SCC) hosted an exhibition doubles tennis match on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. The event was held as a charity for the Little Guild Animal Shelter and raised approximately $4,000.
The match featured players Dustin Parente and Jeff Kivitz against John Lippert and Guillermo Garcia Rincon. All four players have an extensive history with the game.
Parente is a three-time Connecticut State Champion and former Division One NCAA player at the University of Rhode Island, who currently leads the tennis program at SCC.
Kivitz is a former nationally ranked junior and All-American captain at Williams College and the eight-time defending SCC club champion.
Lippert played Division One NCAA tennis at the University of San Francisco.
Rincon has a top-25 national U16 ranking in Spain and is currently a coach and player, recently leading his team to a championship in the Greater Hartford Tennis League.
The talent on display was clear for the crowd in attendance, who frequently applauded the players’ impressive feats. The four players had a frequent banter that paved the way for a light-hearted and enjoyable match.
The closest game of the entire match occurred at the start, as team Lippert-Rincon served to team Parente-Kivitz. After a few volleys the pairs found themselves in deuce, which they would re-enter a total of six times before team Lippert-Rincon got the first win. This was in direct contrast to the game that immediately followed, in which Parente-Kivitz smashed through without their opponents scoring at all. Lippert-Rincon found their footing in game five, winning three in a row and ultimately taking the first set 6-3.
The second set opened with two decisive games from Lippert-Rincon, with Parente-Kivitz only scoring once. Parente-Kivitz won the third game, but Lippert-Rincon hit a stride starting in game four that ultimately led to their victory 6-1 in the second set, winning them the match. Throughout every game, both teams treated onlookers to plenty of intense volleys, a handful of powerful and quick serves and plenty of jovial quips on both mistakes and dexterous plays.
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KENT — Sometimes an older brother can be good for something. In the case of Livingston Taylor, who will perform Sept. 28 at St. Andrew’s Music in the Nave series, it was when older brother, James, taught him how to play guitar.
“James was a wonderful guitar player, and he taught me how to play,” Livingston Taylor recalled this week during a telephone interview. But his brother was not the only musical influence for the teenager. He grew up in a family filled with music by his mother, a trained operatic singer who gave up a career to marry, and his music-loving physician father.
“The environment we were raised in included a lot of musical theater and folk music,” he said.
But even outside the family fold, North Carolina—where the five Taylor children were raised—was a bastion of creativity. “As I got older and I thought about how James, Kate and I came to this place, it’s really in the water of North Carolina that being a creator is a reasonable career path,” he said.
“Creative arts are seen differently in the South than the North,” he continued. “The South suffered an inherent isolation for having participated in the Civil War and having lost it. It really limits your traditional options as a Southerner to become a doctor or a lawyer. That sensibility meant—and means—an expectation that you could be potter, a musician, a singer, a dancer—these are reasonable career paths in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, but less so in Boston.”
While there are echoes of James Taylor in some of Livingston Taylor’s work, he has carved out his own niche as a popular singer/songwriter, performer and teacher, talents that will be on full display when he returns to Kent Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. Taylor, who has charted Top 40 hits and collaborated with brother James, Carly Simon and, lately, the BBC Orchestra, “is more of an entertainer,” said Matthew Harris, chairman of the Music Commission at St. Andrew’s. “He likes to tell stories, some with a lot of humor. It’s a very different experience to see him.”
It is this innate desire to perform that molded Livingston Taylor’s career as a teacher at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he taught for more than three decades. He now teaches part-time at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. “Those schools are full of people who can teach guitar or singing, so he teaches performance technique,” said Harris.
Engaging an audience is largely a matter of observation, Taylor asserts. “You have to see the audience,” he said. “To give it little offerings, like you give a toddler a taste of applesauce. You watch their faces like a hawk to see how they react to what you are doing. You deliver your vision and watch. They don’t need you; you need them. Your life without them is an ongoing horror show. The audience has to feel better about you when they leave than when they came in. If they don’t, they won’t come back to see you.”
Taylor has not decided on a playlist for the Kent show. “I have a general idea of what I will perform,” he said. “I metaphorically set up a table beside me. I take all these perfectly crafted songs that I can play perfectly and decide which I feel like playing at the moment. I’m tending to Broadway and tuneful. There are melodies that interest me, that combine with the stories I want to tell.”
Matt Cusson, one of his former students, will perform with him. “Matt is an excellent pianist and singer. It makes a nice show and I’m happy to have him back,” Taylor said.
He said St. Andrew’s “is a lovely place to play, but what’s crucial is that Kent found me a good fit for them.”
Taylor’s program will be the first in Music in the Nave’s new four-concert series. Harris said it will be followed Dec. 6 by the annual Handel’s Messiah Sing-in. “The audience is always invited to join in the chorus,” Harris said. “It’s always done well, and people are excited to start off the holiday season. We encourage people to have a nice dinner and come on over and sing. It’s a nice little tradition.”
Another concert is usually slated for late February or early March, but this year there will be a little longer break before the Chorus Angelicus children’s group performs March 29 at 3 p.m. “We’ve been trying to establish a children’s concert, either for children or by children,” said Harris. “Chorus Angelicus has been doing some very good stuff and we hope to get a lot of families. We’re keeping it short and sweet because kids can get fidgety.”
The series will end May 17 with the second annual Mozart in May concert with a soprano, mezzo and baritone singing selections from his operas.
Tickets for the Livingston Taylor concert are $35 can be obtained here: www.eventbrite.com/e/livingston-taylor-tickets-984126838867
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