The first concert in Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s new “Spotlight” series was filmed in the lobby of TheaterWorks.
“Hartford Symphony Orchestra is amping up its classical output for the end of the year, with offerings ranging from a new live-to-video performance series set on local stages, to musings on Felix Mendelssohn, to a documentary on Doc Severinsen,” writes Christopher Arnott in Tuesday’s (11/24) Courant (Hartford, CT). “Top among the offerings is the first ticketed concert series Hartford Symphony has produced since the COVID shutdown in March. The online ‘Spotlight’ concerts feature HSO musicians … in a variety of small spaces…. Each concert will be posted for four weeks…. The November concert features five musicians and was performed in the recently renovated lobby of TheaterWorks.” The program features Haydn and Dvořák, plus “William Bolcolm’s playful tribute ‘Haydn Go Seek’ … and the contemporary African American female composer Jessie Montgomery’s popular 2016 strings piece ‘Strum.’ … ‘Masterworks In-Depth’ is a discussion series where music director Carolyn Kuan and special guests talk about classical pieces…. ‘In the summer of 2018, Doc Severinsen played our Talcott Mountain summer music series,’ executive director Steve Collins explains…. Portions of that memorable performance anchor … ‘Never Too Late’ … the second online film screening the symphony has hosted since the shutdown, following ‘The Bowmakers’ in October.”
