Upcoming Events At The Russell Library

Preserving Your Treasures: Family History Documents and Photos, Wednesday October 10th from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the Hubbard Room

Nothing can resist the ticking of the clock. Treasured family documents, even if made and stored under the best of conditions and never handled, slowly wear out. Paper slowly turns yellow and becomes brittle. Leather slowly turns to dust. Cloth loses its color and gradually becomes so weak it tears at the lightest touch. Digital photographs and scanned letters are susceptible to hardware crashes and improper storage media. The letters, documents, photographs and other items that connect us to the past lives of family members are under constant attack.

Lizette Pelletier, State Archivist at the Connecticut State Library, will discuss the inherent vices related to paper and electronic documents. She will offer some basic preservation steps to ensure that family records are available for future generations.

This program is sponsored by The Friends of Russell Library.

Jazz Up Close presents Ike Sturm Saturday October 27th from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM in the Hubbard Room

Resonant Motion, Inc. presents the fourth and final event in its 2018 'Sound Belief” series through the popular Jazz Up Close program. This year’s guests have been sharing diverse original compositions springing forth from similarly diverse spiritual practices. For this event, composer and bassist Ike Sturm presents a program of original sacred music, featuring vocalist Melissa Stylianou, vibraphonist (and Wesleyan alumnus) Chris Dingman, guitarist Jesse Lewis, and pianist and series curator Noah Baerman.

Son of renowned jazz composer Fred Sturm, Ike Sturm is the jazz director at Saint Peter’s Church in NYC (known widely as the 'Jazz Church”), where he curates concerts and the musical component of a weekly Jazz Vespers service. Sturm has composed and recorded multiple large scale sacred jazz works, including Jazz Mass and the music on Shelter of Trees. In addition to his work as a bandleader and as co-leader of the duo Endless Field, he has played acoustic and electric bass with major jazz figures including Wynton Marsalis, Donny McCaslin, Bobby McFerrin, Ben Monder, Ingrid Jensen, Catherine Russell, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler. Having earned two degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Sturm remains active in education, particularly as creator and director of Jazz 4 All, an educational fellowship of musicians of different ages, musical styles and faith backgrounds focusing on improvisation within the church.

This event is presented with the support of the Middletown Commission on the Arts and RMI’s donors. Visit: http://resonantmotion.org/

Concert: The Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo Sunday October 21st from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM in the Hubbard Room.

The duo will perform a program of Ravel, Milhaud, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff.

The HIRSCH-PINKAS PIANO DUO had its unintended debut at a Valentine's Day Concert at Dartmouth College. Their audience's enthusiasm convinced the two, already married though pursuing separate careers, to continue their collaboration. They made their European debut at the Officina Musicale Scotese in Abruzzo, Italy, and have since performed widely in France, Bulgaria, Nigeria, China, Thailand, Russia and Israel. Hirsch and Pinkas (who was born in Israel), were the only Americans invited to participate at the notable piano festivals of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (2001) and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory (2013). In 2015 they performed at the prestigious Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila and presented masterclasses at the University of the Philippines and the University of Santo Tomas.

This concert is part of our 'Immigrant Artist' series. This concert is sponsored by The Friends of the Russell Library and The Middletown Commission on the Arts.

Images From The Russell Library