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Published: September 19, 2008
Foliage Art Walk
MONTPELIER – In celebration of Vermont's spectacular fall foliage, the Montpelier Downtown Community Organization has organized a September art walk in order to share the art created in this region. The event is a self-guided tour through historic downtown Montpelier through over 20 galleries, stores, restaurants, and government buildings. This art walk is being held in cooperation with Vermont Butter and Cheese Company, whose award winning artisan cheese will be featured in several venues. It will also include one new venue, The Knitting Studio which has a new location on State Street. Art walk participants can also take advantage of restaurant specials offered by Main Street Grill and Rhapsody with coupons in the art walk brochure. The art walk provides a great opportunity for the public to tour Montpelier's SculptCycles, 20 bicycle sculptures, on display throughout downtown Montpelier for one final week before the Auction and Gala at T.W. Wood Gallery at Vermont College of Fine Arts on Oct. 4. The art walk will take place on Friday, Sept. 26, from 4 to 8 p.m.
To learn more about participating venues and artists go to www.lazypear.com, to learn more about the SculptCycle auction, please visit www.sculptcycle.org.
Dick Hathaway unveiled
MONTPELIER – A sculpture created in memory of Dick Hathaway will be unveiled on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 5:30 p.m. Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon created a life-size bronze sculpture of Hathaway to be placed on the park bench in front of the fountain on the green at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Hathaway — Prof. Richard Hathaway, as he would almost never allow himself to be called — shocked all his friends when he left this world quickly and quietly the victim of a heart attack at age 71. Hathaway was a rare combination — an outgoing, happy scholar with a burning social conscience; a serious intellectual with a glad heart and a sense that life, even when difficult, was often slightly funny. Hathaway was born in Boston, educated at Bates College and Northwestern University. He taught at Bowdoin and came to Goddard College in Plainfield in 1965. When Goddard downsized, Hathaway moved to Vermont College and later Union Institute, where he became what one colleague described as "the spiritual core of the Adult Degree Program." In 2004 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Union Institute for his role as a distinguished teacher, scholar, mentor, and civic leader. Hathaway was also a licensed auctioneer who used his talents to benefit many area non-profits. He combined the auctioneer's street savvy with the eclectic intellect of a trained academic generalist, and the verbal skills of a natural stump orator. He was an intellectual salad bar, stocked with the ingredients of a lifetime of reading, a richly associative mind, and a fast tongue.
The public is invited to the unveiling.
Capital Orchestra begins
EAST MONTPELIER – The Capital Orchestra, an orchestra for adult amateur musicians who want to play in a large ensemble, resumes on Monday, Sept. 22, 7 to 9 p.m. at the U-32 School Band Room. No audition is required. There are openings for all instruments: strings, winds, brass, percussion. Under the direction of Bill Keck and with the assistance of Ron Mori, the orchestra will work on Vaughan Williams' "Rhosymedre" and Haydn's Symphony No. 104 ("London"), plus other repertoire for the holiday concert on Monday, Dec. 8.
There is a fee of $50 for the semester. If you are interested in playing, contact the orchestra manager in advance so music can be assembled for you: Joan Stepenske, (802) 223-8610, or e-mail joanske@sover.net.
Takács Quartet
HANOVER, N.H. — The Takács Quartet, widely considered one of the world's finest string quartets, will perform a program of Mozart, Bartók and Schumann in the Hopkins Center's Spaulding Auditorium, Saturday, Sept. 27. Founded more than 30 years ago, the quartet is renowned for the ability to fuse four distinct, expressive musical personalities into gripping, unified interpretations. Wrote Gramophone magazine recently, "The Takács have the ability to make you believe that there's no other possible way the music should go, and the strength to overturn preconceptions that comes only with the greatest performers." The ensemble's recording of the six Bartók String Quartets — the second of which they will play at the Hop — received the 1998 Gramophone Award for chamber music and, in 1999, was nominated for a Grammy. Along with the Bartók, the Hop program will consist of Mozart's Quartet in d minor, K. 575, and Schumann's Quartet, Op. 41 No. 3. Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs 90 concerts a year worldwide, performing throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.
For tickets, call the Hopkins Center Box Office, call (603) 646-2422 or www.hop.dartmouth.edu
Veretski Pass
BURLINGTON – Veretski Pass, whose music has been called "mysterious, enthralling, and beautiful" by the Hartford Courant, performs on the UVM Lane Series' opening night concert on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m., at the UVM Recital Hall. There will be a free, pre-concert talk with the artists in the hall at 6:30. Taking their name from a pass in the Carpathian Mountains where Jews and Magyars first immigrated to central Europe, Veretski Pass performs music of the old-country: melodies from Medieval Poland, dances from Bessarabia, Ruthenia, and Bukovina, music with origins in the Ottoman Empire, and beyond. It is from this collage of cultures, where Jews, Moslems, Magyars, Rumanians, Ukranians, and Roma shared their traditional tunes, melodies, and instruments, that Veretski Pass draws their joyful and celebratory brand of music. The three musicians of Veretski Pass (Cookie Segelstein, Joshua Horowitz and Stuart Brotman) have performed with some of the iconic Eastern-European performers of our time, including the Klezmatics, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Brave Old World, Andy Statman, and Klezmorim. Their instruments include violin, scoradatura violin, viola, cimbalom, button accordion, bass, baraban, tilinca and more. They recently performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to a sold-out audience.
For tickets, call the Flynn Regional Box Office, (802) 863-5966, or go online to www.uvm.edu/laneseries.


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