Audience members at a previous Music at the Lighthouse performance enjoy operatic sounds from the Long Island Sound. Photo courtesy of Salt Marsh Opera.
STONINGTON–Salt Marsh Opera invites you to an evening of beloved opera arias and timeless Broadway melodies with the return of Music at the Lighthouse.
The performance will be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 22 at the Old Lighthouse Museum in Stonington Borough, 7 Water St. The lawn opens at 5 p.m.
The Salt Marsh Opera will welcome mezzo-soprano Sarah Nordin and and bass-baritone Tyler Putnam.
This is an open-air concert by the sea on the lawn of the lighthouse museum. Families are welcome to bring their blankets and lawn chairs.
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the concert. Tickets will be available at the Salt Marsh Opera box office at (860) 535-0753 or at Tom’s Newstand in the borough.
OLD LYME–There’s a sale going on in the BookCellar at the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library this Saturday.
All items will be sold at half price from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on June 21. Can’t make it? The sale continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25.
Every dollar earned at the BookCellar directly supports the library.
The BookCellar, on the library’s lower level, is managed by the volunteer Friends of the Library. The inventory includes thousands of fiction and nonfiction books as well as DVDs, CDs and audiobooks.
The BookCellar accepts gently used books, but respectfully requests no damaged, mildewed, moldy or musty books.
Artistic Director and Director of Painting, Jordan Sokol and Painting -Drawing Instructor, Hollis Dunlap working in the Southwick-Keller Studio at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts. File photo courtesy of Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.
OLD LYME–Students at Lyme Academy of Fine Arts can once again earn college credit for their coursework.
The Academy last week announced it has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the only accrediting agency for higher education programs in art and design that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Academy Artistic Director Jordan Sokol in an email said the development marks a significant milestone for the school.
“It validates the strength of our curriculum, faculty, and facilities, and further establishes the Academy as the premier destination for figurative art education in the United States,” he said.
The Academy was first accredited when it became a college in 1996. It lost its accreditation after the University of New Haven, which took over the program in 2014, withdrew five years later.
The Academy opened its doors again in 2021, promoting comparisons to its early years when sculptor Elisabeth Gordon Chandler in 1976 founded the academy to teach the fundamentals of drawing, painting and sculpture rather than to grant academic degrees.
Now, Sokol said accreditation affirms “the integrity and excellence of the Academy’s program on a national level.”
Credits are transferable to more than 300 NASAD-accredited institutions for students pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies elsewhere.
OLD SAYBROOK, CT – The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate) has announced that global icon Jane Fonda will receive the 10th annual Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award at the Kate’s Gala presented by The RiverLane on Sunday, Sept.14.
The award is presented each year to an individual, who embodies the spirit, independence, and character of the legendary actress.
The Gala is the non-profit arts organization’s largest fundraiser with proceeds supporting performing arts events, the official Katharine Hepburn Museum, and arts education programs that serve more than 3,000 students each year.
The event celebrates two women – Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda – who guided their careers to their own standards and worked on behalf of human rights, the environment and other important social justice causes.
The two co-starred in the critically acclaimed and beloved film On Golden Pond along with Henry Fonda.
Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans’ rights, and environmental protection.
She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
In April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award. She also received the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2025.
2023 was a banner year for Fonda, with four films released. Most recently, she lent her voice to ‘Grandmama’ in DreamWorks’ animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. Before that, Fonda reunited with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen for Focus Features’ Book Club 2.
She also starred in the highly anticipated 80 For Brady opposite Lily Tomlin, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno, released by Paramount Pictures.
There was also Moving On by Paul Weitz for Roadside Attractions, in which Fonda starred opposite her longtime friend and colleague, Lily Tomlin. Other notable credits include Grace & Frankie, Netflix’s longest-running original series. For her work on the series, she received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2017. She also released Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a documentary for HBO chronicling her life and activism.
Fonda continues to lead the charge on the climate emergency via Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change, which she started in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. In 2022, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on defeating political allies of the fossil fuel industry.
Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Notably, Fonda celebrated her 85th birthday by raising $1 million for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP).
Past recipients of the award include Dick Cavett, Glenn Close, Ann Nyberg, Christine Baranski, Cher, Sam Waterston, Martina Navratilova, Candice Bergen, and Laura Linney.
Tickets on sale soon at www.thekate.org. For information on the Gala and sponsorship opportunities, call 860-510-0473.
Editor’s Note: i) This article is based on a press release issued June 5 by Intersect Public Solutions.
ii) The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate) is a not-for-profit performing arts organization located in the historic theatre/town hall on Main Street in Old Saybrook. Originally opened in 1911, and reopened as the Kate in 2009, the building is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Kate includes a state-of-the-art 285-seat theatre and presents work in several genres including music, theater, opera, dance, comedy, film, and a variety of children’s programing. The theater lobby boasts the official Katharine Hepburn Museum, celebrating Old Saybrook’s most celebrated resident, with exhibits featuring personal affects and memorabilia, costumes, letters and home movies.
Chamber music pioneer Charles Wadsworth. Photos courtesy of Musical Masterworks.
OLD LYME–The Musical Masterworks community and beyond is mourning the loss of founding artistic director and pioneering chamber musician Charles Wadsworth.
The pianist died on May 29 in Manhattan, NY, at the age of 96.
A tribute from the Musical Masterworks board of directors recalled his arrival on the Old Lyme scene in 1990 when the group was still a fledgling concert series. Wadsworth brought with him a worldwide reputation as the founding director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Spoleto Festival Midday Concerts in Italy and Charleston, S.C.
Musical Masterworks President Alden Murphy, who was a founding director of the series with her husband Jamie Murphy, told LymeLine in an email that it was a “joyful surprise” when Wadsworth agreed to become the group’s first artistic director.
Jamie and Alden Murphy, Musical Masterworks founding directors, stand either side of the late Charles Wadsworth.
“Thanks to Charles, three generations of musicians and audiences have found a home at Musical Masterworks,” she continued, adding, “We’re forever grateful for the magic he brought to our community.”
She said his quirky, napkin-scribbled program notes back when the couple first met him at the Spoleto Festival made chamber music feel alive and spontaneous.
“He brought that same warmth and humor to Old Lyme, transforming our young concert series into something extraordinary,” she noted.
The group counted Paula Robison, Richard Goode, Chee-Yun, Carter Brey among the many stars he introduced to the Masterworks stage. He passed on a welcoming spirit that still defines the concerts to artistic director Edward Arron in 2009 and Tessa Lark, who took the role in 2022.
“With every performance, we carry forward his joy, his generosity, and his belief in the transformative power of chamber music,” the tribute concluded.
