Wilton has two long-established concert series, one hosted by the Wilton Library and the other Candlelight concerts held at the Congregational Church. There’s also a third series that has had a long Wilton history with three decades of performances, including multiple ones by Dave Brubeck and his quartet, by Paul Winter, and many others. That series took a hiatus during COVID, but it has returned in force with three concerts held this past fall and now a new winter/spring series starting on Friday, Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (36 New Canaan Rd.).
The upcoming series of six concerts opens with singer Michelle Pauker performing songs from the “Great American Songbook” on Friday, Jan. 19. Pauker has performed songs from the Golden Age of Jazz, from Cole Porter to Gershwin, in many American locations, and will be joined by a five-piece instrumental combo. Five more concerts will follow, with the Westminister Choir, a Bach and Hildegard concert, Indian classical music group Chhandayan, the early music ensemble La Fiocco, and a chamber orchestra performing a Bach festival in June.
The series was organized by Andrew Leslie Cooper, a gifted British-American conductor, countertenor, organist and harpsichordist who is also music director at St. Matthews. Cooper has performed extensively in the United Kingdom and taught music there. A UK native, he earned his masters in choral conducting at Westminster College in New Jersey, where he was Graduate Assistant Conductor of the Westminster Choir. He also has a degree in music theory from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. He was drawn to St. Matthew’s in part by its unusual 1,000 pipe organ and fine acoustics. His acclaimed performances of Pearsall, Purcell, and Tallis can be heard on YouTube.
The second concert on Friday, Feb. 2 features the Westminster College Choir, James Jordan, conductor. Its recent concert tours included Beijing and Spain, where it performed in the World Symposium of Choral Music in Barcelona. Its concerts and recordings are considered “the Gold Standard” of choral music by American Record Guide.
On Friday, March 22 there will be a concert for voice, violin, piano and organ of music by abbess and polymath Saint Hildegard of Bingen from the 12th century, as well as music by Bach and 20th- and 21st-century Estonian composer Arvo Part.
An especially unique concert on Friday, April 5 features the Indian classical music group Chhandayan which will perform raga music related to Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors. Established in 1998 in New York, Chhandayan’s (which means “the course of music”) performers have given concerts throughout the United States, in Canada, and India.
Two more concerts follow in this unique series. La Fiocco, the noted early ensemble,
on Saturday, May 18 will use period instruments to perform 17th- and 18th-century music as well as music by Black fiddlers from Jefferson’s Monticello. The grand finale concert on Saturday, June 8 is a Bach Festival, where Cooper will conduct a 16-part chamber orchestra in symphonies by Johann Christian Bach and Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach, as well as organ music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
This unusual series of concerts at St. Matthew’s offers amazing musical range, from great choral music, to the American Songbook, to early instruments, to a 16-instrument chamber orchestra, to Indian classical ragas.
Further details on the concerts and ticket orders can be found on the St. Matthew’s website.