This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
02/24/2016 07:30 AMFor music lovers, there is nothing quite as magical as a great artist in a small venue, and that’s exactly what the George Flynn concert series delivers this season.
Performing in the 400-seat Andrews Memorial Town Hall theater this spring will be five-time Grammy award winners The Swingles, a London-based group of seven young vocalists whose credits include cuts from the film and TV soundtracks for Sex and the City, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, and Milk. They take the stage on Sunday, April 10.
The theater also hosts Stony Brook University’s ensemble in residence, the Calidore String Quartet (Sunday, March 6), as well as Asylum Quartet, winner of the grand prize at 2014 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston—the first saxophone quartet to receive this honor—on Sunday, April 3. The season’s concert series culminates at The Morgan School on Sunday, May 1 with a performance by the string octet Barrage 8, described as a “high-octane fiddle fest.” Barrage 8’s show in Clinton is the final stop in a 2016 tour that clocks thousands of miles and more than 50 dates in places as far-flung as Belgium, Germany, Michigan, and California.
“The extraordinary thing about these performances is this,” says Jim Beloff, vice president of the George Flynn Classical Concerts board of trustees. “These are world-class performers, an unusually high level of global talent, performing in the tiny town of Clinton. And every show is free.”
The free-admission concerts, which have been running for 18 years, are made possible by a trust established by Clinton native George S. Flynn in his will.
Where There’s a Will…
Flynn, an amateur violinist and lifelong resident of Clinton, lived what was described in a 1998 New York Times article (“The Curious Life of George S. Flynn”) as a life of contrasts. Thrifty to an extreme, he wore old clothes and lived in house without heat or hot water. “But he managed to amass a sizable fortune,” said the Times. “And he cherished a dream for his hometown.”
Flynn, the youngest of five, grew up on a 65-acre farm in Clinton. After his sisters married and moved away, he and his brother, John—lifelong bachelors and polar opposites in nearly every way—stayed on, with John mostly working the fields and George, a licensed horticulturist, tending to his rhododendrons and boxwoods, selling vegetables, listening to classical music, and playing the violin.
John died in 1985, and George eventually married, at age 71. His wife, Eirene Smythe, a pianist and the daughter of a Harvard professor, shared Flynn’s love of classical music, but not his living arrangements—no working indoor plumbing, an outhouse, and a cot set up near a woodstove in the kitchen. The newlyweds spent their days together, but retired to their own residences every evening, until they finally settled in together in Eirene’s family home on Old Post Road.
The one luxury Flynn allowed himself in all his years on the farm and in his final days at Saybrook Convalescent Hospital, was a high-quality radio tuned to WQXR, his favorite classical music station in New York.
When he died in 1997 at age 93, Flynn left behind an estate worth $3 million, nearly $2 million of which went to a trust fund to provide a permanent home for classical music in Clinton.
The first-ever concert in Flynn’s name was given on the centennial of the birth of George Gershwin, whose late nephew—the pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky III, also a resident of Clinton—performed Gershwin’s famed Concerto in F.
Godowsky’s wife of 33 years, Elaine, coordinated that inaugural concert.
“I was originally asked to be part of the board, and I’ve coordinated many concerts, basically because of my music connections. It seemed a natural since it was the 100th birthday year for George Gershwin. We wanted to begin with a splash. What would be better than an orchestra, Gershwin’s music, and his nephew performing?” Godowsky said. “It took a great deal of organization and detailed planning to pull this off, and it was a terrific concert. Leopold played wonderfully with the New Haven Symphony. The guest conductor was Peter Oundjian, the first violinist of The Tokyo Quartet prior to beginning his conducting career.”
Now president of the five-member trust that administers George Flynn’s bequest, Godowsky admits she’s learned a lot since that first show.
“We were very naïve,” she recalls. “It was summer, and we started with an outdoor concert in the middle of the afternoon. It was blazing hot. All the musicians were complaining. The conductor and soloist took off their jackets.”
The shows have since moved indoors.
Taking the Fear (and the Cost) out of Classical Music
Godowsky and Beloff are proud of the rich variety of talent they are able to bring to the shoreline—names like Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell and multi-platinum-selling vocalist and pianist Michael Feinstein—and the fact that George Flynn’s bequest continues to make classical music accessible to everyone in his hometown.
“You don’t have to travel, to spend money to see these world-famous performers, because we bring them here. And we feel the concerts should be free.”
For the uninitiated, the thought of attending a classical concert can be intimidating—especially if that thought evokes a stuffy concert hall with music that’s not for beginners or that demands to be understood. George Flynn Classical Concerts turns that idea on its head, and much of the credit goes to Godowsky and the trust’s musical advisor, the arranger and orchestrator William David Brohn, whose knowledge of the musical world has been an asset to the group. A celebrity in his own right, Brohn is best known for his scores for the Broadway musicals Wicked, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, and Ragtime, for which he won a Tony Award.
To obtain tickets to any of the upcoming shows, call 860-669-1208 or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to George Flynn Classical Concerts, Inc., P.O. Box 473, Clinton, CT 06413. A maximum of four tickets may be requested per show. For more information, visit georgeflynnclassicalconcerts.com or facebook.com/GeorgeFlynnClassicalConcerts.