The Connecticut Museum invites you to a special event to experience an original work of music based on manuscripts from the Museum's collection! The concert will be held off-site at First Church of Glastonbury (2183 Main Street, Glastonbury, Conn.).
Experience original music composed by C. Leonard Raybon, associate professor of music at Tulane University, inspired by documents written by Hannah Smith, matriarch of the storied Smiths of Glastonbury.
C. Leonard Raybon discovered two journals and other writings by Hannah Hadassah Hickok held at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. Fascinated by the young woman revealed in the writings—whom he describes as “sometimes catty, sometimes capricious, always adventurous, and eternally self-deprecating”—Raybon discovered that Hannah was the matriarch of the storied Smiths of Glastonbury, Conn. The Smiths were abolitionists, suffragists, and non-conformists, and Hannah’s daughters drew national attention in the 1870s for refusing to pay their taxes because they could not vote.
Hannah’s sayings, her poetry, her childhood rivalries, her readings, her opinions, and her daughters and their activism inspired the musical pieces. This sone-time public performance is presented in partnership by the Connecticut Museum, the Historical Society of Glastonbury, and C. Leonard Raybon.
Hartt faculty members Lisabeth Miller and Michelle Fiertek will sing leading roles in the premiere. After the one-hour performance, there will be a talk-back with composer Leonard Raybon and Diane Hoover of the Historical Society of Glastonbury. Get free tickets to reserve your seat on the Connecticut Museum's website.