Essex Winter Series in the Community

Essex Winter Series is involved in the local community in a number of ways.

• Young artists who appear in the EWS series participate in the Fenton Brown Emerging Artists Concert Community Outreach Program by visiting local schools and senior communities for concerts and master classes over a four-day residency in the spring that includes presentations at approximately 12 locations. The annual free and open-to-the public concert and/or master class that is a part of this outreach is often made possible through grant support provided from the Community Foundation of Middlesex County.

• The Kitchings Family Foundation’s Special Grant Outreach Program allows our jazz musicians to perform for the students of C. B. Jennings Elementary School and Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School in New London. Click here to watch a recent performance. Thanks to the Foundation’s generosity, our spring outreach also includes these schools and, in 2024, we were able to add a visit to the Sacred Heart School in Groton.

• The Francis Bealey Memorial Scholarship was established in 1995, after the passing of EWS board president Francis Bealey, to honor his commitment to music and arts education. The Bealey Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to a graduating senior of Valley Regional High School to pursue studies in music at the undergraduate level. The scholarship currently provides $1,000 for each year of study, for a total of $4,000. A portion of this support comes from ASP Trust and the Essex Community Fund

These efforts are supported as noted above and in part by the generosity of Essex Winter Series’ sponsors, CT Office of the Arts/DECD grants, and corporate support as well as the Fenton Brown Circle of annual donors.