Library welcomes Music Mountain director

SALISBURY —The Beethoven Cycle: A String Quartet’s Mt Everest, presented by Oskar Espina Ruiz, Artistic Director, Music Mountain, will held at the Scoville Library in Salisbury on Saturday, March 10 at 4 p.m.

This summer Music Mountain is presenting the Shanghai String Quartet in six concerts, performing what is considered to be the ultimate challenge for a string quartet: the Complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle. The technical and emotional scope of the Beethoven Cycle is the Mt. Everest of quartet performance, a once-ina-lifetime transformative event.

This lecture-presentation is intended for all, beginners in particular, and will include short audio samples to describe how Beethoven’s 16 string quartets cover a groundbreaking transformation in music, both within the style of the composer himself, as well as within the process that paved the way from the Classical to the Romantic era in music.

Oskar Espina-Ruiz, Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.), serves as artistic director of Music Mountain since the fall of 2016. He is an international concert clarinetist, artist-faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and artistic director of the Treetops Chamber Music Society, while keeping a busy concert schedule.

To register, go to scovillelibrary.org.

Coffee house begins performance season

WINSTED — Steam Vent Coffee House kicks off its spring season on March 10 at First Church of Winsted, 95 North Main Street, Winsted, 6-10 p.m.

Featured performers include: 6:30 p.m. The Axe Factory, Mark Moriarty; 7 p.m. Bill Morrell; 7:30 p.m., Silk-n-Steel-Con, Doty and Patti Wilian; 8 p.m., Paula Ryan; 8:30 p.m., Blue Yonder, Jean McMillan; 9 p.m., Tom Sheeley; 9:30 p.m., Dave Kenna.

Open mic is from 6-6:30 p.m., with sign up the night of the event. The Steam Vent Cafe serves light dinners from 6-8 p.m., with a full meal for $10 including beverage and dessert; or an a-la-cart menu also available. Donations are also accepted toward children's missions. For more information or to sign up, call Debbie 860-482-3491.

Virginia Woolf Series begins March 15

SALISBURY — The Mark Scarbrough Series on Virginia Woolf will be held on Thursdays, March 15, 22 and 29, in the Oak Room at the Scoville Library at 10 a.m. For information or to register, go to scovillelibrary.org.

From the library: “Everybody should be afraid of Virginia Woolf. Her prose is haunting and elliptical. Yet no one should be afraid of Virginia Woolf. Her novels are luminous, airy, even breezy at times, a strangely elegaic look at the crack between the Victorian world she inherited and the modern world she helped create. The heart of her writing is the promise of a whole person behind the mundane details of life, the hope of coherence in the scattered impressions of a moment, a thing that fiction itself too often fails to find. She was a dyed-in-the-wool visionary and an accessible genius, somehow still mired in nineteen-century snobbery. Come join us in this literary seminar through a selection from her works as we discuss, think about, and come to know one of our literature’s greatest minds.”

March 15, read: “Between the Acts”; March 22, read: “Flush: A Biography”; March 29, read: “Mrs. Dalloway.”

Quilt, needle art show scheduled in Winsted

Winchester Center Congregational Church will hold its 11th Annual Quilt & Needle Art Show on Saturday and Sunday, April 28 and 29. Organizers are holding a Quilt and Needle Art Challenge, “Lesser Known National Holidays Across the Year” to celebrate the many “Lesser Known National Holidays Across the Year” by making a quilt or needle art piece depicting your holiday choice.

From the show committee: Choose a Lesser Known National Holiday from one of the websites below or one of your choice. Make that small wall hanging for yourself or a friend to celebrate a special day, such as: Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, Umbrella Day, Puppy Day, Sewing Machine Day, Best Friends Day, Frog Jumping Day, World Kissing Day, Howl at the Moon Day and Night, Ride Like the Wind Day, Origami Day, Wear Brown Shoes Day, Make Up Your Mind Day, or any other special lesser know holiday.

Visit https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/, http://www.holidayscalendar.com/holidays/weird/, or http://www.emotionscards.com/locations.html (Gives day and month long celebrations).

The quilt must measure between 36” and 144” total (for example: 8” x 10” or 12” x 6” both have 36” perimeters and 36” x 36” or 42” x 30 both have 144” perimeters. Or any combination that results in a perimeter between 36” and 144”). The work can be quilted, appliquéd, felted, crocheted, hooked, knitted, embroidered, woven, or any other type of needle art construction. Include the date of the holiday as part of the quilt either as a large part of the design or as a small part written on one corner

Enter quilts online at winchestercentercongchurch.org by April 1. Entries must be at the Church by April 26. All entries will be hung as a group display at our 11th Annual Quilt and Needle Art Show.

Town offers tax credit opportunities

NORTH CANAAN — The Town of North Canaan Assessor’s Office is now accepting applications for the 2017 Elderly Homeowners and Totally Disable tax credit until May 15. Those who were previously on the program will be mailed an application.

Applications for the 2018 Additional and Local Option Veterans Exemption, Feb. 1-Oct. 1 are also being accepted. Those who were previously on the program will be mailed an application.

Both programs are based on income.

For more details, call the Assessor’s Office 860.824.3137 X 108. Temporary office hours are Monday, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-4 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Adult education classes available

LITCHFIELD — Foothills Adult and Continuing Education, a program of EdAdvance in Litchfield, covering Litchfield County, offers classes in computers, arts and crafts, self-improvement, recreation, finance, cooking, world languages, excursions. Classes are held in several locations.

EdAdvance also offers opportunities for adults to earn their high school diploma. Register online www.edadvance.org, Adult Learners tab FOOTHILLS, or call 800-300-4781.