Hartford's Full Weekend Guide: Guster With The HSO, Bach, An Abigail Adams Opera And A Free Museum Weekend

HARTFORD, CT — Hartford's weekend is crowded with music, from Guster's Friday night with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra to a Sunday that offers chamber music at the Wadsworth, the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra's season opener and improvised jazz in a Parkville ballroom.

In between, TheaterWorks closes a Tony-nominated play, the Old State House hosts an opera built from Abigail Adams' letters, and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History opens its doors for free.

This Weekend's Arts & Entertainment

• "Little Bear Ridge Road", Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.. Samuel D. Hunter's Tony-nominated play about a family reunion in a crumbling house, directed by Rob Ruggiero, plays its final weekend. It runs 100 minutes with no intermission. TheaterWorks Hartford, 233 Pearl St.
• Guster with Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.. The band behind "Amsterdam" and "Satellite" plays with the HSO in Mortensen Hall, in partnership with The Bushnell. The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave.
• Creative Writing in the Age of AI Symposium, Saturday, Nov. 7, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Scholars, authors, editors, and critics look at generative AI and creative writing, part of the 10th-anniversary weekend of the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. In-person and livestream tickets are sold. The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Ave.
• Free First Weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Admission to the galleries and Inspire Center is free for all ages, with the "Rebellious" exhibition in its final month. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the free family program Journey to Prehistoric Connecticut has kids digging for replica dinosaur fossils, and a free guided tour of "Rebellious" starts at 2 p.m. Sunday. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, 1 Elizabeth St.
• Science on Screen: WALL-E, Saturday, Nov. 7, 3 p.m.. Real Art Ways pairs Pixar's robot tale with a talk on robotics by UConn engineering professor Shalabh Gupta, followed by the film at 3:30 p.m. Admission is $12. Connecticut Science Center, 250 Columbus Blvd.
• BWV: Hartford Chorale Sings Bach, Saturday, Nov. 7, 4 p.m.. The Hartford Chorale and full orchestra perform Bach, including "Jesu, meine Freude," according to the chorale's Patch listing. The Theater of the Performing Arts at the Learning Corridor, 359 Washington St.
• Abigail Adams: An Opera in Letters, Saturday, Nov. 7, 6:30 p.m.. Connecticut Lyric Opera performs Judge Richard Owen's opera drawn from the Adams family's letters at 7 p.m., after a 6:30 p.m. lecture by UConn historian Cornelia H. Dayton. Tickets are $30; students and children get in free. Connecticut's Old State House, 800 Main St.
• Echoes of Italy, Sunday, Nov. 8, gallery talk at 1 p.m. and concert at 2 p.m.. HSO musicians, including violinist Leonid Sigal, play Wolf-Ferrari, Menotti, Dallapiccola and Schumann in the orchestra's Sunday Serenades series. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main St.
• Where Shadows Speak, Sunday, Nov. 8, 3 p.m.. The Connecticut Symphony Orchestra opens its 97th season under Paul McShee with Florence Price's "Ethiopia's Shadow in America," Ulysses Kay's Concerto for Orchestra and Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony. Tickets are $20; students get in free. Artists Collective, 1200 Albany Ave.
• Instantiations, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2:30 p.m. (doors 2 p.m.). Real Art Ways' improvised-music series features bassist Joe Morris, trombonist Dan Blacksberg, drummer Mark Valdes and trumpeter Charlie Watson. General admission is $15. Real Art Ways at the Hartford Ballroom, 56 Arbor St., Suite 411

With Guster and the HSO on Friday, Bach and Abigail Adams on Saturday, and a Sunday stacked with chamber music, a symphony, and improvised jazz, Hartford's stages are full this weekend, and the Connecticut Museum's free doors make it an easy place to bring the family.

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