PRESS RELEASES & FEATURE ARTICLES
Violinist Concert Sunday
Joan Kwuon To Perform At GMU
By Tricia Stuart
On Sunday, June 27, at 7:00 p.m., Joan Kwuon will play classical music by Stravinsky, Enesco, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Andre’ Previn at the Center for the Arts at the Fairfax campus of George Mason University.
Kwuon has played the violin since the age of 5 and loves what she does. She grew up in Los Angeles with her parents and three older sisters. “My sisters played piano and I tried to play on top of them. I remember my mother kept trying to pull me off. At five, my mother started me at piano lessons.”
Kwuon begged her older sister to let her play the violin. Her sister asked her public school teacher if she would teach Kwuon. The teacher made an exception to the usual rule; even though Kwuon was only in kindergarten, she allowed her to take lessons early.
Kwuon says she is lucky to have had influential teachers. Even though her parents are not musicians, they were supportive as long as they saw that Kwuon was enjoying what she was doing, and working hard at it.
She enjoys a connection with all of her teachers. Kwuon studied with Miriam Fried at Indiana University, and in New York with Joel Smirnoff. Andre’ Previn was a special mentor for Kwuon. “We stay in touch with each other. He gives a certain richness. He is inspiring and supportive and I adore his music. It’s been a privilege knowing him and to know his writing so well.”
“In almost any kind of career you have positive and negative experiences. You try to learn more and you try to get better and better. You try to have patience, and you put a lot of work into it, but it doesn’t feel like work. It’s actually very stimulating.”
She is passionate about music and her life as a performer. “The life of a performer is unique. You spend a lot of time on your own, a lot of time practicing, listening, focusing, and understanding the music. You work with a pianist or orchestra, so there is communal time and there is travel, which is fascinating. Sharing music is the greatest reward.”
She loves being on stage. “It’s hard to describe. Most musicians love the performance aspect. There is a little bit of nerves, an unknown quality, and spontaneity, because the audience will only hear you that once, even though you may have played that program before.
“It’s a thrill, an honor, and a responsibility. It’s so many things in one.”
Kwuon’s dream for herself and others is for music to continue, and for people to maintain a never-ending desire for live classical performance.
“I am a firm believer in dreams and that dreams can be achieved,” she said.
The selected pieces are not performed often. “We, myself and my pianist, have been enjoying it tremendously.”
###
Museum Curator Nurtures Bonsai
National Arboretum Bonsai and Penjing Museum
By Tricia Stuart
Jack Sustic is the Museum Curator at the National Arboretum who is responsible for all the plants at the Bonsai and Penjing Museums. Sustic explained that it’s important not to talk in absolutes with bonsai and penjing because there are exceptions.
The difference between the Japanese and Chinese art is that the Japanese art is called bonsai, while the Chinese call it penjing. Figurines are generally found in penjing but not in bonsai. Penjing generally allow exposed roots but not bonsai.
Bonsai aesthetics wouldn’t usually have a white pot and believe the plant is the most important thing. The post or anything else becomes a frame for the plant. Penjing aesthetics view everything that makes up the composition as important, the pot and all.
“The bonsai art of growing plants in pots began in China, went to Korea, then went to Japan,” he said.
Sustic first became interested in bonsai while in the US military in Korea. He later studied under John Naka, and he has studied in both the US and Japan.
He said there are several misconceptions about the art of bonsai: “People believe that the small pot keeps the plants small, which is partly true, but pruning is necessary. The branches are pruned regularly and the roots are pruned every 3-5 years so that new roots will grow and the plant will stay healthy. The plants are not dwarf plants. They are normal plants one finds growing anywhere. Anything that gets a woody trunk can be a bonsai.” Fruit, flowers, and pinecone size on bonsai won’t reduce in size, so the bonsai gardener usually pulls those off the tree.
A bust of John Y. Naka is in the North American Bonsai Pavilion entrance. Naka grew the Goshin (protector of the spirit), shown in the Pavilion. It is the most famous bonsai in the world. There are 11 trees in Goshin, representing Naka’s 11 grandchildren. “Anyone who knows bonsai knows John. Unfortunately we lost him last year. He died at the age of 89. He used to come out every May and he had his plane ticket [to come this year]. He went into the hospital a week before he was supposed to come. It’s hard to believe. He was such a bright light in the bonsai world,” said Sustic.
The International Pavilion, near the Penjing and Bonsai Museums, has information, education, cultural displays, and houses the most extensive library dedicated to the art of bonsai in the US.
A Chinese Scholar’s studio can be seen in the Penjing Museum, along with rotating exhibits.
When Sustic gets a frantic call from someone who has an ailing bonsai, it’s usually an outdoor plant that has been kept inside. He tells the caller: “Take the bonsai off the coffee table and put it outside.” The caller says, “How did you know it’s on the coffee table?”
The National Arboretum is located in SE Washington, at 3501 New York Ave (Route 50) and Bladensburg Road.
###
Consignment Shop Opens Doors In Farmington
By Tricia Stuart
Christina Espinosa was a corporate manager in a consignment shop for 15 years before deciding to open her own store in Farmington.
“I spent one-and-a-half years at home enjoying the kids when I decided it was time to go back to work, so I opened the shop,” she said. “I love working with people. I think it’s great, because, both buyer and consigner win, and the consigners get to recycle their goods. Both save money.”
Designer name brands such as Escada and Dana Buchman are sold in the store for less than department store retail prices.
She carries clothes for men, women and children, and she is careful to buy only seasonal clothing in good condition, that is not more than two years old. The labels she carries include Talbots, Claiborne, Gymboree, and GAP. Christina’s Consignment World is well stocked with career wear and everyday clothes from petites to plus sizes.
“I have close to 200 prom gowns for high school kids,” she said.
One look into the back room, which is stocked entirely with gowns, says it all.
“I have ladies looking for bar mitzvah gowns, ball gowns, and for mother-of-the-groom gowns. I carry all new gowns; I won’t even get into used for that,” she said.
Gown prices are half of retail, and buyers are sure to find a deal, with prices ranging from $110 to $400 for a new gown.
“I do carry shoes and they have to be nearly new. If you take a look at them most of them are practically new, very little wear.”
She also carries household items like dishes, glassware, books, CDs, and decorative objects. Jewelry is displayed in attractive cases, and silver and gold jewelry, along with engagement rings, and watches, are at the front of the shop.
Christina’s Consignment World is located at 1055 Farmington Ave., between The Green Tea and Women Drivers, and behind Sun Valley Tanning.
###
Culinary Institute Trains Chefs, Weekend Warriors
By Tricia Stuart
The Connecticut Culinary Institute teaches students to become professional chefs in the Advanced Culinary Arts Program and the Pastry and Baking Program. Classes are also offered for cooking hobbyists, or “weekend warriors,” Brook Baran, director of public relations, said.
Novices who would like to learn how to cook don’t need to feel intimidated.
“We run things that are called Just for Beginners that teach you how to do something other than use a microwave. Some of our students who take hobby classes find that it’s what they want to do, so they take our professional courses. Our primary market is the recent high school graduate, but we have career changers who were doctors or lawyers, who say, ‘I’m going to do what I’ve always wanted to do,’” said Baran.
Students span the age range from 17 to 60-something.
The Culinary Institute, which began in 1987 as a small cooking school, has a main campus in Farmington with four teaching kitchens, and a branch campus in Suffield with seven teaching kitchens, along with student housing. The Farmington location chefs want to expand to 11 teaching kitchens. The two sites have a combined student body of 500 full-time and part-time students.
Some part-time students have full-time jobs and go to the Culinary Institute to train at night.
“It’s amazing to have your life and come here and have all of that at the same time.”
The 9-month professional Advanced Culinary Arts Program has a 6-month paid externship, and the 6-month professional Pastry and Baking Program has a 3-month paid externship.
Real-world experience starts from the beginning. The Farmington location serves lunch and dinner at the 48-seat café with a French bistro theme in gold, red, and black, and a rooster motif.
The institute tries to place their students in full-time positions by the time they graduate, and the students are usually placed during their externships.
Classes of no more than 15 students, who wear white chef’s hats and uniforms, train in spotlessly clean white kitchens with polished stainless steel tables and appliances. Trays of cooking tools and rows of blenders line the shelves.
Future students should know that becoming a chef isn’t as glamorous as portrayed on TV cooking shows.
“It’s an amazingly tough industry. You have to continue to learn. There are long hours. You’re working holidays. The program is tough. We have a lot to teach them before they leave here. It’s completely normal for a chef to work 12 to 16 hours a day. And for a managing chef, it never ends. Most good chefs thrive on the hours and they have boundless energy, it seems,” said Baran.
The training kitchens open at 7 a.m. to begin preparing meats; at 2:30 p.m. they become regular kitchens.
“Every kitchen turns over at least three times a day.”
The field is rewarding.
“Once you have the foundation, it is a beautiful career. People come here with no skill and we train them very well; then it’s up to them to go out and make of it what they can. When we hear from them after two or three years, and they have their first success, our training chefs have a sense of pride. They remember, then, when [the student] couldn’t hold a knife. It’s creative. There is a sense of accomplishment when they are doing what they were trained to do,” Baran said.
Externships are held in the U.S. or in other countries.
“We had students who have gone to Greece and France,” she said.
The teaching chefs are from France, Sweden, England, Japan, and Italy, and the instructors’ training is global.
Pride in the culinary profession extends to regional, national, and global competitions.
“We won regional last year. One student won a national gold medal in desserts and food sculpting. He was a silver medal winner in the Culinary Olympics in Germany. We have an international flair, and the International College of Hospitality Management. We can represent up to 35 foreign countries. It’s gotten a little harder since Sept. 11. Visas are a little harder to obtain,” she said.
Besides working in restaurants, graduates work in country clubs, bed and breakfasts, resorts, schools and universities, retirement and corporate dining, or start their own businesses.
“I think CCI is a place where our motto ‘Turn your passion into a career’ is real. Our students come with a lot of passion and a lot of drive and their success stories are amazing, and the passion and drive of our teachers is equal. On graduation day, the students and parents are proud. There is an overwhelming sense of pride in what we can do everyday and in what we can accomplish.”
###
Hill-Stead Museum Celebrates 138th Birthday Of Its Architect
By Tricia Stuart
By 3 p.m. on Saturday’s celebration of Theodate Pope Riddle’s 138th birthday, 135 people had visited the Hill-Stead Museum, and later champagne and cake were served.
Riddle was the architect who designed the Colonial Revival house for her parents, which was completed in 1901. Since she was not yet a licensed architect, the prestigious architectural firm McKim, Mead & White prepared the final drawings of the estate.
Museum Director Sharon Stotz played Theodate in an elegant lace-accented period costume during the celebration. Stotz and docents interpreted the rooms, which contain original furnishings, and they described historical vignettes of Pope Riddle’s life and accomplishments.
Pope Riddle studied architecture and became licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut during a time when few women were architects and when women were not allowed in mainstream academic society, a society that was reserved for men. She learned architecture at Harvard where she was allowed to sit at the back of the room with a screen around her so the male students wouldn’t be corrupted by her feminine presence.
Docents explained that she lost some clients when they found out she was a woman. Yet, she experienced success, and she designed a public elementary school in Naugatuck, the Westover School for Girls in Middlebury, and Avon Old Farms Boys School.
Pope Riddle was a hands-on architect. She personally supervised the building of her architectural projects, and she ran the Westover School and designed the curriculum, which included craftsmanship. The design of private homes and the restoration of the Teddy Roosevelt home in Manhattan were among her projects.
Born in 1867, she lived in the house from 1901 until her death in 1946. She was married to John Wallace Riddle in 1916.
Visitors to the estate who are interested in architectural design, original paintings by Monet, Manet, Degas, Cassatt, and Whistler, period furnishings, leather-bound literature, and a closet full of beautiful period gowns will not be disappointed.
Victorian Empire style mahogany furnishings abound in wall-papered and fielded panel rooms, along with a 17th century Georgian-style pie crust pedestal table, a Shaker rocking chair, Chippendale, Sheraton, a Steinway baby grand piano, and an early 18th century French commode inlaid with ormolu trim and a red marble top.
Hill-Stead Museum house tours, museum shop, grounds, gardens and trails are located at 35 Mountain Road.
###
Council Member Named New Red Cross CEO
By Tricia Stuart
Debra Pasquale, the newly appointed chief executive officer of the Charter Oak Chapter of the American Red Cross in Farmington, was the top choice for the job.
But, after a two-year hiatus from being the founding CEO at a not-for-profit advocacy group for 13 years, Pasquale wasn’t looking to be a CEO again right away.
That job was the job of a lifetime, she says. She had a dedicated team in that business that introduced science to middle schools.
“I was 50 and I had done everything in my career I wanted to do. I left without a job to go to and I reconnected with friends and family and I volunteered. I serve on the Town Council,” she said.
She’s ready for the new opportunity. Pasquale says she has been preparing for this position with the American Red Cross her whole life. She has a background as a nurse working in intensive care units.
“Events like the tsunami, or a fire in our home —your life changes forever. You can be well planned financially, and in other ways, but, if there is a disaster, your life changes forever. I’ve always appreciated the preciousness of life.”
The American Red Cross is involved in disaster and emergency service preparation.
“Now,” she said, “I feel truly honored to be here. The more I learned about this organization, the more I was impressed with their commitment. I felt I could learn and contribute in many ways. The [American Red Cross] symbol is powerful.”
The tsunami occurred just before Pasquale was chosen to be CEO. “From the time I started, I was working with this. In America, we raised nearly $400 million within 30 days,” Pasquale said.
The Charter Oak Chapter serves 83 towns in the state. There are more than 800 chapters in the country.
The organization is perhaps best known for blood services. Blood is collected, then processed at the American Red Cross in Farmington, and shipped to 31 transfusion stations in the state.
The American Red Cross also has volunteers who are trained to help people in partnership with police and fire departments. Last year, there were 190 fires that touched 450 families.
The American Red Cross has a long-standing relationship with the armed forces, helping soldiers get home safely to their families. And it helps with health, education, and safety in areas such as CPR, lifeguards, general water safety, and defibrillators (to restart a heart that has stopped beating).
“My personal vision is for the Charter Oak chapter to be the premier Red Cross in the Northeast,” Pasquale said. “We have an outstanding staff. We do SWOT analysis here (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Our strength is the brand recognition, the symbol of the Red Cross. A weakness is that many people don’t know how the Red Cross applies to them. The opportunity is for me to tell people what the Red Cross means. The threat is that we don’t take the need to be prepared seriously so we can respond to disasters.
“There are forces that are bigger than we are. Plans help us prepare and live as peacefully as we can.”
The Charter Oak Chapter of the American Red Cross has courses and a course catalog. Some courses are taught in–house and others are brought to businesses that request them.
“Companies big and small can ask about our training. Our instructors will go into their businesses. We can train people to do in-house CPR. Last year, we trained 75,000 offices.” That may seem like a large number, but it is a drop in the bucket of the possible number of businesses that they can help. “Our catchment area covers 1,375,000 businesses,” Pasquale said.
A staff of 39 reports to Pasquale, and there is an additional volunteer-staff of 3,400 who staff blood drives and have beepers for middle-of-the-night fires. There are health and safety people, and fund-raisers who are involved with philanthropy.
###
Flying High In Aviation History
Events Offered For Children During Presidents’ Week
By Tricia Stuart
Caroline d’Otreppe, the director of educational programs at the New England Air Museum, loves planes and the people who have made flight history.
“Women involved in all aspects of flight fly in from all parts of the U.S. to help share their stories,” she said.
Beginning Feb. 24, Tammy D. Richardson will play the part of Bessie Coleman, the first African American female licensed pilot in America, for Black History Month, at 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Women skydivers, corporate and military pilots, balloonists, and aerospace engineers have come to the museum to share their stories and to help spread the word that women have played a large part in aviation history, a part they continue to play.
A Lockheed Model 10E Electra, identical to the plane Amelia Earhart flew, is exhibited in the Civil Aviation Hangar. Earhart was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932) and the first to fly from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, Calif. (1935) in the first trans-Pacific solo flight by a woman.
“Connecticut has had such a rich history of aviation,” d’Otreppe says, “and we have 256 aircraft engines in storage, largely due to Pratt Whitney being here.”
As a result of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp C engine, larger planes could be built.
“It opened the door to commercial aviation,” she said.
d’Otreppe and volunteers work with school groups to fit educational tours and hands-on activities into their curriculum of science, technology, history, art, invention, and any inspired themes public- and private-school teachers choose.
The New England Air Museum will offer a week of family activities Feb. 20 to Feb. 25, in exhibits housed in three heated hangars through tours, book sales, modeling workshops, flight simulations, videos, arts and crafts, and interpretations of the past and present.
Visitors are guided through aviation history by viewing a timeline in the evolution of flight, and exhibits of landmark engines. The airplane, helicopter, and other exhibits are sure to produce a nostalgic feeling for the good old days, and a visit to the museum is nearly as good as having a time machine.
Visitors can see a Silas Brooks 1870-balloon basket, the oldest air memento in the country.
The Wright Brothers’ four-cylinder water-cooled vertical engine was rebuilt in the museum and run on the 100-year anniversary Dec. 1, 2003.
“It is the oldest running Wright engine in the world, and the first engine light enough for an airplane,” d’Otreppe said. That engine runs 1325-1500 revolutions per minute, has 28-42 horsepower and weighs a trim 160-180 pounds.
d’Otreppe pointed out a 1917 Fokker DRI Triplane replica of the German World War I pilot, The Red Baron’s plane.
“Originals were too fragile. Originals don’t exist. Early planes were made of wood, and had fabric covering a wire frame.”
The Triplane replica was being built in Russia five years ago with original Sikorsky plans. The plane and plans were purchased by a Sikorsky descendant and shipped to the Sikorsky plant in Stratford Connecticut, where the building of the replica was finished.
The 1920s and 1930s were an exciting time for flight. The Hindenburg, a German dirigible completed in 1936, was destroyed by fire, and killed many while landing in Lakehurst, N.J. in 1937. Despite the depression of 1929, new Wasp engines were developed in the early 1930s, and airplane racing had its heyday with the racetrack in the air, racing motorcycles, cars, and each other to set records in speed, distance and height.
Visitors can see the B-25 Bomber flown by Jimmy Doolittle in World War II, in response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
“You have to remember, most World War II planes were built by women because most of the men were overseas fighting,” said d’Otreppe.
One of the most famous planes is the Sikorsky flying boat, used in World War II by the Navy to carry dignitaries such as Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the actor Humphrey Bogart. The famous actress Maureen O’Hara last owned it.
A flying boat was developed because “we didn’t have many runways back then so the plane needed to take off on and land in water,” d’Otreppe explained.
O’Hara and her pilot husband Charlie Blair last used the plane in a private business in the Virgin Islands. By the time O’Hara donated it to the museum, the plane had seen better days and the museum has a before-restoration picture of the plane.
“The restoration was a joint project between Sikorsky and the museum. A lot of the people who originally built it restored it.”
The luxury flying boat had 16 passengers and a crew of 11, a kitchen for food preparation, and beds on board. It didn’t have pressurized cabins so it flew below 10,000 feet, and mostly below the clouds. A flight from LaGuardia Airport, with a stopover for fuel in Gander Newfoundland, to Shannon, Ireland, took 22 hours.
Planes, helicopters, and missiles aren’t the only things that will be seen at the museum. For old car and bicycle buffs, there is a 20 horse power 1918 Ford Model T Runabout, a 1935 Ford Roadster, a 1940 Midget Race Car, a 1936 Cord 810 Phaeton, and a 1939 Iver Johnson Bicycle.
“There is a lot of cross-technology between cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and planes,” said d’Otreppe.
“Sikorsky was probably the greatest aeronautical engineer of the 20th century. Sikorsky had a mission to build planes that could save lives in inaccessible areas, like underwater rescue,” and so he built the flying boat.
If just visiting exhibits at the museum isn’t quite enough fun, the space can be rented for events. The New England Air Museum has had sleepovers for Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, and neighboring organizations have reserved space for speeches, dinners, receptions, and even weddings and funerals.
“A lot of grandparents come with their grandchildren. We provide fun activities that are inside —out of the weather for kids of all ages. We have 15 tour guides with different areas of expertise, and we match the expertise with the group needs. Our tour guides flew some of these planes and helicopters. Others were workers who built the planes or worked on the space program. The people are living historians who share their stories with the next generation. It’s exciting to be part of that,” said d’Otreppe.
Tours are given for groups of 20 and the tours are geared to the group’s objectives for learning. “The planes are on wheels, so the exhibits change, and kiosks and hands-on activities change,” she said.
###
