Wilton Candlelight Concerts

Wilton Candlelight Concerts has offered renowned chamber music artists in four concerts a year since 1947: now celebrating our 75th season.

In 1947, a group of Wilton citizens got together and decided to make a chamber concert series an annual event. While the town already had a library building, the series would benefit its collections of books and music. It was decided that the concerts would take place at the Congregational Church, because of the church’s historical importance, as well as its excellent acoustics and intimate atmosphere. A 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon time was chosen, and the series dubbed “Candlelight” because candles were to be lit in the church just before the concert began.

The series has been a continuous presence in Fairfield County musical life for over sixty years now. Most of the concerts still take place at the Congregational Church, (although, sadly, candles are no longer lit, owing to fire regulations). The series still benefits the Wilton Library Over the years, it has featured such internationally prominent, locally based musicians as pianist David Keiser (for many years president of the New York Philharmonic), violinists Tossy Spivakovsky and Ruth Breton, violist Walter Trampler, clarinetist David Shifrin, cellist Aldo Parisot, and singer Jerry Hadley.

But Candlelight does not limit its programs to locally based musicians. The series has featured pianists Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andre Watts; it has welcomed the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, Takacs, Orion and Miami quartets (among many others). In the last few years alone, Dawn Upshaw, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Hough, Leonidas Kavakos and Ida Kavafian have appeared.