The Trouble Begins in Hartford: Music and Connection in Twain’s World and in Ours

January 26 • 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Throughout his life, music helped Clemens feel connected to far-away places, to people he cared for, and to the powerful emotions those people and places stirred in him.

Join The Mark Twain House and Museum for a conversation on the ways that music connected and sustained Sam Clemens and his family over the years, and the ways musicians today have innovated to maintain those connections during the pandemic.

Steve Courtney, Twain House historian, will be joined in conversation by Dr. Matt Seybold of Elmira College and CMTS scholar-in-residence, Sarah Kaufold, artistic director of the Eastern Connecticut-based chamber ensemble Voices of Concinnity, and Erin Bartram, the museum’s School Programs Coordinator. This free event will also introduce the museum’s new music education program “Make Music With Mark Twain,” and premiere a new recording of “Good Night, Dear Heart” by Dan Forrest, a setting of the poem inscribed on Susy Clemens’ headstone, which Voices of Concinnity recorded masked and safely distanced on the porch of the Mark Twain House this past fall. 

This event will premier live on The Mark Twain House & Museum’s Facebook page.