“Music is the universal language of mankind.” ―Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A key mission of New Canaan Chamber Music is to bring our world-class musical offerings to as many people as possible. Artistic Director Andrew Armstrong is a tireless advocate of bringing the joy of great music to seniors, teens, and young children who might not otherwise have access to our concerts. While they are in New Canaan for our concert series, our musicians take time to visit our many outreach partners. They not only perform for these communities but also have a chance to share history, stories, and feelings about the music they play, helping the audience understand and interact deeply with the music.
During the 2025/2026 Season, New Canaan Chamber Music’s outreach programs reached over 1,300 underserved members of our community, more than doubling our impact from prior years. Beneficiaries of our programs included students at Bridgeport elementary schools; youth participating in programs offered by Kids Empowered by Your Support (“KEYS”), the Stamford Boys & Girls Club, and Future Five Center; the Domestic Violence Crisis Center; residents of the Meadow Ridge (Redding) and Edgehill (Stamford) retirement communities; and the New Canaan’s Senior Men’s Club. Mr. Armstrong also performed live on WSHU public radio.
This season we are building on our past successes, both deepening our work with existing community partners while also broadening our programs through new initiatives in New Canaan and across Fairfield County. Our outreach work now spans a few carefully developed categories of influence:
Senior Citizens & Memory Care Facilities
New Canaan Chamber Music brings short-form concerts to senior living facilities, including some specialized memory care units, during each concert cycle. These visits have both social and medical benefits: Music is mood-boosting across all ages and health conditions, but it has particular benefits for the elderly, improving brain function and mental well-being, especially in older adults. Research also shows music helps slow cognitive decline and is already a promising therapy for people with a loss of cognitive function, including those with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. The social connection that comes with younger people coming to share their passion for music also helps protect against isolation and depression in elderly populations. These programs are meaningful experiences for all involved: “Everyone had such a warm and emotional time with Andrew and the wonderful musicians who came with him,” reported the director of a senior living residence.
In addition to performances at senior living communities and memory care facilities, New Canaan Chamber Music also offers discounted tickets for residents of these partner facilities who wish to attend full performances during the season.
Domestic Violence Crisis Centers and Children in Crisis
Last year, New Canaan Chamber Music hosted a private holiday concert for the beneficiaries of the Stamford Domestic Violence Crisis Center, bringing much needed cheer and emotional rejuvenation to mothers and their children who are in the throes of escaping domestic abuse. Participants built connection and felt their spirits soar as they laughed, cried, and danced together with the music—a collective exhale and strengthening of their hard-earned independence and dignity. Building on the success of that event, we are partnering with the Stamford Domestic Violence Crisis Center again this season, this time organizing multiple programs for their survivor community throughout the year. For the safety and confidentiality of participants, there are no photos from these events.
This season we are also working to offer programming to children in crisis, experiencing severe family trauma, secondary prisonization when a parent is incarcerated, or homelessness, or other forms of sudden separation.
Education Programs
Our musicians offer thoughtfully planned interactive educational programs for children during each concert cycle. Andrew’s energy and sense of humor shine during these programs, through which children learn about the instruments, composers, and history of the music they hear, learn how to listen and what to listen for, and are encouraged to feel the music with their hearts and whole bodies. At a recent session with middle schoolers, the students became deeply engaged with understanding unspoken communication between ensemble players and how this translates to other areas of life.
Education programs are offered in a few different forms, including public children’s performances—a couple of which have taken place at the New Canaan Public Library—and tailored programs that take place at schools as well as dedicated music education institutions.
Schools
During the 2026/2027 Season, New Canaan Chamber Music will be partnering with several public-school districts and independent schools in Fairfield County to provide educational programming for children grades prek-12 on a regular basis. More than half of our school partners predominately serve children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition to the programs offered to children, we also provide communication about our visits to the children’s families and encourage them to attend full performances, offering discounted or free tickets where applicable.
This season we are also working to offer programming to children in crisis, experiencing severe family trauma, secondary prisonization when a parent is incarcerated, or homelessness, or other forms of sudden separation.
Music Education Programs
Supporting the education of young musicians is of critical importance to professional musicians and performance organizations everywhere for two key reasons: first, they are the pipeline for the next generation of professional musicians, without whom there would be no concerts, and second, raising a new generation of music lovers eventually translates to a new generation of music audiences to continue supporting the arts.
This year New Canaan Chamber Music has created a partnership with the Suzuki Schools of Westport and Orange. During each of our concert cycles, our musicians present a free children’s concert open to the public through their Pillow Concert Series. We encourage all interested families with children to attend the Pillow Concerts in addition to our full ticketed programming throughout the season. All performances are followed by masterclasses given by our musicians to music students across skill levels.
We are also offering sectional coaching to the string and wind/brass sections of local youth orchestras. Several of the wind and brass players performing with New Canaan Chamber Music this season serve as the principals in major US orchestras, so this is a unique opportunity for orchestral students to receive instruction from some of the top musicians in their field. We also offer performance and music career guidance workshops for serious young musicians.
Finally, we are continuing to offer dedicated programming to organizations that work entirely with music students from underserved backgrounds. These programs not only provide quality music instruction and mentorship to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, but they view music as a tool to provide young people with skills and experiences they need to be successful in life.
Contact us if you know of any organization which would be interested in having a program.