School Early Release! Felted Guinea Pig & Bowl
2024-02-07 13:45 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Fivesparks Loft, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
Come on over to Fivesparks with your friends on a chilly school early release afternoon to create an adorable little felted guinea pig with its own little bowl accessory!
Wednesday, February 7
1:45-3:00pm
Kids in 4th-6th grades
$28 (includes all supplies)
For more info or to save your spot click here.

Private & Semi-Private Music Lessons for Kids
2024-02-05 15:45 - 18:00, 2024-01-29 15:45 - 18:00, 2024-01-22 15:45 - 18:00, 2024-01-08 15:45 - 18:00, 2023-12-18 15:45 - 18:00 | Fivesparks Movement Room, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
Private/Semi-Private lessons are offered to kids 12 yrs and under on recorder, guitar and/or keyboard. Lessons will be scheduled on Mondays or Tuesdays (after other scheduled music courses taught by Steve, generally after 5pm).
These lessons will help young beginners build a strong foundation for more advanced studies on any of these instruments.
Careful listening and musicianship skills are emphasized. Fourth and fifth-grade recorder students will gain a solid foundation that will allow for rapid progress upon selecting band instruments in sixth grade.
Lessons are reasonably-priced and conveniently located in the center of Harvard. The ability to group kids into semi-private lessons offers the opportunity for middle-low income families to participate in quality music education.
Steve Peisch has taught music at several schools, including the New England Conservatory, Deerfield Academy, Lawrence Academy, The Indian Hill Music School (now called the Groton Hill Music Center) the Bromfield School, and Hildreth Elementary School.
Most recently, he has focused on providing excellent and enjoyable music classes for the youngest elementary school age children, having learned from first-hand experience that providing a strong foundation at this level will strengthen the music programs that follow in both middle and high schools.
Peisch is committed to developing curiosity and creativity in young people, to sequencing instruction carefully and in conversation with other music teachers, to broadcasting high expectations in music and other arts classes, and to encouraging music students to make connections with other subject areas.
Peisch’s music is available on his website, http://hundredsrecords.com/index.html, and his recommendations for arts educators can be found on his company’s website, http://www.newdirectionsinartseducation.com/
Contact Peisch at stevepeisch2@gmail.com with questions, pricing information and to register.

FREE Women's Health & Wellness Series - Women's Health Talk with Area Medical Professionals
2024-02-03 09:00 - 10:00 | Fivesparks Gallery, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
2/3/24 (9am-10am): Women’s Health Talk

Learn about Perimenopause and Menopause, Breast Health and Women’s Nutrition in this Ted Talk-style session with Dr. Christina Thomas of Concord OBGYN, Dr. Liza Ragulin Coyne of Emerson Hospital and nutrition expert, Ori Kilner of Ori Kilner Structural Therapy.

Coffee, juice and pastries and fruit will be available.

All are welcome, but space is limited. Reserve your spot today by scanning the QR Code above, or clicking here.

Felted Mushroom House
2024-01-29 18:30 - 20:00 | Fivesparks Loft, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
Come into the warmth at Fivesparks with friends or family to learn or expand your skills in wool needle-felting and create a whimsical mushroom house!
Monday 1/29
6:30-8pm
Ages Adult and kids 11 yrs+ (8-10 yr olds can attend with an adult)
$28 (includes all supplies)
For more info or to save your spot click here

An Italian In America, featuring the music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
2024-01-28 16:00 - 17:00 | Fivesparks Gallery, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
Jan 28 update: Despite the New England weather, today’s concert is still on. Please travel safely and we look forward to seeing you for a wonderful afternoon of music! Join virtually at the livestream link below if you prefer.
Veteran classical guitarist Dave McLellan, founder of Concert In Your Living Room, teams up with pianist and Bromfield School music educator Nikolaus Hunt, presenting a concert featuring the Concerto For Guitar and Orchestra #1 by the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. The Booster Suite, a special suite of pieces featured in the Moving West Dance Theater group 2022 program Awakenings will also be performed. Mr McLellan and Mr. Hunt revive their collaboration from 2018 where they presented a concert to benefit the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of New England and the family of a Bromfield teen suffering with leukemia.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a 20th Italian composer of Jewish descent who was becoming a celebrity in the late 1930’s when he had to escape the fascist regimes of Itaiy and Germany. He is very familiar to guitarists and guitar audiences, but less well known in other circles where he excelled. Once safely arrived n the U.S. in 1939, the great violinist Jascha Heifetz helped him land a job writing film scores for Western films from the 1940’s until his death in 1968. His music will be familiar because of his many film scores, and his influence and mentorship of other great American composers such as Nelson Riddle, Andre Previn, Henry Mancini, and the unparalleled John Williams.
Tedesco completed the first guitar concerto just before he escaped Italy in 1939. It truly represents an important life transition, no less than one of survival. The premier was done by Andres Segovia in Montevideo, but the composer had to wait eleven years before he heard the work performed by Segovia and the L.A. Philharmonic in 1950. Because Tedesco was able to live safely and happily in the U.S. he contributed significantly to the repertoire for the guitar. The music for the instrument would be much poorer without Tedesco’s work and collaborations with Segovia and other major guitarists of the 20th century.
Suggested donation: $25 at the door. All proceeds from this performance to benefit Fivesparks.
For those unable to attend in person, but who still want to support, there will be a livestream of the event at this link. Donations by remote audiences may be made at the Fivesparks donate page, in advance or during the performance.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Harvard Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Concert In Your Living Room – Spreading the joy of the classical guitar and charitable giving one living room at a time.
Concert In your Living Room was launched in 1998 with the first such concert to raise funds for a church in Sudbury, MA. Since then, concert guitarist Dave McLellan has delivered private recitals of beloved works in the solo classical guitar literature in an intimate setting such as the living room of a private home. Our clients have included Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston Food Bank, Animal Rescue League of Boston, Leukemia Lymphoma Society of New England, Be Like Brit Foundation, Worcester Chamber Music Society, University of Hartford, Boston Children’s Museum, Charity: water, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, Pan Mass Challenge, many churches and humanitarian organizations.
Dave McLellan has performed in the U.S., South America, Great Britain, and Europe since 1976, including debut and chamber appearances in Jordan Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Wigmore Hall (London). Beginning in 1981, he lived a double life as software engineer and concert guitarist with duo partner Neil Anderson. The Anderson-McLellan Duo gave several hundred concerts throughout the 1980’s, including two concert tours of Great Britain, and festival performances in the US and South America. Supported grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the D ’Addario Foundation, they gave their farewell performance in November 1989 in Merkin Hall, New York, in a program of American duo guitar music, including 3 premiers performances. Mr. McLellan’s collaborators include the late guitarist/composer Frank Wallace, the Serata Quartet, soprano Rebecca Grimes, soprano Rebekah Alexander, contralto Emily Marvosh (Handel & Haydn Society, Lorelei), flutist Tracy Kraus, violinist Judith Eissenberg, and guitarist Edward Flower.
Mr. McLellan has served on the faculties of The Hartt School and the University of Connecticut, where he also performed regularly with Edward Flower. In addition to serving on the faculty of the Performing Arts Center Metrowest, he served on the Town of Harvard Artist in Residence program. He is a self-taught free-lance timpanist and mallet percussionist and has appeared with community and professional orchestras in the Metrowest Boston area. He is the timpanist, publicist, and guitar soloist of the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, in residence at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
Having been raised by a pathological philanthropist, Mr. McLellan is committed to using music to change lives and help charitable causes. In 1998, he founded and continues to perform in Concert in Your Living Room, a service dedicated to helping non-profits raise funds. In 1996, he established the David S. and Margaret McLellan Endowment for Performance Outreach at The Hartt School. While he served on the Hartt School Board of Trustees in Audience Development (2015-2021), he created and curated the first six seasons of the popular Hartt@Home program, an initiative that brought Hartt students, faculty, and alumni performers into private homes for intimate performance experiences. Hartt@Home served over 2300 listeners in its six seasons, one living room (or Zoom call) at a time. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and the Performing Arts Center Metrowest in Framingham.
Nikolaus Hunt is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts,with a B.M. in Piano Performance. There, he was a recipient of the Chancellor’s Talent Award and a winner of the DownBeat Student Music Awards. In addition to his bachelor’s studies, Mr. Hunt has studied classical and jazz piano, including at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School. Mr. Hunt has performed as an accompanist in several public school districts in Massachusetts and as a soloist and band member throughout New England. He is also a professional arranger, and his work has been featured at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Hunt has been teaching privately since 1994 and is currently serving as a music educator and choral accompanist at The Bromfield School in Harvard, Massachusetts.

FREE Women's Health & Wellness Series - Vinyasa Yoga
2024-01-27 09:00 - 10:00 | Fivesparks Gallery, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
1/27/24 (9am-10am): Vinyasa Yoga with Shannon Boeckelman

Shannon is a certified yoga teacher with 20 years of experience taking and teaching yoga. Her flow sequences are set to a dynamic music playlist promising a fun and rejuvenating yoga experience for all!

Please bring a water and a yoga mat (mats will be available for those who need one).

All are welcome, but space is limited. Reserve your spot today by scanning the QR Code above, or clicking here.

An Afternoon of Irish and Old-Time Music with Sarah Collins & Jonathan Vocke
2024-01-14 15:00 - 16:00 | Fivesparks Gallery, 7 Fairbank Street, Harvard, MA, 01451, United States
An Evening of Irish and Old-Time Music with Sarah Collins & Jonathan Vocke
Sarah Collins and Jonathan Vocke bring a fresh take to Irish music, pairing traditional fiddle melodies with old time two-fingered banjo. Drawing inspiration from the Celtic traditions that Sarah grew up with in the Boston area and the old-time and folk scene that Jonathan calls home in Baltimore, the pair explores the space at the intersection of these musical styles. The music they create together is first and foremost about groove, and plays with the balance of lightness, sensitivity, and grounding. The program of music will include Irish, Scottish, and Old Time tune selections, featuring fiddle, guitar, and banjo. Sarah grew up in Harvard, graduating from Bromfield in 2010, and is excited to return to town and share her music with family and friends.
Admission: $20 at the door.

Artists in Residence Month at Fivesparks!
2024-01-09 - 2024-02-10 | Fivesparks
Fivesparks will once again open its doors to area artists for a winter month of collective creativity, good vibes and collaboration!
From January 9 – February 10, 2024, Fivesparks will be transformed into art studios! Mediums such as pastels, gelli-plate printmaking, oils and clay will be represented by area artists who will be using our historic building as their creative hub.
Visitors are welcome and encouraged to drop-in during our open hours to observe and interact with the artists that happen to be present at the time. Visitors will also be able to purchase artwork displayed by our temporary studio artists.
THIS SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10th – FREE DEMOS 12-4pm!
12pm – 2pm
Amy Byron – Watercolor & Ink – Gallery

3pm – 4pm
Michele Vitti – Bookmaking – Reading Room

12-4pm

Anne Swinton – Casual Conversation about Clay Firing Techniques – Gallery and/or Cove

Stop in to visit us often to see what’s new during our Artists in Residence month!

Destination:Nature Juried Art Show - through January 6
2023-11-08 - 2023-12-26 | Fivesparks
SPECIAL EXHIBIT HOURS:
From November 8, 2023 through January 6, 2024
Tuesdays – Fridays: 10:00 – 4:00pm
Saturdays & Sundays: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Exhibit closed: November 23, December 24 & 31
Not local to Harvard? Check out the online exhibit gallery HERE.
Check out the exhibit’s award winners here!
