Danbury To Honor Native Son

DANBURY — Danbury Music Centre and Mayor Mark Boughton will memorialize Danbury’s native son, Charles E. Ives, in a graveside ceremony on Wednesday, May 19, which will be the 50th anniversary of his death.

Larry Deming and Nancy Sudik, from Danbury Music Centre, are observing this landmark anniversary with music and conversation at the site of Ives’ grave in the family plot at Wooster Cemetery in Danbury. Mr Deming and Ms Sudik annually arrange a celebration honoring the October 20 birth of Charles Ives.

Ives was born in a house on the corner of Chapel Street and Main Street in Danbury in 1874 and spent his childhood immersed in the culture, sights, and sounds of Danbury. Experiences of his childhood would later be reflected in much of his music.

In 1947, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his third Symphony – a symphony largely inspired by Methodist revivalists who gathered in the greater Danbury area during the summers of Ives’ youth to sing gospel songs and hymns. Ives’ father George cautioned his son not to “pay too much attention to the sound, for if you do, you may miss the music.”

The graveside ceremony is open to the public but reservations are required as it may be necessary to limit the number of participants. George White Ives, Charles E. Ives’ grandfather, was instrumental in establishing this garden cemetery in the 1850s. The Ives plot is located on a ridge overlooking a pond.

For additional information or to make reservations, call Danbury Music Centre at 748-1716.