Newtown Friends of Music is offering "A Memorial Concert For Ellen Parrella" on Sunday, October 23. The 3 pm performance will take place at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

Pianist Will Duchon, cellist Mary Costanza, harpist Wendy Kerner, and violinist Deborah Wong will perform the concert to honor the memory of Mrs Parrella, who among other things served as president of Newtown Friends of Music for nearly three decades.

Ms Costanza and Mr Duchon will open the afternoon with a performance of Sonata for Cello & Piano in G minor, Op 19 by Rachmaninoff.

Following intermission, Ms Kerner and Ms Wong will then perform works of Glinka, Mozart, Saint-Saens, Cerha and Strauss.

Mrs Parrella died in her sleep on February 14. She was surrounded by her children and the sounds of her favorite symphony, Beethoven's Seventh, at the time of her death.

Mrs Parrella joined the board of directors of Newtown Friends of Music in 1975, and served as president for the last 28 years. Her daughter, Kaia Fahrenholz, has stepped up to serve as president of NFM.

Sunday afternoon's concert will honor the memory of Mrs Parrella in multiple ways, according to her daughter.

"We have long hosted musicians who make their living traveling the world, performing," Ms Fahrenholz said October 12. "They have professional managers, they make their entire living as professional musicians.

"These four don't," she continued, highlighting the local aspect of the special performance. "They are private teachers, Connecticut residents, they play with the local symphony, and they have CDs out, but they're not self promoting. Mom was big on promoting local talents.

"It's a humble, very local reach, and I know Mom would have appreciated that," she added.

The program on Sunday will include a number of pieces by Austrian composers, another tribute to Mrs Parrella.

A native of Vienna, Austria, Mrs Parrella reportedly "explored Vienna on her own from an early age, showing a fascination with composers and scientists," according to her obituary. She spent two years away from Vienna during World War II, but returned after the war and attended boarding school and business college.

The Rachmaninoff work that will open the afternoon will honor both Mrs Parrella and her late second husband.

"Mom loved Rachmaninoff," said Mrs Fahrenholz. "And Fred Parrella, her late second husband of 20 years, was a huge supporter of Newtown Friends of Music. And he was a cellist."

The performance will conclude with a medley of waltzes by Strauss, "which were her favorites," Ms Fahrenholz pointed out.

NFM was fortunate in that the musicians they reached out to were available for an October performance. The program also fell into place fairly easily.

"It's an usual confluence of events that all happened to take shape," said Ms Fahrenholz. "It's going to be nice.

"They all respected Mom," she added. "They all knew her."

Mr Duchon, in fact, performed at the celebration of life for Mrs Parrella in April.

Ellen Fahrenholz Parrella

Ellen Fahrenholz (nee Ellen Kaja Weitzmann) and her husband Robert, a naval officer, moved to Newtown in 1960. The couple had eloped two years earlier; Mrs Fahrenholz immigrated to the United States two months after her wedding.

The Fahrenholzes raised three children in Newtown: Kaia, Jim and George. All three went the the Newtown school system, attending Middle Gate, Newtown Middle School and Newtown High School.

While the children were growing, Mrs Fahrenholz worked part-time, and also started to become involved with community groups that were artistically driven. She joined the board of directors of Town Players of Newtown in 1964, and remained involved with the local theater company in multiple capacities for more than 13 years.

Mrs Parrella had what her daughter calls "a steadfast belief in supporting Newtown.

"Dr Draper delivered all of us and was our pediatrician, Dr Ray cleaned all our teeth, and she bought all her cars from Danny Amaral," Ms Fahrenholz said. Her mother was a strong supporter of C.H Booth Library, Newtown Hook & Ladder Fire Company, and would always go to Newtown Hardware.

"She hated the mall, and what it took away from local businesses," Ms Fahrenholz said. "She would rather have the hardware store order something than ever go to Lowe's or Home Depot."

In 1968 Ellen Fahrenholz was invited to serve on a feasibility study committee for establishing the Newtown Arts Festival (NAF). Subsequently, she became a founding board member in 1970 of the festival. She served as secretary and then as president for ten years.

"She founded that festival and brought worldwide talent to town," Kaia Fahrenholz said proudly.

It was in 1975 that Mrs Fahrenholz joined the board of directors of Newtown Friends of Music. Her passion for "exquisite music, superbly performed" - NFM's longstanding promise - was a driving force for the last 28 years of her life.

Ellen Fahrenholz met Fred Parrella after joining NFM; he too was on the group's board of directors. The two were married in 1991, and then entered retirement together.

But that did not slow either of them down. Mrs Parrella was active in Newtown Congregational Church, The International Club of Newtown, Booth Library Book Club, and Newtown Rotary Club. She drove and scheduled for Friends In Service Here (FISH), and continued her lifelong advocacy for literacy. Mrs Parrella, according to her obituary, taught English to hundreds of immigrants during 30 years with Literacy Volunteers of America.

"She really believed in literacy," Kaia Fahrenholz said.

Her mother also cared language skills for others.

"Mom taught German for Newtown Adult Education twice a week back in the 1960s and 70s," Ms Fahrenholz said. "Two businessmen who took her classes hired her later in life to run their import/export businesses."

Mrs Parrella took a radio operator course in the 1980s, but did not begin working on radio until much more recently. Then she began being featured during a two-hour program, Wednesday mornings on WMNR Fine Arts Radio.

"WMNR recorded 100 hours of her shows, and they're still playing it," Kaia Fahrenholz said October 12. "She was on this morning. It's great because you hear her happy, and upbeat, and doing exactly what she loved, her favorite thing.

"She knew these composers. This was her being passionately happy, doing exactly what she loves," she added. "It's her forte. To hear her on the air every week is just an incredible gift."

Ellen and Fred Parrella traveled "extensively," according to Mrs Parrella's obituary, "exploring all corners of the globe to unearth new classical artists." Many of those discoveries accepted invitations to perform for Newtown Friends of Music on the stage of Edmond Town Hall.

"While Mom was visiting family in Vienna in 2012, she stopped in to the Vienna Choir Boys school to ask them to return to Newtown. She had them since in Newtown back in the 70s for the Newtown Arts Festival," Ms Fahrenholz shared with The Newtown Bee. "They did not turn her down.

"They performed in March 2013 at Carnegie Hall and in Newtown," she said. "It was one of the few sold out concerts at the Edmond Town Hall."

Each of Sunday's guest musicians has performed locally, Kaia Fahrenholz said. This will be the first time all four are performing together in Newtown.

Tickets for "A Memorial Concert For Ellen Parrella" are $25, cash or check only. They will be available at the box office beginning at 2 pm the afternoon of the concert. They can also be reserved by calling 203-426-6470.

Students will be admitted for free.

An informal reception will follow the performance in order for patrons to meet the musicians and have CDs autographed.

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