The Family Matinee Series is sponsored by United Technologies Corporation and by a generous endowment from Maxwell and Ruth Belding. The Bushnell Box Office hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra is the premier musical organization in Connecticut and the second-largest orchestra in New England. Each season the HSO presents more than sixty concerts at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts and other locations throughout central Connecticut for audiences exceeding 120,000, and reaches thousands more through its statewide broadcasts on Connecticut Public Radio. In 1996 the Hartford Symphony Orchestra introduced the Talcott Mountain Music Festival, a four-concert outdoor concert series held each summer in the scenic Farmington Valley town of Simsbury, Connecticut.
Music education is as central to the Orchestra s mission as the presentation of concerts.
An extensive and dynamic array of educational activities collectively known as Musical Pathways bring classical music to life each year for nearly 40,000 people, from pre-school children through adults. Making that possible is the support of some 8,000 subscribers and 3,000 individual donors, along with the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and numerous corporations and foundations. An international search is under way for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra s ninth Music Director. Volunteers offer 6-10 hours a month, doing activities that are enrichment for the child s social and academic well being.