Meeting House Presents

Meeting House Presents is a non-profit concert series founded in April 2017 with a mission to present music in the acoustically and visually stunning Unitarian Society of Hartford. We are located in the West End of Hartford, near the University of Hartford.

 

Our concerts are usually third Fridays at 7pm, September through May.

50 Bloomfield Avenue  Hartford, CT  06105
Free on-site parking

 

2024-25 Season

• • • Mad Agnes – Friday, March 21, 2025 7:00 pm
    • Meetinghouse – Friday, April 18, 2025 7:00 pm
    • Soupeater! (Sue Hill & Peter Lendoff) – Friday, May 16, 2025 7:00 pm
    • John Gorka – Saturday, June 7, 2025 7:00 pm

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Mad Agnes – Friday, March 21, 2025 7:00 pm $20

The genre-bending trio, Mad Agnes, delivers smart songwriting, passionate performances, and an ease with one another on stage that invites the audience into their world of human connection and spontaneous fun. They transport listeners with well crafted instrumentation, using guitars, mandolin, ukulele, piano, an inventive keyboard, and three-part harmonies as tight as jeans from the dryer.

Mad Agnes is mad – but only in the most endearing way.
And if you ask them what they’re mad about…
Why, they’re mad about you.

Mad Agnes has won hearts on two continents with their signature intricate harmonies, compelling songwriting, and passionate delivery.The genre-bending trio—Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones and Mark Saunders—creates an exciting, inclusive performance, delivering new original songs, selections from their thirteen album catalog, story telling and impromptu vocal improv.

In their current iteration, Mad Agnes uses primarily one microphone around which they form and re-form, early-radio style. Their ease with one another on stage invites the audience into their world of human connection and spontaneous fun. Well-crafted instrumentation – using guitars, mandolin, ukulele, piano, melodica, an inventive keyboard and three-part harmonies as tight as jeans from the dryer – enthralls audiences again and again. Mad Agnes’ latest recording, Likely Story, was released on Feb. 1, 2024, and is being nationally promoted from Feb-April. It is available NOW BY CLICKING HERE.

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Meetinghouse – Friday, April 18, 2025 7:00 pm $20

Meetinghouse is a folk/rock/bluegrass/r&b musical group that serendipitously happens to be made up of Unitarian Universalists from central Connecticut.

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Soupeater! (Sue Hill & Peter Lendoff) – Friday, May 16, 2025 7:00 pm $20

https://youtu.be/Y-XDkcBGMoQ

Sue Hill & Peter Lendoff  have always been interested in Tin Pan Alley era music — anything from the 1900s through the 40s. The category is pretty loose but songs like “Hello My Baby” or “Shine on Harvest Moon” come to mind. But there are newer songs that have similar chords and themes. And Peter loves jazz chords. They were singing many songs from that era and wanted to create a show that could be done for a library, senior center, or school as well as a traditional music venue. Their stage name, “Soupeater” is their names run together.

They also realized “Soupeater” will work for their “History of Funny Songs” show and for their regular folk and singer-songwriter and “Country Folk and Roots” shows. Their shows feature early folk and country songs (like the Carter Family or traditional songs), some history as well as some of Peter’s original songs.

SUE HILL is a multi-instrumeentalist who excels at getting people to sing-along and tap their feet.

PETER LEHNDORFF was once called skewed by the Springfield Union News. He considers that a compliment. He writes stand-up folk: humorous songs about everyday life. His off-beat songs poke fun at things we generally overlook: our cars, what we eat, where we live and the things that most normal people are too afraid to admit they are afraid of. His songs ‘East Longmeadow’ and ‘Love on the Line’ are crowd favorites.

“Imagine John Prine type songs played with a Leo Kottke delivery. Lehndorff’s songs are filled with the kind of wry humor that leaves you by turns, guffawing at life and nodding with recognition. Standouts are Yellow Datsun, featuring Dar Williams, and East Longmeadow, a suburban sendup that builds to a perfect punch-line. Paranoid will leave you saying “me too!” to at least some of the catalogue of fear.” – Music Matters Magazine, Smithtown, NY

 

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JOHN GORKA – Saturday, June 7, 2025 7:00 pm $25

“Gorka is widely heralded for the sophisticated intelligence and provocative originality of his songs.” – The Boston Globe

From New Jersey, John Gorka is a world-renowned singer-songwriter who got his start at a neighborhood coffeehouse in eastern Pennsylvania. Though small, Godfrey Daniels was and is one of the oldest and most venerable music institutions and has long been a hangout for music lovers and aspiring musicians. In the late 1970’s, John was was one of these aspiring musicians. Although his academic coursework at Moravian College lay in Philosophy and History, music began to offer paramount enticements. Soon he found himself living in the club’s basement and acting as resident MC and sound man, encountering legendary folk troubadours like Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers, Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton and Claudia Schmidt. Their brand of folk-inspired acoustic music inspired him, and before long he was performing his own songs – mostly as an opener for visiting acts. Soon he started traveling to New York City, where Jack Hardy’s legendary Fast Folk circle (a breeding ground for many a major singer-songwriter) became a powerful source of education and encouragement. Folk meccas like Texas’ Kerrville Folk Festival (where he won the New Folk Award in 1984) and Boston followed, and his stunningly soulful baritone voice and original songwriting began turning heads. Those who had at one time inspired him – Suzanne Vega, Bill Morrissey, Nanci Griffith, Christine Lavin, Shawn Colvin – had become his peers.

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Sign up for our email list for monthly updates of concert announcements, updates, and links. Send a message to MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com. Put “subscribe” in the subject line. We send one or two emails each month.

Reservations:  Send a message to MeetingHousePresents@gmail.com. Put “reservations and the performer’s name” in the subject line and tell us how many. Reservations can be held until 15 minutes before showtime.

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