Thomasina Levy
Summer Music Series
Connecticut Old State House
Hartford
Oct. 9, 2026
The final concert in the Old State House’s Summer Music Series was held on a blustery Friday afternoon. Thomasina Levy, the featured artist, stood just in front of the event’s large white tent, with two instruments I’d never seen before.
The stringed instrument Levy played is called an Appalachian Mountain dulcimer. It’s derived from the zither instruments that German and Irish immigrants brought with them from Europe. They adapted the Old World instruments to play the fast fiddle tunes and lonely English songs of the Americas.
She used the dulcimer to play a song called Parallel Universe that she composed with cellist David Darling, who passed away in 2021. The dulcimer sounds like a fusion between a banjo and a harpsichord. The tinny sound that characterizes harpsichord music is mellowed greatly by the dulcimer, and a smooth, unique timbre results.
Levy came across her first one on a trip to visit a friend in the West Virginia mountains. They visited a tag sale, and the dulcimer was sitting there. Levy was already trained on piano and other instruments; she said playing the instrument felt natural.
Halfway through the set, Levy began playing the other instrument, which resembled an oddly shaped, old-school charcoal grill. The sound it made was surprising, like a vibraphone but without any of the bars or pedals. She called it a hang drum; its Caribbean-derived sound comes from the fact that its Swiss inventors based it on Trinidad and Tabago’s steel drum. I got to test the instrument out after the concert. A series of holes around the top of the drum generates different sounds. It’s an intuitive and fun instrument to play.
The wind blew again as Levy played, stronger than ever, whipped up by the tall buildings in the city’s center. Levy stopped playing as the tent began to suddenly lift off the ground. If you watch through the performance (at about 35:20), you can see yours truly become part of the story as an Old State House employee and I run over to grab the tent before it falls on Levy. She took it in stride with a smile on her face.
“I’ll start again,” she joked after we took the tent down.
The Old State House Summer Series provided some great concerts for the past few months. Thomasina’s informative and good-humored performance was the perfect cap on the season. We’ll see you back at the State House’s courtyard next year for sure.
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