The Maritime Music and Tradition Society is offering an introductory Chantey Class on October 19 from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at Ben Parker Studio, 6 No. Main St., Essex, CT. It will be a “teaser” class in anticipation of a series of chantey classes offered this winter at The CT River Museum. More info to follow about that.

The Oct. 19 class will be a general overview of the history of chanteys and how they were used. Learn more about the chanteys you hear at Sings and Festivals throughout the year and how to lead them authentically yourself!  

Registration is required as space is limited. If interested, contact Joseph Morneault at josmorn@aol.com. Unregistered walk-ins will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

The fee is $20, payable by cash, check, or credit card at the door. A check may be made out to MM&TS and sent to MM&TS, P.O. Box  611, Essex, CT 06426 to assure a spot, but must be received by Oct. 14.

The Maritime Music & Tradition Society Corp. is proud to announce that we are now officially a 501c3 status nonprofit! We are so grateful to the Country Dance & Song Society for bringing us on board as an affiliate organization. This means that we are finally able to accept donations to support the new Connecticut Sea Music Festival. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. As we mentioned in earlier announcements, it also means that we are able to apply for grants designated for nonprofits.

Plans for the first Connecticut Sea Music Festival (as a reminder – June 10th-13th, 2022) are moving ahead swiftly. We’re partnering with the Town of Essex, as well as individual venues such as the Griswold Inn and the Connecticut River Museum. Thank you for your patience as we’ve worked through the unglamorous details, and we hope you’ll help to support the CT SMF. For those giving at higher tiers, we make sure to recognize our donors as Friends of the Festival. If you are interested, please contact Geoff Kaufman at FoF@maritimemusicandtraditionsociety.org.

Donations of any size can be given by checks made out to “MM&TS.” They should be mailed to:

Maritime Music & Tradition Society
P.O. Box 611, Essex CT 06426.

We hope to hear from you soon!
– The Board of Directors

The Maritime Music & Tradition Society is pleased to announce that the first Connecticut Sea Music Festival will be happening in the town of Essex, Connecticut. We are excited to be working with the Connecticut River Museum for our main stage, as well as several other venues throughout the town center. We hope to see you there on the second weekend of June, 2022!

Mark your calendars for the 2022 Connecticut Sea Music Festival! It’s June 10-13, 2022.

The Maritime Music and Tradition Society ​Corp. (more on that in a minute) has been working like crazy on getting everything set up properly for the very first Connecticut Sea Music Festival. We hope to finalize the arrangements, sign the contracts and publicly announce the location soon. For now​, we can say it’s in Southeastern Connecticut.

Since we want the festival to survive for a long time, our other major endeavor has been setting up an ongoing organization (the Maritime Music and Tradition Society Corp.) to oversee the festival and ensure it is set up sustainably, and legally as a non-profit organization. The MM&TS is incorporated in the state of Connecticut, and has applied for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status with the IRS. This means that donations made to the festival and organization will be tax-deductible. As much of this festival is donor-funded, we want to do right by you. The 501(c)(3) status also means that in the future we will be able to apply for grants designated for nonprofits.

Who’s behind the MM&TS? Our Board of Directors is listed here. You know it takes more than a Board of Directors to put on a Festival, so we’ll be asking for volunteers as we get closer. We’ll also be out there passing the hat for contributions to get this Festival going. We are planning a Chantey Blast in January, with more details to come. For now, hold on to your checkbooks for just a little while longer.

Updates on the Festival and the MM&TS are available on this site, as well as on our social media pages or direct to your inbox from our Mailing List.