Business

New Canaan Music Marks 10 Years Downtown

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Ten years ago, New Canaan resident Phil Williams opened up a music shop with nothing but what he calls “hope and a dream.”

Today, New Canaan Music has expanded to two stores and, here in town, has become a hub for music lessons and instruments while Williams has become deeply involved with the community as a business owner. After seeing an opportunity in New Canaan at a time when it had no music store, Williams built a business plan to “give back to the community,” he said. 

New Canaan Music provides customers with music lessons and the option to rent or buy instruments, catering to a variety of music needs and experiences. They have had “known celebrity music people come in as customers as well as the aspiring beginner,” Williams said. 

Whether it’s doing “set up work for a band going on the road that’s been a national act since the 1970’s” or having “a child break a string on a ukulele,” New Canaan Music offers a place for every age of music lover. Starting in 2013 in a smaller shop on Elm Street, New Canaan Music soon outgrew its space and moved to a new location at 90 Main St. “From our first location we had three lesson studios that we had converted into four—here we have eight lesson studios where we do lessons six times a week from Monday through Saturday,” Williams said.

Around Town

House of Telos Sponsoring ‘Combine’ To Benefit The Gracie Fund for Pediatric Cancer [Q&A]

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House of Telos, founder of the New Canaan Combine, is a major sponsor of the 2023 event benefiting the Gracie Fund for Pediatric Cancer. Created by New Canaan’s Falsetta family—here’s an interview with dad Chris about the effort— the Gracie Fund is named for the Falsettas’ 12-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with leukemia last year and is undergoing treatments. House of Telos owner Rebecca Kimball, a 2004 New Canaan High School graduate (podcast here) founded the Combine, a fun athletic competition between the New Canaan Police and Fire Departments that also brings in community members to fundraise for a good cause. We put some questions to Kimball about the Combine and Gracie Fund. Our exchange follows.

Business

Area Couple Takes Over as New Canaan’s ‘Town Greeter’

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center. Moving to a new town can be stressful for many reasons, including when it comes to meeting your new neighbors. For one area couple, making that process easier for move-ins is a business. David Saunders and his fiancée, Christine Santori, of Ridgefield, recently took over the job of “Town Greeter” from Steph Radman. “It seemed like the perfect thing,”  Saunders told NewCanaanite.com. 

With careers in the print and promotional marketing business under their belts, the couple took over as town greeter in their hometown of Ridgefield in 2019.

Business

‘Everyone Can Do It’: Local Mom Launches New Canaan Candy Co.

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A local mom is starting a candy company to create “Sweet Possibilities” through competitive employment for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Jen Connelly has worked with individuals with special needs her whole life. Her older brother struggled with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and Tourette Syndrome, both of which resulted in unwanted attention. 

“Having him as my sibling drove me to the profession that I have done for my career,” Connelly told NewCanaanite.com on a recent afternoon. She has experience as a special education teacher, a behavioral analyst, and even opened a charter school in the South Bronx designed to serve individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Connelly observed that while many of the kids she served moved through adolescence and adulthood being exposed to internships and job sampling, they were unable to find work.

Business

Gulf Station Owners: ‘We Have No Deal with the Town’

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Contrary to what New Canaan’s first selectman recently claimed, the owners of the Gulf station downtown say they haven’t reached any deal to sell to the town. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan “has been talking to us for two years about trying to buy it but we never came to anything,” according to Lenny Fugaro, a co-owner of the gas station and repair shop at 36 South Ave. “Who knows, at some point we might sell to them if it ever came up to the right price,” Fugaro said. “We have no deal with the town at this point.”

He addressed a comment that Moynihan made during a pre-Republican Caucus debate on July 18. There, the first selectman said, “We’re working on a transaction—since there’s no press here—we’ve reached a deal to acquire the Gulf Station, to get the Gulf Station next to the library.