The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra is spending Thanksgiving weekend at The Ridgefield Playhouse, backing two touring headliners on back-to-back nights. The Irish Tenors perform with the orchestra on Saturday, November 28, at 8 p.m., and Judy Collins brings her farewell tour to the same stage with the orchestra on Sunday, November 29, at 7:30 p.m.

Both shows also double as a food drive: the Playhouse is collecting donations at each concert for its annual drive benefiting Meals on Wheels of Ridgefield and the RVNA.

Saturday: The Irish Tenors

The Irish Tenors are Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Patrick Hyland, three classically trained singers who have performed in concert halls around the world. The group first sang together in 1998, and its repertoire runs from traditional Irish songs to film and pop material, along with the Christmas music the trio tours with every winter. Its holiday album, We Three Kings, is its top-selling Christmas record, and the group has appeared in several PBS specials, including Ellis Island and Live from Belfast.

The Playhouse lists the concert as part of its Aquarion Global Voices Series.

Sunday: Judy Collins says farewell

Judy Collins launched her Sweet Judy Blue Eyes Farewell Tour on July 4, 2026, and it runs through 2027 across North America and beyond. The Playhouse describes the tour as a final chance to hear her perform live. The Ridgefield date pairs her with the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra.

Collins has recorded 55 albums over six decades. Her 1967 recording of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, from the album Wildflowers, is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and her version of Stephen Sondheim's Send in the Clowns won Song of the Year at the 1975 Grammy Awards. She has released six new albums since 2015, including Spellbound, her first album made up entirely of songs she wrote, which was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 2023 Grammys, and a poetry collection, Sometimes It's Heaven, in 2025.

The Sunday concert is part of the Playhouse's 068 Magazine Singer Songwriter Series.

The orchestra at home

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra keeps its office at 77 Danbury Road in Ridgefield. Most of its own concert season plays at the Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School, 700 North Salem Road, and it also performs at the David F. Clune Auditorium at Wilton High School and at the Playhouse. The Thanksgiving weekend pair is a chance to hear the orchestra in the Playhouse's room, and in a program built around two headliners rather than a classical bill.

More at the Playhouse that weekend

The weekend starts a day early at the Playhouse. On Friday, November 27, the stage show Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue plays twice, at 2 and 7 p.m. The holiday run continues into December with the JOHNNYSWIM Christmas Show on December 4 and the Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance's Nutcracker, which opens December 11.

Tickets and getting there

The Ridgefield Playhouse is at 80 East Ridge Road in Ridgefield. Tickets for both concerts are sold through each show's page on the Playhouse website, where current prices and seat availability are posted. The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra's box office can be reached at 203-438-3889. The food drive donations are accepted at both concerts; the details are on each show's page.

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