MIDDLEBURY — The Henry Sheldon Museum will celebrate Independence Day with a Pops Concert on Wednesday, July 3, featuring the Vermont Philharmonic. This popular family event takes place on the spacious, manicured grounds of the Middlebury College athletic fields with views of the Adirondack and Green Mountains. 
The evening will include a raffle for seven one-of-a-kind picnic baskets painted by local artists: Gayl Braisted, Deborah Holmes, Woody Jackson, Warren Kimble, Kathy Mitchell, Danielle Rougeau and Ashley Wolff. Baskets are filled with local foods, gift certificates, and picnic items. The drawing will be at the Pops Concert. Tickets are available through the evening of July 3. Raffle entrants do not need to be present to win. 
The Pops Concert and Fireworks event is the Sheldon Museum’s biggest annual fundraiser. All net proceeds go toward funding the Museum’s youth education programs.
The concert will feature contemporary music, light classics, Broadway and film favorites that will appeal to all ages and musical tastes. Musical selections will include Bohemian Rhapsody, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and songs from Mary Poppins. The celebrated Vermont Philharmonic is led by energetic Director Lou Kosma who has spent his career specializing in musical education for children. 
Every year, the performance features a stellar vocal soloist and this year is no exception. The guest soloist is jazz vocalist Holli Ross. Over the last several decades, Ross, a jazz singer, music educator, and voice specialist, has been a vibrant force in the jazz world. Alongside her career as a member and co-founder of the celebrated vocal trio String Of Pearls (25 years and counting), She has garnered fans and praise as a swinging, intensely musical solo singer with a deep knowledge of the jazz tradition.
This year the Sheldon Museum recognizes Gayl Braisted as the honorary chair of the Concert. Braisted, who has served as a trustee of the Sheldon, is an accomplished artist who has contributed her talent to many Sheldon events including the Pops Concert, Garden Tour, annual Train Exhibit, Antiques Auction, Tour of Middlebury Churches, Celebration of Middlebury’s Bell Towers, and this year, Gayl painted one of the picnic baskets being raffled at the Pops Concert.
Adult tickets are only $25 (after June 25, $30), youth 12 – 18 only $10, and children under 12 years of age free thanks to generous business and individual sponsors. Small-batch farm-to-cone ice cream will be available from Sisters of Anarchy Ice Cream of Fisher Brothers Farm in Shelburne. Inspired by their three daughters, who tend to color outside the lines, Farmer Bob and Becky (Mother of All Anarchy) created Sisters of Anarchy Ice Cream. Unique, vibrant flavors are the name of the game.
 There is plenty of free parking adjacent to the college athletic fields. The grounds open at 5:30 p.m. for picnics; Concert begins at 7:30 p.m. A fireworks display begins at dusk. Should the weather interfere, the concert is held in the adjacent Kenyon Arena of Middlebury College’s Peterson Family Athletic Complex. Fireworks will be displayed rain or shine.
Tickets for the concert and the picnic basket raffle are available at the Sheldon Museum, online at henrysheldonmuseum.org, or by phone, 802-388-2117.