Guest conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky will lead the orchestra and perform the solo violin part in the “Suite from The Red Violin.”
The concert opens with Giocchino Rossini’s “Overture to Barber of Seville,” one of the most widely known and instantly recognized classical works.
John Corigliano’s “ Suite from The Red Violin” will follow. Drawn from the Academy Award- winning score, the suite follows a unique instrument over the span of three centuries and five countries.
Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Italian” concludes the afternoon’s program.
Sitkovetsky is the music director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. He has built up an active and successful career as a violinist, conductor, arranger, chamber musician and festival director.
He has performed as a soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras. He will perform on the violin as well as conduct.
The concert will be preceded by a Concert Conversation at 1:15 p.m. A question-andanswer session will be held on stage after the concert.
Tickets range in price from $ 20 to $ 58 and can be purchased through PortTIX, at porttix.com or 842-0800, or in person at the box office at Merrill Auditorium, 20 Myrtle St. Tickets purchased over the phone or online are subject to a per-ticket handling fee.
The concert will be broadcast on MPBN’s Maine Stage at 8 p.m. Feb. 29.
String quartet takes aim at Bach fugue
PORTLAND — The Portland String Quartet will perform a concert titled “The Art of the Fugue, J.S. Bach,” at 2 p. m. Sunday at Woodfords Congregational Church, 202 Woodfords St.
Colby College musicologist Steven Saunders will join the quartet to present “ an indepth exploration and musical performance of J. S. Bach’s supreme effort in this genre,” a LARK Society release states.
For more information, call 761-1522 or check the website, www.larksociety.org.
Pianist to perform at Portland cathedral
PORTLAND — Richard Roberts, pianist and a member of the Portland Rossini Club, will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State St.
The music of Bach, Schubert and Mussorgski will be featured, along with Alvo Part: Variations for Arinushka.
Suggested donation to club’s piano fund is $10 general public or $ 5 for seniors. Students will be admitted free of charge For more information, call 829-3393.
Fiddling family makes contradance music
ROCKPORT — A contradance featuring the fiddling Newell family of Damariscotta starts at 7 p.m. Saturday at Simonton Corners dance hall.
No experience or partner is necessary. All dances are taught. Children will be admitted free.
For more information, call 832- 5584 or find Simonton Corners Contradancers on Facebook.
Sunday talk centers on Titanic survivor
PORTLAND — Dr. Karen Lemke, a professor at St. Joseph’s College, will give a talk titled “The Titanic Centenary: A Survivor’s Story,” at 2 p. m. Sunday at the Maine Irish Heritage Center, at the corner of State and Gray streets.
“The year 2012 marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic — the legendary, ‘ unsinkable’ ship built in Belfast, Northern Ireland,” a release about the program states. “One of the survivors was Marshall Drew, an 8-yearold second- class passenger from Westerly, R. I. In 1986, Marshall Drew was again in the news. With the discovery of a shipwreck of an ocean liner on the sea floor, he was able to look at photographs taken by a robotic submersible device and identify the luxurious interiors of the Titanic from his indelible childhood memories.”
Six weeks before his death, Drew spoke with Lemke about those experiences. Lemke will recount Drew’s story and, drawing on the interview, she will look at the Titanic tragedy as a metaphor for changing times at the beginning of the 20th century, focusing on labor issues, matters of maritime safety, and the roles that simple greed and arrogance played in the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
Admission is free, and all are welcome.
For more information, call Ellen D. Murphy at 899-0505.
Vivid Motion lines up dance auditions
WESTBROOK — Vivid Motion Inc. plans to hold dance auditions for its spring show, which will include the ballet “Eclipse” and several other dances.
Auditions will run from 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 5 at Acorn Productions in the Dana Warp Mill, 90 Bridge St.
Auditions are in class format. No formal dance training is required, “but a love of dancing is,” a Vivid Motion release states.
Those who audition for the show, which will feature many styles of dancing, are advised to wear clothing “you can move in.” Footwear is optional.
For more information, visit www.vividmotion.org.
New Slant on live stories emerges
PORTLAND — Slant, a live storytelling series, will return to Space Gallery at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10.
Modeled after “The Moth,” Slant features six brave souls telling 10-minute tales without notes or scripts. This free event is curated and hosted by The Telling Room, Portland’s community writing center.
The theme for this session is “sure to be interpreted in numerous and interesting ways.” Speakers will include food critic and television host Joe Ricchio; Maine Women’s Fund interim director Cathy Kidman; Maine Medical Center physician Renee Fay- LeBlanc; and The Telling Room communications coordinator Andrew Griswold.
Doors open at 7 p.m.
The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, dedicated to “the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers,” a release from the organization states. More information is available at www.tellingroom.org.
MWPA accepting award nominations
PORTLAND — The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance (MWPA) has opened the 2012 Maine Literary Awards for nominations.
Entries will be accepted until March 1, and the winners will be announced on May 31.
The new nomination form and guidelines are available on the MWPA website: mainewriters.org.
The MWPA added four new categories in the Book Awards this year.
The new John N. Cole Award for Maine- Themed Nonfiction has been generously sponsored by Just Write Books of Topsham. In addition to being the co-founder of the influential Maine Times, Cole was an avid outdoorsman and fisherman who wrote regularly and enthusiastically about his passion for the state.
As an experiment, the MPWA also offers three new categories this year alongside its traditional Fiction and Nonfiction categories. Books may now be entered in Crime Fiction, Speculative Fiction and Memoir.
Crime Fiction is an umbrella category for books that fall into one of the following general categories: crime, noir, thriller, suspense, mystery, police procedurals and cozys.
Speculative Fiction is an umbrella category for books that fall into one of the following general categories: science fiction, fantasy, dystopian, horror and supernatural.
Submissions in these new categories are elective. Authors also can nominate crime or speculative fictional works for the general Fiction category.
As in past years, the 2012 Maine Literary Awards also includes a Drama, Short Works and Youth competition.
For more information, call 228- 8263 or email info@mainewriters.org.
Jazz gala funds tech school scholarships
FAIRFIELD — Kennebec Valley Community College ( KVCC) will host its fifth annual fundraising gala, “An Evening of Jazz,” on Feb. 3 to raise money for student scholarships.
The semi-formal event will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Carter Hall Multi-Purpose Room at the Fairfield campus, located at 92 Western Ave. It will include silent and live auctions, dinner and music from the KVCC Faculty Jazz Band.
For more information, call 453- 5020 or email foundation@ kvcc.me.edu.
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