Oak Ridge Today

Rotary International president to speak in Oak Ridge at March forum

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Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka

Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka of Japan will deliver the keynote address at the Rotary International District 6780 Peace Forum on March 9 in Oak Ridge.

For the first time in many years, a Rotary International president will visit Oak Ridge on Friday and Saturday, Mar. 8-9.

RI President Sakuji Tanaka of Japan will speak on “Peace through Service,” the motto for his one-year term, at the Peace Forum that the Rotary International District 6780 will hold.

Oak Ridge is the site of the only scheduled Rotary peace forum in the continental United States that the RI president will address. RI has sponsored international peace forums in Berlin and Honolulu. The RI president was present at these events and will attend the peace forum in Hiroshima, Japan.

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Pipe organ featured at Oak Ridge Symphony concert

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Malcolm Matthews

Malcolm Matthews

The pipe organ will be the featured instrument at the Feb. 2 Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra concert at First United Methodist Church.

Conducted by Maestro Dan Allcott, ORSO will perform “Incidental Music to L’Orfeo” by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and “Elegy” by Elliott Cook Carter (1908-2010).

ORSO will join guest artist Malcolm Matthews, Knoxville native and 2012 American Guild of Organists National Young Artist finalist, in performing the “Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings in G Minor” by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963).

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See Oak Ridge mayor play at Rock to Bach Music Festival

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Ridge City Ramblers

Members of the Ridge City Ramblers, who will play at the Rock to Bach Music Festival, are, from left, Gary Coleman, Mary Tuskan, Scott Linn, Abbie Hoerner, Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan and Steve Reddick. (Submitted photo)

Not every city has a mayor who plays a banjo in a band.

Oak Ridge does.

Mayor Tom Beehan and five other musicians are members of The Ridge City Ramblers. The band will perform at Oak Ridge’s third Rock to Bach Music Festival on Jan. 26 at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Pollard Auditorium.

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Isotone concert Saturday honors Russian physicist

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Isotone Concert Labware

Scott Eddlemon with his collection of “instruments” to be used in the playful “Labware Leggiero” at Saturday night’s Isotone concert at Pellissippi State. (Submitted photo)

The Isotone concert on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Clayton Performing Arts Center at Pellissippi State Community College will offer an assortment of instruments, talents and music in honor of a great Russian physicist and human rights activist.

The instruments range from the school’s new Steinway concert grand piano to a violin to glass beakers, flasks, and test tubes. Remember, isotone is both a music and physics term.

The talents include Japanese world-class pianist and East Tennessee newcomer Emi Kagawa, composer Andrew Sauerwein of Belhaven University in Jackson, Miss., and violinist and former concertmaster Susan Eddlemon and her husband Scott Eddlemon, principal percussionist with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and founder of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s Isotone Concerts.

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Klezmer band part of Rock to Bach Music Festival Jan. 26

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Dor L'Dor Klezmer Band

Members of the Dor L’Dor Klezmer Band are, from left, Wes Lunsford, Jon Walton, Joe Christian, Jeff Ramey, Ken Brown, Steve Brown, Rachel Brown, and Susan Shorr Brown. (Submitted photo)

One of the groups that will perform at the third Oak Ridge Rock to Bach Music Festival on Saturday, Jan. 26, at Pollard Auditorium is the Dor L’Dor Klezmer Band.

“Your father would love us,” said band member Ken Brown. “But we’re not your father’s klezmer band.”

The band features a singer and eight other performers on three trombones, clarinet, mandolin, piano, bass, and drums. The group plays jazz, waltzes, and slow dancing tunes, as well as klezmer music (including a klezmerized version of “Stars and Stripes Forever”).

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Renowned pianist to debut in Isotone Concert

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Emi Kagawa

Emi Kagawa

Andrew Sauerwein

Andrew Sauerwein

World-class pianist and East Tennessee newcomer Emi Kagawa will make her debut here in the Isotone concert on Saturday, Jan. 19—the third concert in the Chamber Music Series of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Clayton Performing Arts Center at Pellissippi State Community College.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Kagawa has been active as both a soloist and a chamber musician. She has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Japan.

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Christmastide Choir Festival at First Presbyterian Sunday

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A Christmastide Festival, featuring four church choirs, will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6, at First Presbyterian Church, Oak Ridge Turnpike at Lafayette Drive. The public is invited.

In addition to the First Presbyterian choir, the choirs from the Grace Covenant, First United Methodist, and Unitarian Universalist churches in Oak Ridge are also singing.

Christmastide is traditionally the period from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, which falls on Jan. 6. This Christian feast day, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, commemorates the visitation of the Three Magi (three wise kings) to the Baby Jesus.

It also celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ, said the Rev. Sharon Youngs, pastor at First Presbyterian Church.

Rock to Bach Music Festival returns to Oak Ridge Jan. 26

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Rock to Bach Music FestivalImagine Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms walking one way as they pass the Beatles walking in the other direction.

That’s the mental image you might have if you attend Oak Ridge’s third Rock to Bach Music Festival on Saturday, Jan. 26, at Pollard Auditorium.

“Rock to Bach” is an all-day music festival presented by the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association as a benefit for ORCMA music organizations, such as the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

More than a dozen groups will perform rock, pop, blues, bluegrass, folk, jazz, gospel, Big Band, swing, klezmer, and classical music.

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Register for ORICL courses and trips by Jan. 9

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Horse and Carriage Tour in Charleston

Carolyn and Herb Krause look forward to a horse-and-carriage tour of historic Charleston, S.C., as part of an ORICL trip last September. (Submitted photos)

From stories of World War II to the displacement and resettlement of Native American tribes to the adaptation of life to climate change, the winter-spring 2013 semester of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning starting Feb. 4 offers a surprising variety of courses.

The early registration deadline is Jan. 9, 2013, for the winter-spring semester, which ends April 26. Members should register by this date to have the best chance of getting preferred classes and trips.

ORICL has more than 500 members who take courses in a classroom and auditorium at Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge campus on Briarcliff Road. A few courses, such as medical lectures and art classes, are taught in other locations.

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