Oak Ridge Today

Green author, activist to speak Aug. 18 in Oak Ridge

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Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben, “the planet’s best green journalist,” according to Time magazine and author of a dozen books about the environment, will speak on fossil fuels and climate change in August in Oak Ridge.

The lecture will be at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

McKibben is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 190 countries since 2009 and sponsored a 21-city “Do The Math” tour last fall. The “Do The Math” movie has been shown in numerous cities this past spring and several times at First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge, including by a new Secret City Sustainability group of college students. The movie is available online at 350.org. [Read more…]

Final ORSO concert Saturday features Tennessee composer, soloist

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Rachel DeVore Fogarty

Rachel DeVore Fogarty

Sabrina Laney Warren

Sabrina Laney Warren

Two talented Tennessee women are playing major roles in the final Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra concert of a season devoted to showcasing Tennessee music, composers, and performers.

The women, who both live in Nashville, are Rachel DeVore Fogarty—an emerging composer, church musician and collaborative pianist—and soprano soloist Sabrina Laney Warren, who was recently lauded by a German publication for her “bell pure soprano voice.”

You can hear them, and ORSO conductor Dan Allcott, talk about the concert music at the “Dialogue with Dan” gathering at noon Friday in the lobby of the Historic Grove Theater. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Community Band has last concert of season Sunday

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The Oak Ridge Community Band will be presenting its final subscription concert of the 2012-2013 season on Sunday afternoon, April 14, at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

The “Music by the Numbers” concert will focus on marches and challenging classical pieces, a press release said. It starts at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission at the door is $8 for adults and $6 for senior citizens and students, and it includes free refreshments at the end of the program. [Read more…]

Saturday concert features music by two Tennessee composers, dulcimerist


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Stephen Seifert

Stephen Seifert

Dan Allcott has been conducting research—and two professional orchestras: the Bryan Symphony Orchestra in Cookeville and Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra.

He has been studying the life and music of composer Charles Faulkner Bryan, a native of McMinnville who died in 1955 at the young age of 44. The Cookeville orchestra is named after him.

Accompanied by ORSO, the Oak Ridge Chorus on Saturday will sing “The Bell Witch,” a cantata written by Bryan in 1947 while studying with Paul Hindemith at Yale University. The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.

[Read more…]

Family concert Sunday features ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ sixth-grade violinist

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Sidney Matlock

Violin soloist Sidney Matlock, a sixth-grade student and competition winner, will perform at the Free Family Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at Oak Ridge High School. (Submitted photo)

A free family concert Sunday by the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra features the “Suite from Sleeping Beauty” by Russian composer Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky.

The theme of the 3 p.m. concert at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center is “Princesses and Knights,” a press release said.

“Youngsters of all ages are encouraged to come dressed in royal costume,” it said. “They will participate in the parade of princesses and knights during the concert.”

The press release said parents should bring their children at 2:30 p.m. Sunday so they can decorate a crown or tiara for the parade.

Violin soloist Sidney Matlock will play “Allegro Brillante” by the 19th century Dutch composer Willem Have, the press release said. Matlock is a sixth-grade violin student of ORSO concertmaster Karen Kartal and a winner in the most recent Youth Aliyah competition.