Oak Ridge Today

ORCMA’s last chamber concert of season features world-renowned flutist

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ORSO Eugenia Zukerman Chamber Concert

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s final Chamber Series concert of the season will feature world-renowned flutist Eugenia Zukerman at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Pollard Auditorium.

Zukerman has been lauded not only for her playing, but also for her adventurous programming. Here’s what the The Sunday Telegram said: “Few major instrumentalists offer anything comparable to the intelligence and breadth of programming that she brings to her concerts.”

Her guest appearances have included engagements with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, and the Israel, Moscow, Prague, and Scottish chamber orchestras.

Recognized with an Emmy nomination as an important broadcast journalist, Eugenia Zukerman interviewed and created more than 300 portraits as an arts correspondent for the CBS Sunday Morning program. Her interview subjects included Edgar Meyer. [Read more…]

Sustainability Report: Comparison of European and U.S./Vermont practices

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Dodd Galbreath and PV Panels

Dodd Galbreath, right, with students and photo-voltaic panels. (Submitted photo)

There will be a presentation on sustainability practices by Dodd Galbreath, head of the Institute for Sustainable Practice at David Lipscomb University, on Thursday, April 10. The program begins at 7 p.m. at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge.

It’s co-sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning and the Oak Ridge Environmental Quality Advisory Board, and the program is free and open to the public.

Sustainability is more often associated with European than American culture. This presentation will showcase photographs and technical information documented by the founding director of the Institute during a tour of European sustainability sites, as well as lessons learned during his four years of leading travel courses in Vermont and New England. Topics to be covered will include history and practices involving food, energy, waste, water, transportation, land, building, communities, and culture.

For more information, call or write TCWP Executive Director Sandra K. Goss at (865) 583-3967 or [email protected].

Doric String Quartet returns to Oak Ridge for ORCMA concert Saturday

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Doric String Quartet

Doric String Quartet

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s Chamber Series concert on Saturday features the Doric String Quartet. The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. at Oak Ridge Associated Universities Pollard Auditorium.

The Doric members are Alex Redington and Jonathan Stone, violins; Hélène Clément, viola; and John Myerscough, cello. The program includes Haydn’s String Quartet in B-flat, Opus 76 No. 4  “Sunrise”; Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 “Kreutzer Sonata”; and the Franz Schubert Quartet in G (D. 887).

The group spends time sharing their talents, techniques, and musical wisdom with young musicians in the area. Oak Ridge Symphony cellist Alicia Randisi-Hooker and her “Cello Leap Studio” is making arrangements for the quartet’s weeklong residency here. [Read more…]

ORCMA concert features Cumberland Piano Trio, Japanese pianist

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Emi Kagawa

Emi Kagawa

The ORCMA Chamber Music Series continues with a concert by the very popular “home team”—The Cumberland Piano Trio—on Saturday, Feb. 8, in Oak Ridge. The Cumberland is an outgrowth of Oak Ridge’s own “Isotone” group, which has since blossomed into a regional music attraction.

This concert will feature the world-renowned pianist Emi Kagawa. A native of Osaka, Japan, Kagawa has been active as both a soloist and a chamber musician, a press release said. She has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Japan.

The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Pollard Auditorium, which is at 210 Badger Ave. in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Wilcox never gave up on plan to preserve K-25 history, former DOE manager says

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K-25 Building Aerial View

Now mostly demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building is pictured above. Bill Wilcox, a former technical director at K-25 and the Y-12 National Security Complex, led the fight to preserve K-25’s history. Wilcox died Monday, Sept. 2, and his funeral was Saturday. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

The fight to preserve the history of the K-25 site in west Oak Ridge was long and arduous. Among the challenges were federal funding battles and deteriorated building conditions.

Other people might have considered the dilapidated K-25 Building, once the world’s largest building under one roof, a “useless hulk,” one friend and colleague said. But historic preservationist Bill Wilcox, who died Monday evening, never gave up on his dream of honoring the site’s history.

Now mostly demolished, the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building was erected as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That was a federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. But the four-story building has been shut down since 1964 and fallen into disrepair, and the U.S. Department of Energy is converting the site into a massive industrial park and demolishing many of the original buildings. [Read more…]

Funeral, community reception for city historian Bill Wilcox on Saturday

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Bill Wilcox

Bill Wilcox

A funeral and community reception have been scheduled for Saturday for Bill Wilcox, a chemist who came to Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project in World War II and went on to become technical director for federal facilities K-25 and Y-12, was named Oak Ridge city historian, and led the fight to preserve the history of the former K-25 site, which was built during World War II to enrich uranium for atomic bombs.

The funeral is at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church at 212 N. Tulane Ave. in Oak Ridge. The community reception is at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the lobby at Pollard Auditorium at Oak Ridge Associated Universities at 120 Badger Ave. [Read more…]

Civil War books author to speak at ORICL kickoff Sunday

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Earl J. Hess

Earl J. Hess

A leading author of Civil War history books who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize 11 years ago will speak here this month at the Fall Kickoff of the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning.

The free kickoff will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Pollard Auditorium. Fall catalogs of ORICL courses and trips, as well as refreshments, will be available.

At 4 p.m. Earl J. Hess, Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, will speak on “Appalachia as Seen by Union and Confederate Soldiers during the Civil War.” [Read more…]

ORCMA Chamber concert features Adaskin String Trio

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Adaskin String Trio

The Adaskin String Trio will play at Pollard Auditorium on Saturday evening in the last ORCMA Chamber Music Series concert of the season. (Submitted photo)

Submitted

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association Chamber Music Series concludes with a concert by the world-renown Adaskin String Trio, joined by members of Ensemble Schumann. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at the Pollard Auditorium.

The Adaskin String Trio’s stirring performances have thrilled audiences in the U.S. and internationally. Their playing has been hailed for “vigor, precision and stylistic certitude” (Charleston Gazette) as well as “spontaneity, intensity and charm” (Peninsula Review). The Boston Globe praised them for “directing the listener to the heart of the matter.”

The Trio members met in Montreal in 1994 where they studied chamber music with cellist Marcel Saint-Cyr. They are now based in New England, and perform extensively in the United States and Canada. They have appeared in the Merkin Concert Hall in New York and Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This dynamic ensemble commands a wide string trio repertoire ranging from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven to Dohnanyi, Rozsa, and Villa-Lobos. [Read more…]

Free Science Saturdays offered in Oak Ridge

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ORAU Science Saturdays

Oak Ridge Associated Universities has partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to bring students and scientists together through a weekly program called Science Saturdays. (Image courtesy of ORAU)

Oak Ridge Associated Universities has partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to bring students and scientists together through a weekly program called Science Saturdays.

Students in grades 8-12, along with their parents, are invited for six Saturday morning presentations in February and March where they will learn about a variety of engaging science topics through interactive presentations and hands-on activities.

[Read more…]

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”).

[Read more…]

Award-winning string quartet plays Saturday

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Tesla Quartet

The Tesla Quartet will play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)

The award-winning Tesla Quartet will play at Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge on Saturday.

The quartet will perform Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Andante and Allegretto” and Carter Pann’s “String Quartet No. 1: Love Letters.”

Korean-born clarinetist Wonkak Kim, a music faculty member at Tennessee Tech University, will join the quartet to play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Quintet in A Major for Clarinet and Strings.”

It’s the second concert of the season in the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s 2012-13 Chamber Music Series. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

ORCMA said the young quartet won a gold medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and third prize in the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition. A quartet-in-residence at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the group has performed in Austria, Canada, and England, as well as the United States.

The quartet formed at the Juilliard School in 2008, quickly establishing itself as one of the most promising young ensembles in New York, the press release said. Quartet members are violinists Ross Snyder and Michelle Lie, violist Megan Mason, and cellist Kimberly Patterson.

Wonkak Kim

Clarinetist Wonkak Kim, a faculty member at Tennessee Tech University, will play with the Tesla Quartet at Pollard Auditorium on Saturday. (Submitted photo)

The Tesla Quartet’s performances have been praised as “technically superb,” “full of urgency, color and subtle dynamics,” and as “a master class in quartet technique,” the release said.

It said Kim has captivated audiences around the globe. He has received praise from reviewers for “excellent breath control and fine command of his instrument,” “lyrical musicality and supple tone,” and “impressive range.” Since his solo debut in 2007 with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, Kim has performed in hundreds of venues on four continents.

The Tennessee Arts Commission is a co-sponsor of this and other ORCMA Chamber Series concerts.

For ticket information, visit the ORCMA website at www.orcma.org or call the ORCMA office at (865) 483-5569. A reserved seat ticket costs $25 ($12 for students).

Becky Ball’s program notes for the concert are on the ORCMA website, and the Tesla’s website is www.teslaquartet.com.