LOCAL BRIEFS
Aitkin school bands to perform Monday
AITKIN - The Aitkin School District's elementary, middle school and high school bands will join forces along with their directors, Pat Perrine and Chris Halvorson, to present their annual Mass Band Concert on Monday. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the old gym.
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The concert began about 25 years ago and has been a tradition ever since. Each band will perform one or two numbers and more than 200 student musicians, along with parents and community band members, will perform together to finish the concert.
The fifth-grade band will perform "Frere Jacques" and "Ode To Joy," followed by the sixth-grade band performing "Eerie Canal" by Robert Philbin. The fifth-and sixth- graders will perform "The Big Rock."
Brainerd High School orchestra students Savannah Cole (left), Sarah Yeh, Anja Smith and Jenna Lemieux performed in concert with the Minnesota String Orchestra Teachers Association in the Mid-level Honors Orchestra at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
The middle school band will perform "And The Earth Moved," featuring a percussion section, and "Gathering in the Glen." The ninth-grade band will perform "Ashton Overture," followed by the concert band performing "Chorale and Shaker Dance" by Minnesota composer John Zdechlik. The ninth-grade and high school students will perform "Prospect" by Pierre LaPlante and "Encanto" Robert W. Smith. All the bands will perform "March America," "The Tempest," "Olympia" and "Stone Age Stomp."
There is no admission for the concert; however, the band boosters will collect donations at the door to raise funds for band-related activities.
Cultural Thursday program set March 5
The next Cultural Thursday program at Central Lakes College in Brainerd is scheduled March 5 on Mexico, with the focus on the Mayan ruins.
Dave Kobilka, instructor of earth science at CLC, will present the program. Kobilka and his wife, Terri LaDoucer, took a trip to Mexico last summer for a comparative study tour of the Mayan ruins. The couple covered about 7,000 miles in a month's time, with the most distant destination the city of Chetumal.
The free program will be held at noon in Dryden Theater. Jan Kurtz is the coordinator of Cultural Thursdays, which are held the first Thursday of each month during the fall and spring terms.
This is the 10th year of the series, sponsored by the Resource Center for Cultures and Languages of the Americas.
Free community theater workshop set
Central Lakes College will offer an associate in fine arts degree in theater performance starting in the fall of 2009.
To introduce this degree, a free theater workshop and performance of "The Doctor In Spite of Himself" is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 7. The workshop will include classes in improvisation, theater games, stage makeup, technical theater and movement for the theater.
The workshop will be taught by CLC theater directors Dennis Lamberson and Patrick Spradlin; Dwana Paplow, CLC theatre technical supervisor; David Wilson, costume and makeup designer; and Terrance McKerrs, director and choreographer from Topeka, Kan.
The workshop is open to community members as well as high school and college students.
Reservations should be made by calling (218) 855-8202 or e-mailing dlambers@clcmn.edu by Monday.
BHS orchestra students honored
Six Brainerd High School orchestra students recently performed in separate concerts with the Minnesota String and Orchestra Teachers Association at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
Brainerd High School orchestra students Rebecca Yeh (left) and Rebecca Walker performed in concert with the Minnesota String Orchestra Teachers Association in February at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
Students Rebecca Yeh and Rebecca Walker performed in a side-by-side rehearsal with the Minnesota Orchestra on Feb. 13 and at Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota All-State Orchestra on Feb. 14. The girls were honored by the Minnesota Music Educators Conference as members of Minnesota All-State Orchestra.
Students Savannah Cole, Sarah Yeh, Anja Smith and Jenna Lemieux were selected as Minnesota Mid-level Honors Orchestra members by MNSOTA and performed in the Mid-level Honors Orchestra on Feb. 14.
Movement workshop for middle-schoolers
Terrance McKerrs, an award-winning Kansas choreographer, will conduct a free movement workshop for middle-school students from 4-6:30 p.m. March 6 at Central Lakes College in Brainerd.
The workshop, sponsored by the CLC Theatre Department, features instruction in two dance numbers from the musical "Grease." The workshop is limited to 30 students, and no previous dance experience is required.
For information or to make reservations, call Dennis Lamberson at (218) 855-8202 or e-mail dlambers@clcmn.edu.
Exhibit portrays trials, joys of spiritual journey
BAXTER - An evocative exhibit that portrays the trials and joys of a spiritual journey - "Nude Truths: An Odyssey in Poetry, Painting, and Prose" - is on display at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Baxter through the Lenten season, ending April 12.
The exhibit contains 24 large abstract impressionistic paintings by Norwegian artist Kristi Ylvisaker that contain a line of poetry by Denise Levertov (1923-1997) and reflections by writer Mary Ylvisaker Nilsen. The colors and images of the paintings, the selection of poetry and the musing in the prose represent the journey, both personal and cultural, from innocence to questioning, through despair to serenity.
This is the 15th exhibition of "Nude Truths," which, since its creation in 2004, has traveled from coast to coast and from Minnesota to Texas and back.
A piece on the evocative exhibit that portrays the trials and joys of a spiritual journey - "Nude Truths: An Odyssey in Poetry, Painting, and Prose" - is on display at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Baxter through the Lenten season, ending April 12.
Ylvisaker did her graduate work in painting at the University of Iowa and studied at the New York Studio School during the late 1960s. She has lived in Norway for more than 30 years. Ylvisaker is a member of the Norwegian Organization of Professional Artists and is widely commissioned and exhibited.
Nilsen holds graduate degrees from the University of Iowa in non-fiction writing and from Harvard Divinity School in theological studies. She writes, teaches, edits and manages Zion Publishing from her home in Des Moines, Iowa.
Printmaking exhibition at New York Mills
NEW YORK MILLS - Grand Marais-based printmaker Betsy Bowen's colored woodblock prints of places and wild animals of Minnesota will be on exhibit through March 29 at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center Gallery.
Topics for Bowen's woodblock printmaking have evolved from views of her local rural life into the folk tales and stories that inform rural lives worldwide. Bowen has done woodblock printing actively since 1985. In recent years, Bowen has written and illustrated several picture books.
"Sandhill Cranes" is one of Betsy Bowen's colored woodblock prints that will be on exhibit through March 29 at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center Gallery.
The woodblock print is created by first carving the design into a flat plank of white pine. A separate woodblock is carved for each color in the design. Bowen often uses five blocks for each print.
Vacationland figure skating show slated
The Vacationland Figure Skating Club will present its 34th annual ice show entitled "Paradise on Ice" March 14-15 at the Brainerd Area Civic Center in Brainerd.
Figure skaters from age 2-62 will skate in programs that feature songs and costumes representing "paradise" throughout the world. The guest skater is American figure skater Matt Savoie, 28, from Peroria, Ill. Savoie is a three-time U.S. bronze medalist, the 2006 Four Continents bronze medalist and a member of the 2006 Olympics figure skating team, finishing seventh overall in Torino, Italy.
Tickets are $7 in advance and $9 at the door and are available at Cub Foods in Brainerd and Baxter, Jenny's Hallmark in the Westgate Mall and Ace Hardware in Brainerd. Show times are 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 14 and at 1 p.m. March 15.
The Vacationland Figure Skating Club is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to promoting and teaching skating skills for persons of all ages and disabilities. For more information on the ice show or the club, call Stacey Kruger at 829-2254.
Lithographic prints featured in CLC
Lithographic prints make up the Central Lakes College Gallery exhibit by Sally Gordon, which is open for public viewing at no charge through March 26 on the Brainerd campus.
The exhibit is titled "Family Pictures" and features images crafted by a university-educated artist with more than 30 years of experience in printmaking.
Gordon studied for her postgraduate degree under master printer Zigmund Priede at the University of Minnesota before working at Styria Studio in New York City under master printer Steven Andersen.
The CLC Gallery is open during regular campus hours.
Music General to perform at games
Music General dancers will perform Thursday during halftime of the Brainerd High School girls' basketball game and Friday during the BHS boys' basketball game.
Music General dancers in first through 12th grade also recently performed in Verndale, Isle and Aitkin.