By Doug Ray ’10

In their first collaboration in several years, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Orchestra and the Bowdoin College Orchestra will join forces to perform music by Beethoven, Rossini, Schumann and others in concerts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, 75 Russell St.; and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in the Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College, South Campus Drive, Brunswick.

Hear an audio report on this concert:

Admission to both concerts is free, but tickets are required for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ performance. For more information about the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ event, contact 207-786-6135 or this olinarts@bates.edu.

Hiroya Miura, assistant professor of music, directs the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ group. The Bowdoin College Orchestra is led by Roland Vazquez. Instead of offering a more standard program composed of a few long orchestral works, Miura and Vazquez decided their audiences would be more engaged by a selection of several shorter works representing a variety of styles.

The program includes selections from Beethoven’s incidental music for the Goethe play “Egmont”; Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture; and Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo and Finale in E. Music by Glinka, Mozart and Bach is also featured.

“This will be a great introduction for people who might feel overwhelmed by the idea of sitting through an hour of a symphony,” says Miura. “It’s an audience-friendly and fun program.” He adds, “there will be a little surprise with our version of the ‘William Tell Overture.'”

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ orchestra comprises students, faculty and members of the local community. In order to accommodate the performers of both orchestras, each concert will feature different woodwind and brass sections.

Hear an audio report on this concert:

Click play to listen to audio:

Bill McKibben, the environmental journalist who wrote the first book aimed at a general readership about climate change, gave a talk titled “Global Warming: Fighting Against It, Living With It” on Thursday, March 12.

Sponsored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, the McKibben event was part of the series “The Civic Forum: Maine in a Transnational Age.”

• Thursday, March 12, 2009, at 7:30 p.m.
• Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Avenue

Theodore Sutherland, a sophomore from Accra, Ghana; Rachel Kurzius, a junior from Ridgewood, N.J.; Marshall Hatch, a junior from Chicago; and Emily Grady, a junior from Littleton, Mass., offer a presentation titled “Why November 4 Matters: Student Voices on the Stakes of the Presidential Election” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The event is open to the public free of charge. For more information, please contact Kristen Cloutier at the Harward Center, at 207-786-6202.

“We are excited to be sponsoring this student panel on the presidential election,” says Harward Center director David Scobey. “Our Civic Forum series presents advocates and activists on important civic and political issues, and the voices of students and young voters could not be more important in this campaign.”

The discussion is not intended as a back-and-forth debate among the candidates’ supporters, Scobey says, but instead a chance to hear students speak for themselves on the stakes of this historic election.

The panel represents a variety of backgrounds and political interests. “I’m eager to hear the panelists’ thoughts and take part in the wider conversation they’ll spark with the audience,” says Scobey.

The forum is a lively series that invites the audience to explore civic, political and policy issues significant to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community, Maine and beyond.

The Harward Center leads ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ efforts in community involvement, including programs in service-learning, community volunteerism and environmental stewardship. The center works with community partners to meet community needs and, in the process, to integrate civic engagement with the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ educational experience.

Historian of science at the University of California, San Diego, Naomi Oreskes gave a lecture on the science of climate change and the notion of scientific consensus at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Oreskes focused on the established agreement within the scientific community on the existence of climate change and the implications of these changes.

Sponsored by the College Lecture Series, her talk offered insight into the involvement and tension of political influence in the scientific community. The event was open to the public free of charge.

Oreskes’ research aims to bring attention to scientific facts about climate change that have been downplayed or ignored by political figures for as long as 30 years, delaying action to deal with greenhouse gases. Her analyses of abstracts published in scientific journals between 1993 and 2003 revealed that nearly 20 percent explicitly say that Earth’s climate has been impacted by human activities, with another 55 percent implicitly endorsing the consensus.

Her essay on science and society “Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” was published in the journal Science in December 2004 and cited in Al Gore’s influential documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Oreskes has also taught at Harvard, New York University and Dartmouth, and has worked as a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2004, she received the George Sarton Award Lecture from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she completed an American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship in 2002.

She has been cited by National Public Radio, The New Yorker, USA Today, Parade and the Royal Society’s publication, “A guide to facts and fictions about climate change.”

What will happen to the movement for civic engagement after the election?  Can it change the ways citizens engage their government? 

Come hear a nationally-known scholar and activist discuss the current movement for civic engagement and the stakes of the election for democratic renewal. Peter Levine is director of The Center For Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), Tufts University.

This lecture is the first installment in the Harward Center for Community Partnerships’ series “The Civic Forum: Engaged Citizenship and the Election.”

Morris Dees

Weaving stories from the Bible, from the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and from his own biography, Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees presents a compelling, sometimes emotional address at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College on May 8 as the Presidential Symposium keynote speaker. From MPBN’s Speaking in Maine. (Total time: 1:07:42) [More…]

Jeffrey Brown

Jeffrey Brown, senior correspondent for the NewsHour, conducts studio discussions and reports from the field in the areas of culture, arts, and the media. Mr. Brown has profiled and interviewed dozens of leading American and international writers, musicians, and other artistic figures. In addition, he’s contributed stories in may other areas, including religion and science. His work as producer and correspondent has garnered an Emmy Award, four Cine Golden Eagles, and other honors. He spoke at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College in Lewiston. From MPBN’s Speaking in Maine. (Total time: 1:05:31)

• Matt Schlobohm ’00, Public Policy and Political Mobilization Director, Maine AFL-CIO
• Peter Riggs, Executive Director, Forum on Democracy and Trade
• Charles Lawton, Senior Economist, Planning Decisions, Inc.
• Cathy Lee, Managing Director, Lee International

Presented by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College in Lewiston. (Total time: 1:42:26)