His program will include works by Bach- Busoni, Chopin, Shostakovich and Liszt. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., and immediately following the program, a reception for the artist will be held in Heritage Hall.
Saturday marks the sixth anniversary of the delivery of the center’s Steinway concert grand to its permanent home in Performance Hall.
“A key step in the conversion of the former St. Mary’s Church into the Franco Center, the renovation of the former sanctuary into a worldclass performance hall was completed only months before the piano’s arrival,” a release from the center states.
IGOR LOVCHINSKY
“ Soon, he was giving recitals for family and friends and entered the Kazan Special Music School for Gifted Children. When he was 10, his family moved to settle in Columbus, Ohio, where the young pianist continued his study with Nina Polonsky and Steven Glaser.
“He was only 18 when he won first prize in the 2002 Eastman International Piano Competition, and the following year, he won the National Chopin Piano Competition of the Kosciuszko Foundation.
“Upon graduation from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, he moved to Massachusetts, to obtain his master’s degree at the New England Conservatory, where his teachers were Patricia Zander and Wha-Kyung Byun.
“Lovchinsky has championed contemporary composers, including the late virtuoso pianist Earl Wild, who upon hearing the young pianist perform his “Etudes on Themes of Gershwin,” offered to produce his debut disc on Wild’s Ivory Classics label. Released in 2008, this CD was voted one of the top five classical recordings of that year by Time Out International.”
Admission to the recital, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at 46 Cedar St., costs $16 for adults or $14 for seniors. Students age 21 and younger will be admitted free.
For tickets, call 689-2000, or go online to www.francocenter.org.
Savory breakfast supports Morris Farm
DAMARISCOTTA — Savory Maine Dining and Provisions will host a local foods breakfast to benefit the Morris Farm Trust from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Morris Farm Benefit Local Foods Breakfast will feature blueberry bread French toast with Maine maple syrup. Using ingredients from Maine Farms, proprietor Grace Goldberg will offer a menu that also includes assorted quiche and home fries. Coffee from Matt’s Wood Roasted in Pownal and various teas will be available. Other featured farms include Goranson’s Farm in Dresden, State of Maine Cheese Co. in Rockport, Longfellow Creamery, Good Shepard’s Farm in Bremen and the Oyster Creek Mushroom company in Damariscotta.
Savory Maine is located at 11 Water St., in a former schoolhouse that dates to 1805. For more information on Savory Maine or Saturday’s benefit breakfast, call 563-2111 or visit www.savorymainedining.com. For more information on Morris Farm, call 882- 4080 or visit www.morrisfarm.org.
High school band battle begins
PORTLAND — Eleven youth bands will compete Saturday and Sunday in the preliminary rounds of the Maine Academy of Modern Music’s MAMM SLAMM High School Rock Off.
During the preliminary rounds at The Big Easy, bands have 20 minutes to set up, play and breakdown. Five bands perform on Saturday and six play on Sunday.
Five bands go to the finals based on judges’ scores, and one band is elected as the fanfavorite “ wild card” determined by an online vote.
The winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize, recording time, gigs, studio tours and TV and radio appearances.
Doors open at 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Admission costs $12 for adults or $10 for students.
Everyman books ‘Freud’s Last Session’
CAMDEN —The Everyman Repertory Theatre’s production of “Freud’s Last Session” opens at 7.30 p.m. today at the Camden Public Library Reading Room.
The play imagines a meeting between Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and English theologian C.S. Lewis.
Other performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, as well as on March 30 and 31. Matinees start at 2 p.m. Sunday and April 1. A post- show discussion will take place after Sunday’s performance.
For reservations and information, call 236 3402 or visit www.everymanrep.org.
Older artists invited to exhibit at festival
BELFAST — Artists have until March 31 to enter the 10th annual Festival or Art, which will run from May 10 through May 13 in the University of Maine Hutchinson Center
Sponsored by Senior College and the University of Maine Hutchinson Center, this non- juried exhibit is open to amateur and professional visual artists, age 50 and older.
Last year’s festival included 170 works of art and attracted more than 1,400 visitors.
An entry form and information sheet can be obtained by contacting Juliane Dow at seniorcollegefestivalofart@gmail.com or by calling 857- 719-6733.
Portland Ballet trots out ‘Giselle’ twice
WESTBROOK — The Portland Ballet Company (PBC) will perform the classic romantic ballet “Giselle” at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center at Westbrook Middle School.
A PBC release describes the production as follows:
The quintessential story of unrequited love, this classic ballet follows Giselle through her first love, betrayal, heartbreak, death and then into the afterlife as she ultimately saves the man who broke her heart.
Giselle is an innocent country maiden, beloved by the local gamekeeper Hilarion. She falls desperately in love with Count Albrecht, a nobleman who showers Giselle with his affections while disguised as a peasant.
When Giselle discovers that Albrecht is already engaged to a noblewoman, she loses her mind and tragically dies of broken-hearted madness at the end of the first act.
She returns in act two as a ghost to join the Wilis, other ghost maidens who have died before their wedding nights, also the victims of heartbreak.
Between midnight and dawn the Wilis emerge from their tombs to seek revenge, forcing any man who enters their domain to dance to his death (this is also the origin of the phrase, “it gives me the Wilis”).
Albrecht, laden with feelings of guilt and remorse, visits Giselle’s grave in the forest. She appears in ghost form and forgives him, saving him from the same fate as the other men who enter the forest. Giselle then retreats with the Wilis, understanding she is one of them for the rest of time.
The part of Giselle will be shared by Megan Buckley and Jennifer Jones. The role of Myrtha is shared by dancers Mary Stride and Morgan Sanborn. Joseph Jefferies portrays Albrecht, and Matthew Begin dances as Hilarion.
Tickets cost $35 for adults and $15 for children. They are available through PortTix either by phone at 842-0800 or online at www.porttix.com. Visit www.portlandballet.org for more information.
Mad Horse delivers reclusive ‘Uncle Bob’
PORTLAND — Mad Horse Theatre Company’s Dark Night Series returns with Austin Pendleton’s “ Uncle Bob.” Performances take place at 7: 30 p. m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Lucid Stage, 29 Baxter Blvd.
“ The reclusive Bob is an angry old man who has never done anything meaningful in his life. He is a failed actor and writer, he has driven away his loving wife, and he is dying of AIDS,” a Mad Horse release states. “A surprise visit by his nephew, Josh, who carries his own baggage, is more than Bob can handle. Josh, an unemployed college dropout, arrives on Bob’s doorstep uninvited and declares that he is there to take care of him.
“The visit fills with namecalling and open scorn as the two men reconnect and discover, much to their chagrin, that they are kindred spirits,” the release continues. “‘Uncle Bob’ boldly explores those perplexing questions about life and death that existential philosophers ponder endlessly.”
Directed by Nate Speckman, “Uncle Bob” stars Jacob Cote and Paul Haley.
All performances are “pay what you can,” with a suggested donation of $10. Call 899- 3993 or order online at www.lucidstage.com.
Single-cell creature safari scrutinized
BOOTHBAY HARBOR — Bigelow Laboratory will host a free screening of the film “Cracking the Ocean Code” as its first Café Scientifique of 2012 on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Boothbay Harbor Opera House, 86 Townsend Ave.
Senior research scientist Ramunas Stepanauskas, director of the Laboratory’s Single Cell Genomics Center, will join filmmaker and Compass Light Productions executive director David Conover to lead a discussion about the film and the science behind it.
Originally produced for The Discovery Science Channel, the 60-minute film is the story of genome pioneer J. Craig Venter’s sailing expedition around the world aboard the 95-foot Sorcerer II to collect and map the ocean’s microbial DNA. The documentary follows Venter and his crew from Nova Scotia to the Galapagos Islands to Antarctica in search of new life forms and genetic resources that may help solve major energy and climate change challenges.
All of the Laboratory’s Café Scientifique talks are free and open to the public, with beer, wine and sodas available for purchase.
Film homes in on graphic novelist
PORTLAND — A special preview screening of 217 Films’ new documentary “O Brother Man: The Art and Life of Lynd Ward” will be held at 5 p.m. March 31 at the University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Center during the Maine Reads Festival of the Book.
This screening will be introduced by filmmaker Michael Maglaras. Robin Ward Savage, the artist’s daughter, will attend. Admission is free.
“Featuring more than 150 wood engravings, drawings, and illustrations by this important American artist and storyteller, the 90-minute film brings the creativity of Ward to life and illustrates his mastery of narrative without text,” a release about the event states. “His work chronicles American life in the 20th century, and demonstrates his deep personal commitment to social justice and the plight of the workingman surrounding the years of the Great Depression.”
For information call 871-9100 or email info@mainereads.org.
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