Music Director Robert Moody will conduct two “festive programs celebrating the city’s mighty organ,” according to a PSO release. Ray Cornils, Portland’s municipal organist, will perform with the orchestra.
The Kotzschmar Centennial Celebration performances will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Merrill Auditorium on Myrtle Street.
The program begins with Richard Danielpour’s “Toward the Splendid City,” a musical portrait of New York City and a tribute to its Philharmonic Orchestra. Joseph Jongen’s lyrical and colorful while simultaneously tranquil and mysterious “Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra” follows. Camille Saint-Saens’ composition, “Symphony No. 3 in c minor, Organ,” closes the program.
The Kotzschmar Organ is one of two remaining municipal organs in the country and was installed as a gift to Portland in 1912.
A concert conversation with Moody will take place 75 minutes before each concert. Following a post-concert, question-and-answer session on stage after both concerts, a season finale reception will occur in the rehearsal hall at Merrill Auditorium.
Tickets are available through PortTIX.com, by calling 842-0800 or at the box office at 20 Myrtle St. Single ticket prices range from $20 to $70 with special pricing available for students, seniors and subscribers.
Wildlife park features big cats on display
GRAY — To mark today’s grand opening of its new, 3,500-square-foot mountain lion exhibit, the Maine Wildlife Park on Route 26 will have special exhibits and displays about the wild cat species indigenous to Maine — the Canada lynx, bobcat and mountain lion — from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Three “Big Cat Discovery Stations” will be staffed, with activities and games designed for kids and their parents to learn more about Maine’s wild cats.
Special feeding times have been scheduled on Saturday for visitors to view the cats — and what and how they eat. Bobcats will eat at noon. Canada lynx will dine at 1 p.m. Mountain lions will savor a meal at 2 p.m.
Regular admission fees apply. For information, call 228-1700 or visit www.mainewildlifepark.com.
International folk dancers gather Sunday
PORTLAND — An international folk dance will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at the New Church (formerly Swedenborgian), 302 Stevens Ave.
Those who attend can learn dances from the Balkans, Israel, France, Greece and other cultures. Dances will be taught from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., followed by requests.
Beginners are welcome. Admission costs $5 for adults or $3 for children.
For information, call 318- 7108 or email ghenn@maine. rr.com or mbdavidson@gmail.com.
Rare footage of blues legends set to screen
PORTLAND — One Longfellow Square will screen “The American Folk Blues Festival” at 7 p.m. Monday at 181 State St.
“This film features rare footage of many of America’s best blues musicians filmed in Germany during their prime, including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sippie Wallace and many others,” a One Longfellow Square release states.
Admission costs $7. For more information, visit www.OneLongfellowSquare.c om or call 761-1757.
Tuesday talk dissects ‘Marie Antoinette’
PORTLAND — Representatives of Portland Stage will lead a “Page to Stage” discussion about Joel Gross’ “Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh,” the company’s current production, at noon Tuesday in the Rines Auditorium at Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Square.
“The discussion will center around the question ‘should art depict people as they truly were, or as they should have been?’” a library release states. “In a dramatic love triangle set amidst the splendor of 18th century Paris, a beautiful, social-climbing portrait painter uses her affair with an idealistic count to get a commission to paint the naïve young Marie Antoinette. Both learn to love the woman they are exploiting even as their actions encourage the Revolution that will shatter all three of their lives.”
Page to Stage discussions are presented in partnership with the Portland Stage Company. These discussions, led by Portland Stage artistic staff, provide insight into the literary and social aspects of the play, as well as exploring the challenges of bringing a particular play to the stage.
Participation in the discussion is free. Those who attend are encouraged to bring lunch.
Children release ‘Inner Strength’ CD
PORTLAND — The Multicultural Program at The Center for Grieving Children will host an all-ages CD release party for “Inner Strength” at 6 p.m. Wednesday at One Longfellow Square, 181 State St.
“Inner Strength” features songs written and recorded by students who settled Portland after fleeing war-torn countries.
A reception will take place at 6 p.m., followed at 6:30 p.m. with an intercultural community gathering featuring a medley of speakers, music and dance. The evening will include live performances of some of the songs; performances by the Dynamite Dancers and Portland Youth Dancers, and appearances by Portland Mayor Michael Brennan and Hamady N’Daiye of the Portland Red Claws, among others.
Donations will be accepted at the door. For more information, call 761-1757.
Film shares town’s reaction to war deaths
DAMARISCOTTA — Lincoln Theater, 2 Theatre St., will host a special screening of the documentary film “Welcome to Lee, Maine,” at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Filmmaker Bill Perna will discuss his work after the show.
The film centers on the way a small Maine town of 845 residents reacted to the deaths of two local men serving with U.S. military forces in Iraq in 2007.
“Lee, Maine, is a town with strong Christian, patriotic and traditional values that struggles to overcome its heartbreak,” a release about the film states. “While many have very different views of the war, they are united in their support of the families and each other in their loss.”
The film shows how residents of that small Maine town rallied to support each other and to extend assistance to families of other Iraq war casualties.
Ticket prices range from $9 to $7. For more information, visit www.atthelincoln.org.
Toroid Ensemble just making things up
PORTLAND — The Toroid Ensemble, an improvised music collective, will perform at 8 p.m. May 11 at The Heart Opening on the second floor at 227 Congress St.
Toroid Ensemble members are Carl Dimow on flutes, Mark Tipton on trumpet, Phil James on shakuhachi, John Clark on bass and Eric LaPerna on percussion.
“The Toroid Ensemble is a flexible group of eclectic musicians who love to create instantaneous improvisations,” a release from the group states. “For this performance, the group will feature five excellent musicians, known individually for their work in a variety of styles including classical music, jazz, klezmer, Japanese and middle eastern music. Impro- vising together, they create beautiful textures and colors in the midst of compelling musical conversations.”
Admission ranges from $5 to $20. For more information, contact Dimow at cdimow@earthlink.net or 615-1550.
Renaissance Voices welcome spring
PORTLAND — The Renaissance Voices will perform a spring concert at 8 p.m. May 12 at Williston-Immanuel Baptist Church, 156 High St.
The 21-voice a cappella ensemble, under the direction of Harold Stover, will present “Folk Song Suite,” a collection of English, Chinese, Polish, German and American songs. A few, from earlier centuries, are sung in their traditional form, but most are arranged by classical composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Chen Yi and Johannes Brahms.
The group has performed throughout Maine since 1994. Stover, an internationally known organist and distinguished composer, has led the group since 2000.
Admission costs $15 at the door. Discount tickets, at $12, will be available in advance at Starbird Music or Longfellow Books in Portland and at Book Review in Falmouth (by cash or check), or online through May 11 at www.renaissancevoices.org.
Admission for students is $5 (at the door only) with a valid student ID.
A reception will take place after the concert. For directions to the concert or for further information, visit the group’s website or call 729- 4958.
Student writing highlighted tonight
PORTLAND — The Telling Room will hold its annual Big Night event from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. today at the University of Southern Maine’s Abromson Center.
The evening will feature the release of the Telling Room’s sixth anthology of student writing and a live performance in Hannaford Hall to showcase student writing, photography and film created during the 2011-12 school year.
The theme of the event is “Searching for ME.” Telling Room staff, community partners, teaching artists and volunteers will be on hand to run interactive writing, photography and printmaking activities for all ages.
Performances begin at 8 p.m., and light refreshments will be served. Admission is free. The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers.
More information is available at www.tellingroom.org.
Choral Art Society slates voice tryouts
PORTLAND — The Choral Art Society will hold auditions for membership on three Mondays in May.
Advance registration is required. Interested singers can fill out an audition information card through choralart.org and contact Choral Arts Society manager Michael Bachem at manager@choralart.org.
Auditions will run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church, 524 Allen Ave.
Sopranos will audition on May 7. Altos and tenors audition May 14. Bass tryouts will be May 21.
Auditions are required for current as well as potential new members of the Choral Art Society, which has more than 150 members who perform in three distinct ensembles: the symphonic Masterworks Chorus, the mid-sized Choral Art Singers, and the a cappella Camerata. All singers are skilled amateurs, selected by audition.
MWPA unleashes mother of all workshops
PORTLAND — The Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance will host two mother themed writing workshops on May 19.
“Discovering Our Mother’s Stories” will be a prose workshop with Patricia Taub, and “Mothering the Word,” led by Elizabeth Kirschner, will focus on poetry.
“Women writers may or may not bear children or mother others — either literally or symbolically — but the instinct ‘to mother’ is a profound, primal, and powerful force,” Kirschner, who has taught at Boston College and was the 2011 Maine Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellow, said in a release. “When we focus that force fully upon mothering the word, then and only then, can we fully inhabit and empower not just language but our highest literary selves.”
“As adult daughters, many of us struggle with our relationships to our mothers,” said Taub, a family therapist, journalist, author, former National Public Radio host, and author of the motherdaughter memoir “The Mother of My Invention.”
The two writing workshops will run concurrently from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. May 19 at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Family Library.
For more information, contact the MWPA at info@mainewriters.org or 228-8263.
Register online at www.mainewriters.org.
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