Campus Currents: Bangor Symphony Orchestra
Throughout the Collins Center for the Arts, there are people hard at work putting the finishing touches on the venue’s renovations. LED lights are being placed throughout the glass façade. Fluffy, green sod is being put …
As the economy worsens, organizations like the Penobscot Theater, the University of Maine Museum of Art and the 113-year-old Bangor Symphony Orchestra are adapting to survive the recession.
The Maine Center for the Arts isn’t being renovated; it’s being reborn. An $11 million re-imagining of the University of Maine’s cultural center will reach completion in the first week of 2009. A name change to the Collins Center for the Arts (CCA) will come in honor of a $5 million donation from UMaine graduates Richard and Anne Collins.
Few traditions – songs, films, foods, any items customarily associated with December – have the power to evoke holiday spirit as strongly as “The Nutcracker” did this weekend at the Maine Center for the Arts. Featuring the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet, the production was one of accessible grandeur, beautiful in all respects.
“The Nutcracker” returns to the Maine Center for the Arts this weekend, and his friends in the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Robinson Ballet are coming with him.
Peter Tchaikovsky’s 1891 composition has become synonymous with the holiday season as the foremost Christmas ballet.
After many weeks of practice, The University Singers will host perform for the second time this season on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 2 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall.
“We had our first ‘runout’ concert last Friday at the Orono Methodist Church,” said Lee Hunter, president of the University Singers.
The University of Maine recently named Barbara Beers the school’s new vice president of development. Beers, a UMaine graduate and Maine native, has decades of fundraising experience at Maine Public Broadcasting Network and Husson College as well as Beers Associates, Consultants in Philanthropy, her own consulting business that she started in 1992.
For those who are not familiar with the Robinson Ballet and what it’s all about, this weekend’s performances of the holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, at the Maine Center for the Arts would have been a disappointment.
But considering the production featured all local dancers, including students from River City Dance Center in Bangor and Ellsworth, Thomas School of Dance in Bangor, and the University of Maine, and further considering the MCA stage is not large enough to perfectly execute a production as grand as “The Nutcracker,” the Robinson Ballet did a fair job.
Ever hear that classical music makes you more focused, more able to study, and generally smarter? I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but after enjoying the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s first performance in their 2003-2004 Classical Concert series, I certainly don’t see how it couldn’t be.
Still weeks away from Christmas, this weekend brought the Maine Center for the Arts an annual tradition. The Bangor Symphony Orchestra and the Robinson Ballet Company, with some assistance from the Bangor Children’s Choir, performed the holiday classic “The Nutcracker” for three nearly sold out crowds.
Bangor Daily News