SCHOOL MUSICALS!
 
The Bedford High School Music Department proudly presents The Music Man on Friday evening, March 12, and on Saturday evening, March 13, with a matinee on Thursday, March 11 at 4 pm. Tickets will be for sale at Great Road Gallery and Framing, The Council On Aging, and Fetch It! starting Friday, March 5 or at the high school in front of the cafeteria during the week of March 8-12.
 
Performances of Fiddler on the Roof, the Middle School musical, will take place on Wednesday, March 17 at 4 pm, and on the following evenings at 7:30 pm: Thursday, March 18; Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20. Tickets are available on line through the Bedford Education Association  after March 1.

CIRQUE du JOUR: The BEST/PTO Circus & Carnival
 
Children of all ages will enjoy this 60-minute show full of amazing feats and funny clowns. In addition, BEST will host a Family Carnival with traditional carnival food, face painting and more than 14 games - including the Principal's Pie Shop! Circus AND Carnival tickets may be purchased in advance online through the Bedford Recreation Department online  or click for more information!


OTHER MUSICAL EVENTS    

A semi-staged production of Die Fledermaus with full orchestra and chorus will be sponsored by the Friends of the Performing Arts Center, 51 Walden Street in Concord with performances on March 26 and 27 at 8 pm and on March 28 at 2 pm. Tickets are available online, or by calling 978-369-7911.
                                                                        
BCA member Rick Spofford reminds us that The Masterworks Chorale will present Giuseppi Verdi's monumental Requiem in Sanders Theatre, Cambridge at 3:00pm on Sunday March 14 in celebration of the Chorale's 70th Anniversary. Click here for more information.

Bedford residents Sean Dresel and Greg Mara will perform at the Main Street Market Café on the Milldam in Concord on Saturday evening, March 6,from 8:30 to 11:30 pm.  They'll play a mix of 60s and 70s rock'n'roll, as well as Sean's original tunes. The café boasts a full bar and dinner menu.
 
The second concert of First Parish on the Common's series Chopin by Candlelight  will be presented at 7 pm on Sunday, March 14. A selection of Chopin's virtuoso piano pieces, songs and instrumental transcriptions will be offered by Bedford musicians Carol Epple and Elizabeth Connors and First Parish Music Director Bradford Conner. The Trio for violin, cello and piano in g minor, Op. 8 will be performed by violinist Eden MacAdam-Somer, cellist Nancy Hair and pianist Eric Mazonson. Remaining concerts in the series which is sponsored by the First Parish Music Committee, will take place on March 28 and April 24. Click here for further details. To reserve tickets, e-mail Dean Groves or call 781-275-7994.

The Concord Chamber Music Society welcomes back violinist Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony's principal bassist Edwin Barker for the  season finale showcasing romantic and virtuoso chamber music for strings, including Dvorak's Op. 77 Quintet in G Major. The concert will take place at 3 pm on March 7th at Concord Academy.  Click here for additional information; or to purchase tickets online.

Concerts at Middlesex Community College's Bedford Campus:

• Chamber Music for Piano & Strings: Abigail Karr, violin; Sarah Darling, viola; Rafael Popper-Keizer, cello; Susan Hagen, double bass; MCC faculty member Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, piano, will perform two movements from the Quinteto Sobre Los Poemas de Carlos Pintado by Lexington resident Pamela Marshall; the Piano Quintet No.2 by 19th-century romantic composer Louise Farrenc; and the Fantasy Pieces for cello and piano by Robert Schumann at 7:30 pm on Sunday, March 7 in the MCC Concert Hall, Bedford Campus

• New Music for Viola & Piano: World premieres of works by local composers John Aylward, Matt Malsky and Ivana Lisak will be performed by MCC faculty member Mark Berger  and Ketty Nez along with their own compositions at 8 pm on Saturday, March 27 in the MCC Concert Hall, Bedford Campus 
  

• Musketaquid Arts and Environment is sponsoring its annual puppet and parade workshops on four Sunday afternoons, March 7, 14, 21, and 28, from 1-5 pm at the Emerson Umbrella at 40 Stow Street, Concord. If you'd like to make a large puppet, or a costume, headdress, homemade musical instrument, or something else for the parade, the Puppet and Parade Workshops are the place to be on Sunday afternoons in March. These workshops are free; a voluntary donation for materials will be requested. Preregistration is not required, but it will help us plan for materials if you call the office ahead of time and let us know you are coming. Call 978-371-0820 or email musketaquid@emersonumbrella.org for more information.
  
  

ART AROUND AND ABOUT

Imagining Past and Present, featuring the work of photographer Jeffrey Engel, will be on view in The Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Avenue, Lowell(2nd floor of the A-Mill) from March 3 to 28.  A reception for the artist will take place in the gallery at 6 pm on Friday, March 5 at 6 pm. Click here for additional information  or call Maxine Farkas at 978 349-8069.

Middlesex Community College's Bedford campus  will host an exhibition of jazz drawings by Edward Koehler between February 17 and March 24 in Henderson Hall Gallery. The exhibit features more than 20 portraits and illustrations of the great jazz musicians of the last four decades. gallery is open from 10 am to 6 pm. Monday through Friday, and 10 am to 3 pm on Saturday. Call 781-280-3803 for information.

Dennis Lucas, a traditional Impressionist painter trained at the Cape School in Provincetown, will offer impressionist painting lessons at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell every Tuesday morning, for 5 weeks beginning on March 16 with a weekend workshop on April 10 and 11. Click here to learn more, or call James Dyment (978 452-7641) to reserve your time slot.

THE ART OF PARENTING

• Ruth Nemzoff, Ed.,D., author of Don't Bite Your Tongue: How to Foster Rewarding Relationships with Your Adult Children, will speak at The Place for Words & Workshops, 200 Great Road, on Wednesday, March 3 from 7 to 8:30 pm Her talk is designed to help parents and grandparents of 17 to 25-year-olds learn to transform relationships with their emerging adult children. Register on line at www.theplaceforwords.com, e-mail theplaceforwords@gmail.com or call 781-275-7301 for fees and further details.

• Bedford Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) and the Middle School Parents' Association (MSPA) will host Sarah Ward, M.S. CCC-SLP, speaking onDeveloping executive function skills in adolescentson Wednesday, March 3.  The presentation will be held from 7 to 9 pm in the Large Group Instruction Room (H207) at Bedford High School on Mudge Way.  All are welcome; there will be a $5 per person admission fee at the door.  For further information, please contact Dana Fine at danafine@verizon.net  or Berni Vatcher at bvatcher@winchester.k12.ma.us .

Musketaquid Arts and Environment is sponsoring its annual puppet and parade workshops on four Sunday afternoons, March 7, 14, 21, and 28, from 1-5 pm at the Emerson Umbrella at 40 Stow Street, Concord.

Each spring, Musketaquid's menagerie of giant animal puppets comes out to play in the streets of Concord in the Earth Day Parade. Starting at the Lowell Road boat launch after the River Ceremony and ending at the Emerson Umbrella, the Parade is an exuberant and colorful celebration of our relationship with nature here in this place. This year's Musketaquid Earth Day Parade will take place on Saturday, May 1.

If you'd like to make a large puppet, or a costume, headdress, homemade musical instrument, or something else for the parade, the Puppet and Parade Workshops are the place to be on Sunday afternoons in March. These workshops are free; a voluntary donation for materials will be requested. Preregistration is not required, but it will help us plan for materials if you call the office ahead of time and let us know you are coming. Call 978-371-0820 or email musketaquid@emersonumbrella.org for more information.

THE ART OF LEARNING @ MIDDLESEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Middlesex Community College celebrates Lowell Women's Week with two free screenings of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a film that chronicles the remarkable story of courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. There will be two screenings in the Assembly room at MCC's Federal Building, 50 Kearney Square in Lowell )on March 4: 12 noon to 1:30 pm and  6:30 to 8:30 pm) The 6:30 screening will include a discussion with director Gini Reticker, and Janet Johnson Bryant, who appears in the film, followed by a reception. For more information, contact Pat Demaras at 978-656-3256.

Overwhelmed with Media Choices - What's it all about? will highlight the opening session for the spring term of M.I.L.E.S., the Middlesex Institute for Lifelong Education for Seniors program at Middlesex Community College's Bedford campus on Wednesday, March 24, at 2 pm in the Campus Center on Springs Road. Peyton Paxson will explore ways in which the media targets increasingly smaller market segments and how our personal electronic gadgets allow us to form independent knowledge communities. The opening session is free and open to the public. Contact Chris Lindsey at 781-280-3570 for additional information.

AND FINALLY.. .. ..

The Bedford Library's Thursday movie on March 18 (in the meeting room at 7 pm) will feature pianist  Richard Hughes performing, along with a silent movie or two; Hughes will also  talk about  movie making during the era of silent films.  
 
Bedford's PMC Kids Ride Committee will host its 4th Annual Cocktail Party & Auction to benefit the Dana Farber Cancer Institute on Friday, March 26, at 7:00 pm.  This year's event will have an added twist with music, dancing, comedian Jim Colliton and a new venue at the Double Tree Bedford Glen Hotel on Middlesex Turnpike. E-mail the committee for further details.

Noted New York garden antiques dealer and author Barbara Frelinghuysen Israel will present the Concord Museum's 2010 Mary Lesneski Memorial Decorative Arts Lecture, "Adorning the American Landscape: Garden Ornament from 1740 to 1940" at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 31. E-mail the museum for reservations/tickets.