CommunityConnections

April 2016

In This Issue

Employee Spotlight

Spring Garden Festival

Grossmont Theatre

Grossmont Orchestra

Entrances & Exits

Cuyamaca concert

Afro-Cuban music

EMPLOYEE

SPOTLIGHT

Cathy Fritz remembers how nervous she was when she first enrolled at Cuyamaca College a generation ago. That's why she is so committed to making certain the students she now serves today in the campus Counseling Center are made to feel at home as soon as they walk in the door. Read more.

In the News...

Alliance wins national innovation award

College district educators receive national recognition

Quick Links...

GCCCD Website

Grossmont College website

Cuyamaca College website

Almost time for Spring

Garden Fest!

The Spring Garden Festival at Cuyamaca College, in its 23rd year, is a family-friendly community celebration of spring and a greener future that attracts more than 3,000 visitors annually. This year's free festival, set for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 23, features fun programs, exhibitors and demonstrations that will help you become a better gardener and learn how to conserve our precious resources.

Some festival highlights:

The renowned Cuyamaca College Ornamental Horticulture department will be holding its biggest plant sale of the year.
Faculty and students in the OH department
will be presenting information on a wide variety of horticultural topics and will be available to answer questions about horticulture and the OH curriculum.
Children's activities and exhibits.
Horticulture books from one of San Diego's best book resources.
Information about San Diego's garden clubs.
The Heritage of the Americas Museum at Cuyamaca College will be open to the public for free and will hold a drawing for prizes.

More information is available online about the festival.

'Loves Me...Loves Me Not' at Grossmont College

The Grossmont College Theatre Arts program stages "Loves Me...Loves Me Not" Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at 7:30 p. m. in Bldg 26, Room 220. Tickets to this fundraising event are $20 General Admission; $10 for Grossmont and Cuyamaca College students.

Love's many facets are the subject of this special, comedic staged-reading fundraiser performed by Grossmont College Theatre Department faculty, staff, and special guests. Come laugh at love and all its complications. -- passion, heartbreak, confusion, old love, new love.

Some adult themes. Not appropriate for those under the age of 18. Ticket proceeds go toward the program's 2016 Summer Conservatory for local high school and college students.

For 24-hour ticket reservations, call (619) 644-7234. For all other information, call (619) 644-7267.

Grossmont Symphany Orchestra celebrates Mozart

The 2015-2016 performance season of the Grossmont Symphony Orchestra and Master Chorale continues with a performance marking the 260th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The 7:30 p.m. April 1 concert at Santa Sophia Catholic Church, 9800 San Juan St. in Spring Valley, opens with his operatic overture to Don Giovanni and ends with a performance of his Requiem.

The program is contrasted with Mozart's Flute Quartet in A Major, K. 298 as performed by the orchestra's principal flautist, Kay Van Tassell, and members of the Grossmont Symphony String Quartet.

The performance of Mozart's Requiem will feature four professional soloists: Audra Nagby, soprano-music faculty member on faculty at Grossmont College; Sarah-Nicole Ruddy-Carter, mezzo-soprano-and graduate of the music program at Grossmont College; Alvin Almazan, tenor; and Michael Sokol, baritone.

Suggested Donation: $10 General, $5 Student

A second performance April 10 will be at Point Loma Presbyterian church, 2128 Chatsworth Blvd, San Diego, CA 92107.

Dancers make 'Entrances & Exits'

The Grossmont College Dance Department will present "Entrances and Exits," its annual spring dance concert, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, April 21, 22, and 23. Performances will be held at the Joan B. Kroc Theatre, 6611 University Avenue, San Diego 92115.

The concert is open to the public and will feature artistic work from eight Grossmont College Dance Department faculty, including David Mullen, Kathy Meyer, Colleen Shipkowski, Marta Jiacoletti, Debi Toth-Ward, Nancy Boskin-Mullen, Melissa Adao and Lesa Green, as well as guest choreographer and local San Diego artist Blythe Barton. This year's show will feature a variety of dance genres including hip-hop, modern, ballet, jazz, and tap.

General admission, cash-only ticket prices: $12 pre-sale (through April 20); $15 at the door. Pre-sale tickets may be purchased at the Grossmont College ASGC Student Activities Window in Bldg. 60 and through the Grossmont College Dance Department at (619) 644-7766.

Music of Venice at Cuyamaca College

Cuyamaca College's spring concert series continues 3 p.m. Sunday, April 3,

with the San Diego Early Music Society's presentation of recorder music by Vivaldi, Corelli, Marcello and other Baroque masters as interpreted by Dorothee Oberlinger, recorder; Alexander Puliaev, harpsichord; and Marco Testori, cello.

The concert, "Il Flauto Veneziano," will be at the Cuyamaca College Performing Arts Theater (Building B). Student tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door or by calling the San Diego Early Music Society at (619) 291-8246. General admission tickets are $18-$25 and can be purchased by phone or online at www.sdems.org.

The San Diego Early Music Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1981 to showcase the musical treasures of Europe's medieval, renaissance, and baroque periods, as performed on period instruments and in the musical style of the time.

Cuyamaca College's Performing Arts program has much to offer for the music enthusiast with a robust season of live performances.

Jazz and Afro-Cuban ensembles bringing sounds to Cuyamaca College

The Grossmont College Music Department presents the Afro-Cuban and Jazz ensembles 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, at the Cuyamaca College Performing Arts Theatre, in Room B-117. Admission: $10 general, $8 seniors/faculty, $5 students.

The Grossmont Afro-Cuban Ensemble was founded by Derek Cannon in 2003 and specializes in performing popular Afro-Cuban and Brazilian musical styles such as the Mambo, Cha-Cha, Bossa Nova, Samba, and Merengue.

The Jazz Ensemble, directed by John Reynolds, is comprised of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a rhythm section and vocalists, and focuses on the varied composers of the big band genre, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie and other modern composers.

Call 619-644-7254 for further informatiion.

Mariachi concert at Cuyamaca College

The incomparable Mariachi Real De San Diego under the direction of its founder and leader,

Pedro Gonzalez, comes to the Cuyamaca College Performing Arts Theater 7:30-9 p.m. Wednesday, April 13.

Founded in 1978, this band has established itself as a mariachi leader and has performed in movies, television and commercials, in addition to the Super Bowl, World Series and Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Mariachi Real has also performed for the Republican National Convention and countless festivals and special events.

Mariachi Real De San Diego has recorded three professional CDs for Mardi Gras Recording Studio from New Orleans, "Ultimate Mariachi," "Mariachi Classics," and "Best of Mariachi Instrumentals."

Tickets are $8; $5 for students and seniors.

Call 619-660-4288 for more information.

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