Juilliard School

People have compared the Howard County Arts Council's Rising Star Competition - held as part of the organization's annual fund-raising gala - to the television show American Idol. The competition does involve talented people performing for an enthusiastic audience that votes for a winner. But when there are whoops and whistles for a modern dance performance; contestants sing in French and Italian; and the winner plays classical clarinet, it is clear the council has created an event all its own. Mark Dubac, a graduate of Atholton High School and the Juilliard School, received the $5,000 Rising Star Award at the Celebration of the Arts on Saturday night.

The George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and Technology showed off its sophisticated building, stellar amenities and talented students during its official dedication Tuesday. The $88 million green building opened this school year in Towson for more than 800 students, who come from across Baltimore County to study in its numerous magnet programs. "I love the new building," said senior Ciara Hall of Owings Mills, who is studying dance. "It's big, cool and so pretty and we will have the best prom ever right here.

Novelist Thomas Mann aptly described the clarinet as an instrument that sounds ghostly in its lower register "but higher up can gleam in silvery blossoming harmony." Those evocative tonal extremes will be on display Saturday evening when Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia (UUCC) will present Columbia native Mark J. Dubac in a gala recital that also will feature Baltimore cellist Pei Lu and Peabody Institute adjunct faculty pianist Michael Adcock. The concert, which will begin at 8 p.m. at Owen Brown Interfaith Center, is the second program in this year's UUCC Concert Series.

Online education is a hot trend at the moment. But within that trend, there's an increasingly hotter sub-trend: online music education. Baltimore's Connections Academy , one of the bigger players in online K-12 education in the country, today announced that it's partnering with the Juilliard School in New York City to deliver online music education to pre-college students beginning this fall. The program is called Juilliard E-Learning. [My observation: This is a heckuva smart move by Juilliard, to extend its brand online to youngsters in K-12.

In 1689 - soon after Newton discovered the laws of motion and just before the Salem Witch trials - a violin was crafted in Bologna, Italy. Surviving perhaps 15 to 20 musicians, its spruce and maple body becoming looser and drier, the violin has aged as well as a bottle of premium Bordeaux. Three centuries later, it resonates at the touch of Peabody Conservatory student Igor Yuzefovich, who earned the right to play the $160,000 violin by winning the school's annual Marbury Competition.

John Barth (1930-) is a native Marylander, who has been successful in his dual careers as novelist and professor. A former professional drummer, he was educated at the Juilliard School of Music and later attended Johns Hopkins School of music in Baltimore. Many of his novels, including "Lost the Funhouse," a volume of stories 'for Print, Tape and Live Voice'; The Sot-Weed Factor and "Letters" are considered unconventional. Barth is considered one of America's bestselling novelists. Some Barth is best seen as a counter-realist, constructing worlds outside the everyday.

Hugh Hurd, 70, a stage and screen actor who was active in the civil rights movement, died Saturday in New York. The cause was complications from hypertension and kidney failure, his family said.He joined with Godfrey Cambridge and Maya Angelou in organizing one of the first benefits in New York for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., an occasion memorialized in Ms. Angelou's book "The Heart of a Woman." The benefit in the late 1950s raised $9,000 for Dr. King's civil rights movement.With Mr. Cambridge, Mr. Hurd founded and led a Committee for the Employment of Negro Performers in 1962.

One graduating senior is bound for the Juilliard School to study clarinet. Another got a four-year scholarship to Morgan State University. One learned to edit and compose stories on videotape, and another discovered he had strong artistic talents.They were among 290 seniors who graduated from Mount Hebron High School yesterday at an afternoon ceremony at Merriweather Post Pavilion.Guidance counselor Jane Scott described Mount Hebron's Class of 1994 as "very solid. They consistently earned high grades."

The George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and Technology showed off its sophisticated building, stellar amenities and talented students during its official dedication Tuesday. The $88 million green building opened this school year in Towson for more than 800 students, who come from across Baltimore County to study in its numerous magnet programs. "I love the new building," said senior Ciara Hall of Owings Mills, who is studying dance. "It's big, cool and so pretty and we will have the best prom ever right here.

In 1948, a group of not exactly famous painters in New York City's lively Greenwich Village asked four not quite celebrated classical musicians to play a concert for them. Since the 8th Street Club artists had a chronic shortage of cash, they showed their appreciation by having a member give each of the young performers one of his enamel paintings.Those works are worth well over $150,000 apiece today, for the donor was Willem de Kooning, who was soon hailed globally as a giant of the newish abstract impressionism.

In case anyone forgot that the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland was celebrating its 50th birthday, reminders were everywhere at its annual "Gift of Life Gala." They came courtesy of the party's 1950s theme. The Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor ballroom popped with color, and each dining table featured a centerpiece made up of old 45-rpm records, fuzzy dice or models of classic cars anchoring a string of celebratory balloons. At each seat was a collection of 1950s candy, such as Pez, Necco wafers and Mary Janes.

People have compared the Howard County Arts Council's Rising Star Competition - held as part of the organization's annual fund-raising gala - to the television show American Idol. The competition does involve talented people performing for an enthusiastic audience that votes for a winner. But when there are whoops and whistles for a modern dance performance; contestants sing in French and Italian; and the winner plays classical clarinet, it is clear the council has created an event all its own. Mark Dubac, a graduate of Atholton High School and the Juilliard School, received the $5,000 Rising Star Award at the Celebration of the Arts on Saturday night.

Virtuosity always has its appeal. But when combined with an unbridled joy of music-making, an intense desire to get beyond bravura to the truly important stuff, things really heat up. That combination could be heard last weekend, in varying proportions, at three concerts in the north end of Baltimore. An ideal mix of technical brilliance and interpretive power characterized the organ recital by Paul Jacobs on Sunday afternoon at Grace United Methodist Church, presented by the Baltimore chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Novelist Thomas Mann aptly described the clarinet as an instrument that sounds ghostly in its lower register "but higher up can gleam in silvery blossoming harmony." Those evocative tonal extremes will be on display Saturday evening when Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia (UUCC) will present Columbia native Mark J. Dubac in a gala recital that also will feature Baltimore cellist Pei Lu and Peabody Institute adjunct faculty pianist Michael Adcock. The concert, which will begin at 8 p.m. at Owen Brown Interfaith Center, is the second program in this year's UUCC Concert Series.

The summer after high school and before college is like the last look at shore before crossing over from youth to young adulthood. Three months ago, Simon Fitzgerald, Nadia Sirota and Elizabeth Armenti were kids finishing senior year. Now it's September, and like so many of their peers across the country, they are ready to pack the station wagon, take that plane, kiss their families goodbye, plunge into the next phase of life and see how they fare on their own. For all three, it is sure to be a challenging journey, but one for which all seem well-equipped.

In 1689 - soon after Newton discovered the laws of motion and just before the Salem Witch trials - a violin was crafted in Bologna, Italy. Surviving perhaps 15 to 20 musicians, its spruce and maple body becoming looser and drier, the violin has aged as well as a bottle of premium Bordeaux. Three centuries later, it resonates at the touch of Peabody Conservatory student Igor Yuzefovich, who earned the right to play the $160,000 violin by winning the school's annual Marbury Competition.

Online education is a hot trend at the moment. But within that trend, there's an increasingly hotter sub-trend: online music education. Baltimore's Connections Academy , one of the bigger players in online K-12 education in the country, today announced that it's partnering with the Juilliard School in New York City to deliver online music education to pre-college students beginning this fall. The program is called Juilliard E-Learning. [My observation: This is a heckuva smart move by Juilliard, to extend its brand online to youngsters in K-12.

No one will ever accuse Chee-Yun of having been made by a cookie cutter. The young Korean violinist does not sound like anyone else, nor does she attempt to do so. Her performance last night in Kraushaar Auditorium with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and conductor Anne Harrigan took a take-no-prisoners approach to the Mendelssohn Concerto. The corner movements were unusually fast and exciting. She was not afraid of taking risks, fearlessly attacking her instrument even if it meant that the beautiful tone that characterizes her playing turned strident for a second here and there.

The first time Philip Glass arrived at Peabody Conservatory in the mid-1940s, he almost didn't get past the doorman. The young flute student didn't look as though he belonged. Perhaps it's because he was 8 years old. The next time he showed up, in the mid-'80s, it was as a cutting-edge composer of a controversial style known as minimalism, a style frequently ridiculed in bastions of higher learning. On Thursday, Glass returned to Peabody, this time as virtually a mainstream figure. During commencement ceremonies, he was honored with the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America.

John Barth (1930-) is a native Marylander, who has been successful in his dual careers as novelist and professor. A former professional drummer, he was educated at the Juilliard School of Music and later attended Johns Hopkins School of music in Baltimore. Many of his novels, including "Lost the Funhouse," a volume of stories 'for Print, Tape and Live Voice'; The Sot-Weed Factor and "Letters" are considered unconventional. Barth is considered one of America's bestselling novelists. Some Barth is best seen as a counter-realist, constructing worlds outside the everyday.