The University of Scranton’s Earth Day Essay Contest Area students in grades five to 12 can participate in The University of Scranton’s Earth Day Essay Contest 2022. The contest is offered free of charge and this year’s essay theme is “We Are All Connected.” Topics students can write about include conservation, recycling, healthy eating, agriculture, renewable energy, eliminating single use containers, bees, gardening or transportation, among other subjects. Essays for students in grades five and six must be between 200 to 400 words. Essays for students in grades seven and eight must be between 300 to 500 words. Essays for students in grades nine to 12 must be between 500 to 700 words. Electronic submissions must be sent to susan.falbo@scranton.edu on or before Monday, April 4. Mail-in entries must be postmarked on or by April 1 to be considered and can be sent to: The University of Scranton, Office of Sustainability, Smurfit Arts Center, 445 Madison Avenue, Scranton, PA 18510, Attn: Earth Day Essay Contest. Visit the University’s Sustainability website for complete submission rules and details. Winners of the Earth Day Essay Contest will be announced by the University’s Sustainability Office and student Sustainability and Conservation Society at an Evening of Environmental Science program for participants and their families and teachers on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, beginning at 6 p.m., in the atrium of the Loyola Science Center on campus.
The University of Scranton Announces Performance The Unviersity of Scranton Players, co-produced by The Jesuit Center will present “A Good Farmer” by Sharyn Rothstein. The show will take place Feb. 25-27 and Mar. 4-6 at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Royal Theater, McDade Center for Literary and Performing Arts. Fees vary. Call 570-941-4353 or email players@scranton.edu for more information.
Acclaimed Cellist Mark Kosower to Perform at the University of Scranton Performance Music at The University of Scranton will welcome back acclaimed cellist Mark Kosower, principal cellist of The Cleveland Orchestra, for a solo performance as part of his unique recital series “Bach for Humanity,” on Sunday, Oct. 24. The recital will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue. The concert is open to all members of the University community and invited guests. Admission is free. Seating arrangements will include provisions for socially distancing between groups attending together and masks must be worn by audience members at the recital. Kosower has performed at the University several times in recent years. In 2018, he launched “Bach for Humanity,” a three-year commitment to bringing the composer’s cello suites and arrangements of his violin sonatas and partitas to both conventional and nonconventional venues, including concert halls, educational institutions, community centers and senior residences, through Ohio, the region and the nation. Kosower will also offer a masterclass for members of the University’s string orchestra during his visit. Currently the principal cello for the Cleveland Orchestra, Kosower has been called “a virtuoso of staggering prowess” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. From 2006 to 2010, he served as the solo cellist of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany. Kosower has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras throughout the world, including Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, China National Symphony in Beijing, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra and the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, and is a frequent guest at international chamber music festivals, including Santa Fe, Eastern Music, North Shore Chamber Music, Japan’s Pacific Music Festival and Colorado’s Strings Music Festival. He has recorded for the Ambitus, Delos, Naxos International and VAI labels, and was the first cellist to record the complete music for solo cello of Alberto Ginastera, which he completed for Naxos. From those recordings, he was described as a “powerful advocate of Ginastera’s art” by Music-Web International, and Strings Magazine noted of his Hungarian music album (also with Naxos) that “the music allows Kosower to showcase his stunning virtuosity, passionate intensity and elegant phrasing.” A member of the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Kent Blossom Music Festival, Kosower also teaches a week of classes at California:s Hidden Valley Music Seminars in Carmel Valley each summer, and has served as a visiting distinguished professor at the University of Oregon. He has given masterclasses around the world, and served as professor of cello and chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2005-2007. Kosower’s June 2020 appearance on Performance Music’s “Scranton Isolation Informances” series can be viewed at: https://fb.watch/8CQacWoKHI/. All audience members must wear masks throughout the performance. University campus access and other health and safety information will be updated throughout the semester and can be seen on the Royals Back Together webpage. Please check Performance Music’s website, scranton.edu/music, within 24 hours of the recital for the most current information on audience COVID-19 mitigation measures (e.g., masking, vaccination, distancing, etc.). For more information on the concert, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music. For more on Kosower, visit clevelandorchestra.com/discover/meet-the-musicians/cellos/kosower-mark.
