It’s time once again for the annual MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS concert here at KSC, and the deep, resonant call is out for all professional and amateur tubists to join the band!

The Keene TUBACHRISTMAS orchestra (courtesy photo)

The concert will be held on Sunday, December 6, at 1 p.m. in the Mabel Brown Room of the L.P. Young Student Center. It’s free and open to the public. The performance will feature traditional Christmas carols especially arranged for TUBACHRISTMAS by American composer Alec Wilder.

Dr. Jim Chesebrough, band director at Keene State College, will direct the 19th Keene TUBACHRISTMAS. All area tuba, euphonium, and baritone horn players are invited to perform. Rehearsal will take place in the Mabel Brown Room at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 6. Performers pay a $5 tax-deductible fee to the Harvey Phillips Foundation. For more information, please contact Dr.  Chesebrough.

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If you’re a regular Newsline reader, you may remember that KSC’s production of Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker so wowed audiences at the Redfern here on campus that the cast and crew were invited to take the play to the 41st New England Region I Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Mass., last January. Well, they wowed the judges there, too, bringing home five of the 10 distinguished achievement awards. Our award winners included Jenny Fulton, faculty member of the Theatre and Dance Department, for scene design; Kade Hill, for his performance as Cornelius Hackl; Ethan Selby, for his performance as Barnaby Tucker; Jamie Pearsons, for her performance as Mrs. Irene Molloy; and Allie Lee Relihan, for her performance as Minnie Fay.

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Were you on campus, or near campus, or even on Rt. 9 between Keene and Concord on Weds., April 15th? If so, you probably saw something of the big splash we made as just part of our Centennial celebration. Early that morning in Concord, NH, Gov. Lynch signed a special KSC Centennial proclamation and handed it off to the first in a long line of relay runners and walkers who hand carried the document all the way back to campus for a big birthday celebration that included fireworks and a giant (and I mean giant) cake!

If you were driving from Keene to Concord during the day, you might have seen the relay runners along Rt. 9. Maybe you even showed up on campus that evening and got a piece of the delicious cake and thrilled to the fireworks and all the enthusiasm. Even if you were just somewhere near campus, you probably saw the fireworks and heard the cheers.

Our intrepid Lucy Webb, who spent the entire day manning Centennial Command Central, kept a rolling blog going that tracked the doings each step of the way. Visit it to see the day’s events and some of the great photos and video coverage (including the fireworks!), and let us know what you think.

Zen, a colored pencil work by Nicole Caulfield

Did you see the 2009 Biennial Regional Jurors’ Choice exhibit at the Thorne? Keene artist Nicole Caulfield’s colored pencil work, Zen, depicting her oldest daughter, Katie, who attends Symonds School in Keene, won the People’s Choice Award as well as the Jurors’ Best of Show prize.

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