The Franco Center will present another unique, festive and must-experience event with its offering of “Mardi Gras in L/A” in the Franco Center’s Heritage Hall. In the tradition of New Orleans, Mardi Gras audiences will be treated to Cajun cuisine, spirits, and music.

As many know, Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” en Francais. However, this holiday has a much wider historical and international appeal beyond the Francophone diaspora. Traditionally, Mardi Gras is the last decadent or “fat” feast before the fasting that often accompanies the season of Lent. Here at the Franco Center, we take this as a serious endeavor and, for several years, have presented the most notable Mardi Gras celebrations in the Lewiston/Auburn area. This year will be no exception!

Chef Edmond, “Directeur des Andouilles et des Cornichons” at the Franco Center, has an amazing meal planned of traditional New Orleans cuisine, including Crab Gumbo, Jumbalaya, New Orleans Ratatouille, Andouilles with Onions and Peppers, Truffled Bourbon Mashed Sweet Potatoes, and the crowning dish, a King & Queen Cake. There will be ample amounts of classic New Orleans libations, like the legendary Hurricane, to help you forget the impending fast.

Of course, no Mardi Gras party is complete without some foot stomping, street shaking, soul stirring music. To help us get in the proper mood for celebrating, we’ve got local favorites the Blues Buzzards. This group, led by veteran guitar man Earl Bigelow, is dipped in the blues, has heaps of horns, and knows how to fatten up a Tuesday, or Saturday, as the case may be.

About the Blues Buzzards
The Blues Buzzards are an 8-piece blues/rock band with a 3-man horn section, playing a rompin’, stompin’  mix of tunes by Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, T Bone Walker, Van Morrison, Elvis, The Beatles, and countless others.  Lead by veteran guitar man Earl Bigelow, The Buzzards have been thrilling Maine audiences for over thirty years.  The horn section gives the band a fat,  brassy sound along the lines of Blood Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, and other horn bands.  Comprised of seasoned musicians, the Buzzards turn any event they’re playing into a rockin’ good time.

About the Franco Center
We are Le Centre D’Heritage Franco-Americain. The Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston, ME, USA.

We believe history and heritage are action verbs, just like community and neighbor. We practice these by engaging members of our community young and old to share their experiences and traditions, so we might all benefit from them.

We’re a performing arts organization that celebrates our Franco-American Heritage; a legacy handed to us by generations of our brave ancestors who relocated here from France, from Quebec, and from all across the globe. We also strive to welcome new visitors and residents to our region, engaging members of our community young and old to share their experiences and traditions, so we might all benefit from them.

We present the best in symphonic music, solo instrumentalists, chorales and choirs, and contemporary music. We have a wildly successful theme night series, as well as more informal nightclub performances.

To Buy Tickets for this event: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/223484
For General Box Office and Ticket Information, please visit: http://www.francocenter.org/box-office-info/
Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/francocenter
Find us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/francocenterME

South Portland, ME, April 9, 2011 — Join the renowned performers of the Portland Chamber Music Festival for their only spring performance this season.  This year’s spring concert takes place on Saturday, April 9^th at 8 p.m., at the newly-built, acoustically superb Congregation Bet Ha’am, 81 Westbrook Street, in South Portland — just off I-295. The program features music for oboe and strings with world-famous oboist Peggy Pearson, winner of the Pope Foundation Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Music. Also performing are PCMF Artistic Director, violinist Jennifer Elowitch; Boston University Chair of Strings, violist Michelle LaCourse; and cellist Marc Johnson, a member of the Vermeer Quartet for thirty years. Tickets are $25; free for 21 and under, and are available at the door or at pcmf.org (“other events”).   For more information or to purchase tickets, please call (800) 320-0257 or visit us at pcmf.org.

The Portland Chamber Music Festival is a local, community-based organization that has gained an outstanding regional and national reputation since it was founded in 1994. The festival brings nationally recognized artists to Portland to present a wide range of classical chamber music, including the music of living composers.  The Festival has played to a nationwide audience on National Public Radio; twice has been awarded an Aaron Copland grant for performance of American contemporary music; has been recorded and broadcast by WGBH radio in Boston; and has been featured in both local and national press.

PCMF’s summer concerts are held each August at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus, an easily accessible, modern, air-conditioned venue close to downtown Portland.  Join us this summer for our 18^th season!

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CONTACT:            Eileen Oberholtzer

Portland Chamber Music Festival

(207) 632-0669

eileen@pcmf.org

Portland Improv Experience ensemble members (in alphabetical order) are: Kevin Brooks, Bill Gray, Phil Hobby, Elliot Lyons, Cloud Morris, Vanessa Romanoff, John Scribner, Matt Selva, Marie Stewart and Gary Thayer

Date & Time: February 16 @ 7:30pm

Price: $7

Location: Lucid Stage, 29 Baxter Boulevard Portland, Maine 04101

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Since 2010, Portland Improv Experience has brought long form improvisational theater to audiences across southern Maine. Each show features PIE’s ensemble cast working together to create uncommon stories driven by audience inspiration. In addition to live performances, PIE is committed to expanding theater and arts education across Maine through classes and workshops. Most recently PIE worked with Yarmouth High School to produce student programming for the state’s One Act Festival and was a featured company in the first annual Portland Improv Festival.

URL: http://www.portlandimprovexperience.com/

LINK: PIE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PIEImprov

LINK: PIE on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/portlandimprov

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So what do you do?

Three Maine college graduates, Chris Ledue, Jordan Chase, and Tony Lord have created Eventtap.com, a website that allows users to find events in and around town, as they’re happening, with a real time feed.

While other event-planning websites typically rely on calendar-like systems to display upcoming events, Eventtap shows event listings continually updated in real time. Users who log onto the site will find things happening in town at the same instant. Like Twitter, listings for the site are reliant upon user activity and require them to log in to share events. To increase the amount of content available, the site also employs Web data-extracting software to search other event sites on the Internet and post things happening in areas where fewer users post events.

Since the site was launched in June, it has listed more than 7,000 events in the Northeast ranging from concert listings to drink specials to photography classes, with new cities and additions added daily. Registration for the site is free and new users can also register using Facebook accounts.

The idea came to Chase after searching online and finding nothing that offered the immediacy he wanted. Chase decided to take matters into his own hands and built a website. Chase, who has practiced web development since middle school, does have some experience, however. In 2003 he won the first Maine Student Web Design awards and two years later created the logo for Scarborough’s 350th anniversary.

While Chase primarily deals with all issues related to site programming, Ledue and Lord have been in charge of the social media, marketing and the continuous growth of eventtap.com. Since the launch the three have approached many businesses in Greater Portland about becoming regular contributors to the site. The team is continually striving to improve service and one of the most beneficial aspects of the site has been feedback from users. Although the site does not currently generate revenue from advertising, they hope to offer businesses the option of having events specially featured for a small price.

One of the site’s latest advancements is the addition of a mobile application that allows users to connect via cell phones and access listings while they’re on the go.This feature is especially useful for people who may already be out and looking for someplace to go to without having to visit multiple websites.

This year Eventtap is hope of international recognition. They have entered Eventtap into the “Webby Awards,” an annual competition from the International Academy of Digitial Arts and Sciences that honors excellence on the Internet in more than 100 categories.

To find events happening around you, visit: www.eventtap.com

About Us

Boredom, the Solution Conceived

We’ve come accustomed to hear that ignorance is bliss, and in many instances this adage rings true, but there is at least one exception to these words.  There is nothing blissful about the ignorance of things happening around you when you are bored and could instead be having a good time.  How many times have you heard about something exciting or hilarious that you had missed  just because you didn’t know it was happening?  If your answer is more times than never, stay tuned because we’ve solved the riddle.

We are four friends from southern Maine that one day decided we were tired of being bored, tired of wishing we had been somewhere because something awesome had happened and we missed it.  Assuming there are many others with a similar affliction, we were proactive in taking matters into our own hands with the battle against boredom.  We spent many, many, many hours collaborating with one another as to how we could always  have something to do, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now while we’re bored.  This is when the idea of Eventtap.Com was conjured up.  What if we could, at any moment, know exactly what was going on around us.  We answered our own question and created the website that is going to change how people go about entertaining themselves.

Eventtap.com: the Revolution of Event Sites

There are many websites available to find events and/or things to do in your area, which is great when you’re planning into next week or month but absolutely useless when you need it…when you’re bored.  With spontaneity and instant gratification constantly on the rise (i.e. internet, cell phones, instant bank transactions, overnight air delivery), we figured that we could create an events site that would follow suit.  With Eventtap.com it’s as fast and easy as inputting your zip code and desired search radius to find things to do anytime, anywhere, even things going on right now, at the moment. With Eventtap.com you can even find things to do on the go with our mobile version.  To be out on the town and at any given moment be able to see what’s going on (what place has the best beer specials, or the best live entertainment, or really anything to do) is a liberating sigh of relief.

www.eventtap.com

Open House Event in November.

When: November 4, 2010
Where: Custom Composite Technologies. 15 Wing Farm Parkway, Bath, ME
Time: 5:30 to 7:30
Highlights: A unique composite technology demonstration that will show key composite processes including vacuum infusion and pre-preg layup and informational question and answer period with Custom Composite Technologies owner, Steve Hassett.

Custom Composite Technologies started operations in Lisbon Falls in 2000, bringing advanced composite technology application to clients across a range of industries and uses. In 2003, they built their current facility and moved to Bath where they are now headquartered. As an emerging industry, Steve Hassett, owner of CCTI, has become a thought leader in composite usage and technological advances, providing innovative and creative solutions to manufacturing problems.

Some major projects for CCTI include fabrication of the carbon fiber mast mandrel for Team BMW Oracle Racing which won the 33rd America’s Cup in 2010; bringing business back to Maine through product mold manufacturing with Jarden Plastics, and currently working on elements for the Terrafugia Flying Car project as well as the mast wing mandrel the autonomous sailboat project for Harbor Wing Technologies, Inc. of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The Open House will also include networking time with state and local professionals, refreshments provided by Mae’s Cafe in Bath, and a 50/50 Raffle drawing to benefit United Way. The event will be sponsored in part by Bath Savings Institution.

About Custom Composite Technologies, Inc.

Custom Composite Technologies, Inc (CCTI). , headquartered in Bath, Maine, has been fabricating advanced composite elements for 10 years, with its principal Steve Hassett bringing 25 years of experience as a pioneer in the industry. While solving complex composite manufacturing challenges, CCTI. delivers professional and innovative service designed to accommodate the strenuous demands of custom large- and small- scale projects. One of the most trusted names in what is still an emerging industry; CCTI provides solutions to a diverse range of clients at the highest quality. Contact Custom Composite Technologies, Inc. at 207-442-7007 or via email  at www.customcomposite.com “Like” Custom Composite Technologies, Inc. on Facebook.

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Contact: Kate Bachman, Broadreach Public Relations
207-846-3826
kateb@broadreachpr.com

The Portland Chamber Music Festival and Congregation Bet Ha’am will present an Evening of Chamber Music in a program to benefit both groups. The concert, Saturday, May 15 at 8 p.m., will be held in the recently opened Congregation Bet Ha’am sanctuary at 81 Westbrook Street in South Portland.

Cellist Marc Johnson, former cellist of the internationally renowned Vermeer Quartet, will join PCMF Artistic Directors violinist Jennifer Elowitch and pianist Dena Levine in a program featuring piano trios of Haydn and Rebecca Clarke. New York violist Stefanie Taylor will join the group in a performance of the Brahms C minor Piano Quartet
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“We are delighted to welcome these distinguished artists,” said Sharon Newman, past President of the Board of Trustees of Congregation Bet Ha’am. “Now that Bet Ha’am has an architecturally distinguished space that can accommodate classical music so beautifully, it seems an excellent way to share our resources for the benefit of the entire Greater Portland community. The concert will take place just over twelve months from the day we held our first worship services in the new building, so this is a lovely way to celebrate.”

The new building was designed by internationally renowned Shim-Sutcliffe Architects of Toronto and features sculptural wood interior surfaces and a curving wood ceiling reminiscent of a tent as well as a reflecting pool and garden.

Cellist Marc Johnson performed with the Grammy nominated Vermeer Quartet for thirty-five years, appearing regularly in the world’s musical capitals and during the group’s residencies at Northern Illinois University and Rockport’s Bay Chamber Concerts.
Violinist Jennifer Elowitch is the Assistant Principal Second Violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs often with the Boston Symphony. Pianist Dena Levine is Associate Professor of Piano and Director of Instrumental Music at Seton Hall University. Violist Stefanie Taylor performs frequently with the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra.

General admission is $25, though people 21 and under may attend free of charge. Tickets may be purchased at the door, online at www.pcmf.org/wsconcerts.php, or by calling the Portland Chamber Music Festival at 1(800) 320-0257. The concert is sponsored by Key Private Bank.

World renowned cellist Marc Johnson will appear with the Portland Chamber Music Festival on Saturday, May 15th