(Searsport, ME) Award-winning composer John Duffy will talk about his newest works, including "We Want Mark Twain," as part of Left Bank Books's "Winter Lyceum" series this Sunday, April 17, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm, at the bookshop in downtown Searsport.

Duffy, a Camden resident, is considered one of the great heroes of American music. He has composed more than 300 works for symphony orchestra, opera, theater, television and film, and is the recipient of two Emmy awards, an ASCAP award for film and television music, and the American Music Center's Award for Lifetime Achievement, among many other honors. A passionate advocate of American music, he is founder and president of "Meet the Composer," a program that sends composers to work with regional orchestras, and of the John Duffy Composers Institute at the Virginia Arts Festival, an initiative dedicated to the creation and performance of new American music which enables young composers to have their work played and critiqued by experts.

Raised in the Bronx, Duffy was one of 14 children of Irish immigrant parents. As a young man he studied composition with noted composers Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Luigi Dallapiccola, Solomon Rosowsky and Herbert Zipper. While still in his 20's, he was appointed music director, composer and conductor of New York City's "Shakespeare under the Stars," the first in a succession of similar posts at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Long Wharf in New Haven, the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center, for NBC and ABC television, and for the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut, where his music for a ground-breaking production of Macbeth launched a long collaboration with the actor/director John Houseman. Duffy's theater scores for Broadway and Off-Broadway include The Ginger Man, Mother Courage and Playboy of the Western World. He has also composed for a variety of commissions, including A Time for Remembrance, commissioned by the U.S. government to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor; Freedom Overture, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the score for the nine-hour PBS series, Heritage and the Jews, narrated by Abba Eban. The long list of actors with whom he has worked includes Katharine Hepburn, Anne Bancroft, John Lithgow, Frank Langella, Nancy Marchand, and Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Duffy's talk will focus on his newest CD, especially its title piece which puts the words of Mark Twain to music. Written in 2005 for string quartet and narrator, it was commissioned by the Eastman School of Music and is narrated is Isaiah Sheffer, host of the NPR short story program, "Selected Shorts." An avid reader of Twain, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and the classics, Duffy describes music-drama and theater as his "deepest loves," able to reach people's hearts in the most powerful ways. Speaking in the current issue of Fanfare Magazine, he says: "I write from the heart ... and I believe that over the years I have honed my writing to dig deeper into human experiences: conflicts, joys, love, drama." Singers are born to sing, poets to tell stories, and composers to write, he explains: "nothing will stop them."

Copies of Duffy's CDs are available at the bookshop and there is no charge for Sunday's event, but space is limited. To reserve a seat, or for more information about the program, please call Left Bank Books at 548-6400. The shop is open daily.

The Facts and Nothing But the Contrafacts Directed by Eric Thomas.

(Waterville, ME) On Saturday, April 16th at 7:30 pm in the Given Auditorium. Celebrating the art of writing new tunes over familiar “changes.” The Colby College Jazz Band will juxtapose contrafacts with the original “tunes,” paying tribute to jazz composer/performers Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano, Sonny Rollins, and Lee Konitz. Also featured are contrafacts written by Colby composer/performers Rhiannon Ledwell and Chris Bertlesen. Tunes include “All the Things You Are,” “Cherokee,” “I Got Rhythm,” They’ll Never Be Another You,” “What Is This Thing Called Love,” and “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.”

For more informatio, please click here.

At One Longfellow Square on Friday, April 15th at 8:00 pm.

(Portland, ME) Jeffrey Foucault grew up in Wisconsin, is currently based in Western Massachusetts, and draws considerable influence from the Texas singer-songwriter tradition, going back to Townes Van Zandt. Foucault started in music in his teens playing his father's acoustic guitar, and doing John Prine songs. A stolen copy of Live and Obscure by Townes Van Zandt led Foucault to immerse himself in Lone Star singer-songwriters like Van Zandt and Guy Clark, as well as the distinctive Midwesterner Greg Brown.

By 19, he tried his hand at writing his own songs, and by the time he graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in history, he was performing regularly in coffeehouses. He released his self-distributed debut album in 2001, Miles from the Lightning, and followed that up in 2004 with Stripping Cane, which did have national distribution. He has been touring extensively, and with Kris Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey also was part of a trio of Bay State singer-songwriters called Red Bird, which released a pleasing recording of acoustic covers of other people's music.

Since the release of his first CD, Jeffrey has built an independent career touring extensively in the United States, Canada, and the UK. His 2006 release, Ghost Repeater garnered praise from publications such as The New Yorker, No Depression, MOJO, The Chicago-Sun Times, and The Irish Times.

For more information, please visit the One Longfellow Square website.

>link to jeffreyfoucault.com

At SPACE Gallery on Wednesday, April 27th.

(Portland, ME) Three years in the making, AMERICAN: The Bill Hicks Story brings the tale of one of modern culture’s most iconic heroes to the big screen. Much more than a comedian, Bill Hicks was and still is an inspiration to millions. His timeless comedy tackled the contradictions of America and modern life head on. But his unique gift was to tease apart the essence of religion, the dangers of unbridled government power and the double standards inherent in much of modern society, using nothing but his hilarious ideas and the uncompromising observational style that continues to resonate with successive generations.

Like many who have a strong sense of their place in history, Hicks left a large unseen legacy; his collection of video recordings and hundreds of photographs and these became the starting point for this feature-length animated documentary.

Doors open at 7:00 and the film starts at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $7 for general admission and $5 for SPACE members. This event is appropriate for all ages. For more information, please visit the SPACE Gallery website.

>link to official movie website