Lecture Series: Danny Glover and Felix Justice
Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, Elizabethtown College
October 3
The first of Elizabethtown College’s Fall Lecture Series will take place October 3 with a presentation by actors Danny Glover and Felix Justice. Glover, perhaps best known for his role aside Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon films, and Justice will present “An Evening with Langston and Martin,” a unique performance of invigorating and inspirational words and messages.

Glover will bring Hughes to life through the readings of some of his best-known works while Justice will deliver two of Rev. Martin Luther King’s most memorable and inspiring speeches.

An event not to be missed, “An Evening with Langston and Martin” will take place in the Leffler Chapel and Performance Center on the Elizabethtown College Campus on October 3 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, however tickets are required. Ticket information is available by calling 361-1410 or by visiting etown.edu.

Concert: pianist Peter Orth
Whitaker Center, Harrisburg
October 5
The 20th anniversary season of Market Square Concerts will open October 5 with a performance by pianist Peter Orth. A native of Philadelphia, Orth worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra at 15, studied at the Julliard School, and was one of two pianists invited to work at Vermont’s Institute for Young Performing Musicians.

Orth has been honored numerous times throughout his 20-plus year career, having been the second recipient of the Shura Cherkassky Recital Award from New York City’s 92nd Street YM-YWHA and honored with the Fanny Peabody-Mason Memorial Musical Award in Boston. Orth first gained attention in the American mainstream in 1979 after winning first prize in the Naumburg International Piano Competition.

Orth has performed with nearly every major orchestra in this country and many in Europe, including the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Orquestra Nacional de Espafia. An accomplished chamber musician, he has also performed with the Manhattan, Muir, and Auryn String Quartets.

Called a “rare jewel of a pianst” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Orth will perform at Whitaker Center’s Sunoco Theater on October 5 at 8 p.m. For tickets and information, call 214-ARTS or visit marketsquareconcerts.org.

Candide
Whitaker Center, Harrisburg
October 6, 11, 13, 14
Harrisburg Opera is opening its 31st season with Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide.” One of the best known works of the 20th Century, “Candide” follows a young hero as he befalls one misfortune after another in life. Beloved for its “zany plot” with a message that “true happiness is found in living through today and not dwelling on the past or the future,” “Candide” is based on the satiric novel by French writer Voltaire.

With dialogue and lyrics by Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim, and John Latouche and a beautiful score by one of America’s best known composers, Bernstein — who also scored “West Side Story,” “On the Town,” and “Peter Pan” — “Candide” will boast a large ensemble cast of both out of town talent and familiar faces.

“Candide” will run at the Whitaker Center October 6, 11, and 13 at 7:30 p.m.; a matinee performance will be held October 14 at 2 p.m. The entire audience is invited to a Champagne Dessert Reception with the cast and crew following the opening night performance on October 6. Pre-performance lectures will be given each night, one hour before curtain.

For tickets and information, call 214-ARTS.

The Words of Albert Schweitzer
and the Music of J.S. Bach
Market Square Presbyterian Church, Harrisburg
October 6
The internationally acclaimed theatrical production “The Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of J.S. Bach” is coming to the Market Square Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg on October 6 at 7:30 p.m. A multimedia musical dramatization, The Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of J.S. Bach” will feature readings by Reverend James D. Brown and WITF-FM radio personalities Ellen Hughes and Cary Burkett. The program will “consist of spoken words capturing the thoughts and philosophy of Schweitzer, favorite music of J.S. Bach, and a slide presentation focusing on Dr. Schweitzer’s life.”

A Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of a hospital in Africa, Schweitzer was an Alsatian theologian, musician, and medical missionary whose philosophy was “Reverence for Life.” An acclaimed interpreter of the work of J.S. Bach, Schweitzer made a decision as a student to live for science and art until he was 30 before dedicating his life to serving humanity. A true prodigy, Schweitzer was well-versed on a number of topics and wrote a litany of publications, including an authoritative study on Bach, an essay on organ design, and a landmark piece on New Testament criticism, all between the years of 1905-1906.

Schweitzer had this to say of Bach’s music: “Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentations, laughter: to all of these it gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace and see reality in a new way.”

“The Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of J.S. Bach” will take place October 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the main sanctuary of Market Square Presbyterian Church, 20 South Second Street, Harrisburg. A freewill offering will be taken with proceeds benefiting the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti. Free parking will be available in the Market Square Garage adjacent to the Church. For more information, call 257-1270 or visit marketsquarechurch.org.

56th Annual Pennsylvania
National Horse Show
Farm Show Complex, Harrisburg
October 11-20
The 56th Annual Pennsylvania National Horse Show will be held October 11-20 at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. Welcoming more than 1,100 of the nation’s horses and riders, the Show is the largest indoor all-breed horse show in the country and one of the state’s premier sporting events.

In addition to a number of children’s and family events — appearances by the Budweiser Clydesdales nightly October 17-20 and the Wendy’s Kids First Saturday on October 13 and 19 — the Horse Show is also home to 10 national championships, including the American Horse Shows Association/Black Entertainment Television National Junior Jumper Team Championship, one of only three USA Junior Olympics-Equestrian events.

Other events at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show include the North American Fox Hunting Horn Blowing Championships and the $50,000 Budweiser Grand Prix de Penn National, the richest event of the show, to be taped on October 20 and later aired on ESPN.

The 65th Annual Pennsylvania National Horse Show will be held 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m. on October 11; 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on October 14; and 8 a.m.-11 p.m. October 12, 13, 15, and 20.

General admission is $10; $5 for seniors and children 12 and under. All tickets on Grand Prix night, October 20, are $10; reserved seating is available on that night. For tickets and information, call 975-3677 or visit panational.org.

Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra’s
Annual Opening Weekend Gala
The Forum, Harrisburg
October 13-14
On October 13 and 14, the Harrisburg Symphony Society will present the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra’s Annual Opening Weekend Gala at The Forum in Harrisburg. Held to mark the opening of the 2001 season — the first full season with conductor Stuart Malina — the Gala will kick off with a pre-concert reception and dinner at 5:30 p.m. on October 13. A pre-concert reception and luncheon will begin at 12:30 p.m. on October 14.

The opening weekend concerts features “two orchestral blockbusters,” Also Sprach Zarathustra, Strauss’ glorious tone poem based on the writings of Nietzche, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

Tickets for the October 13 event are $75 per subscriber, $85 per non-subscriber (concert ticket to be purchased separately); tickets for the October 14 event are $40 per Subscriber, $50 per Non-Subscriber (concert ticket to be purchased separately). Reservations must be made by October 5. For tickets and more information call the Harrisburg Symphony Office at 545-5527.