Events

Gregory Partain LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University music professor Greg Partain will perform a solo piano and composition recital Sunday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater in the Mitchell Fine Arts Building, assisted by conductor Phylliss Jenness and the 26 singers of Musica Sacre Novissima, a group of professional musicians and other advanced singers from the Lexington area. The program will feature classic works for solo piano and the world premiere of Partain’s new a cappella choral piece, Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The program is free and open to the public. In his 21 years on the concert stage, Partain has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist throughout the United States, and has performed overseas in Poland, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Russia, Greece and Germany. In 1986, he was the national winner of the KMS Resident Artist Competition in Seattle, then won first prize in the Memphis Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition, second prize in the International Bartok-Kabalevsky Competition in Virginia and was a finalist in the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition. Partain’s wide-ranging repertoire spans music of four centuries.  His first solo CD (2001) contains works by William Byrd, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and Ravel.  Partain’s second CD, released in 2007 under the MSR Classics label, contains works by Rachmaninoff, D. Scarlatti, Brahms, Beethoven, and Transylvania University professor Larry Barnes (Toccata: Act of War, composed for Partain). In 1998, Partain made his formal composing debut at the Kentucky Music Teachers

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Two experts on Alzheimer’s from the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging will speak at Transylvania University as part of the Alltech Lecture Series on Aging and Mortality. The lectures begin at 7 p.m. in Transylvania’s Carrick Theater in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. Each speaker will answer questions from the audience after speaking and a reception will follow.   On March 24, Frederick Schmitt, a neuropsychologist and Alzheimer’s researcher, will present “100 Years of Alzheimer’s Research: What Do Therapeutic Interventions Have to Offer?” Schmitt studies various forms of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common. This progressive degenerative brain disease currently cannot be prevented or cured. His research focus is on early detection of dementia and outcomes of therapeutic interventions in Alzheimer’s disease. On Tuesday, April 7, Charles D. Smith, professor in Alzheimer’s research in the department of neurology, will present “How Can We Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?” Smith’s research focus is on applying structural and functional imaging techniques to the prediction, qualification and diagnosis of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Both lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Transylvania public relations office at (859) 233-8120.

LEXINGTON, KY.—Jeffrey Wigand, the real-life subject of the highly acclaimed film The Insider, will speak at Transylvania’s Haggin Auditorium on Tuesday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. The lecture, “Insider’s View of the Tobacco Industry,” is free and open to the public. Wigand, a scientist and former vice president of research and development for the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, was hired in 1988 to help develop a safer cigarette. His career came to an abrupt halt five years later when he took issue with the company’s policy to continue using a controversial pipe additive. Wigand gained national prominence by revealing the tobacco industry’s disregard for health and safety during a 60 Minutes interview and a Food and Drug Administration investigation into the role and effect of nicotine in tobacco products. Brown & Williamson filed a lawsuit against him, but it was dismissed in 1997 as a condition of the $246 billion settlement between the attorneys general of 40 states and the tobacco industry. The 1999 motion picture recounts the events leading up to and surrounding the 60 Minutes interview. Directed by Michael Mann and starring Russell Crowe (as Wigand) and Al Pacino, The insider was named Best Picture of the Year by L.A. Film Critics and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Wigand received numerous awards for his action in revealing tobacco company research and marketing practices, and he continues his efforts to reduce teen tobacco use through the non-profit

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