LAKEPORT – Watercolor artist Diana Liebe will teach a scarf silk painting class at the Lake County Arts Council's Main Street Gallery in Lakeport.

The class will be offered on Monday, Nov. 30, beginning at 9 a.m. will continue until painters finish around 2 p.m.

The fee for the class is $20 and Liebe will supply the scarves and all supplies for you to create your special Christmas gift.

Pre-registration is strongly recommended. To do so, please call the Main Street Gallery at 707-263-1871.

The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport.

Clear Lake Performing Arts' (CLPA) Fall Symphony Concert will take place at the Marge Alakszay Center at Clear Lake High School on Lange in Lakeport at 3 p.m.

These will include the “Academic Festival Overture” by Johannes Brahms who wrote it as a musical “thank you” to the University of Breslau which had awarded him an honorary degree the previous year.

Told that the university expected a tribute composition in return, Brahms – known for his curmudgeonly sense of humor – created a potpourri of student drinking songs intricately tied together in a carefully planned piece that calls for one of the largest musical ensembles of any of his compositions.

The joke, as it turned out, was on Brahms, when the overture became one of his best-known and most loved works.

Brahms' good friend Anton Dvorák composed another of Parkinson's choices for the Fall Symphony Concert. “The Slavonic Dance No. 8” is one of a series of pieces originally written for piano for four hands but later arranged for orchestra. The music reflects the rhythms and melodic shapes of the Czech folk music of Dvorák's native land, and became a hit shortly after they were performed.

Another contemporary of Brahms and Dvorák was French composer Camille Saint-Saens who turned to the bible as inspiration for one of his best-known works, the opera “Samson and Delilah.” Parkinson has selected the “Danse Bacchanale” from the third act as another piece from this period.

Saint Saens introduced portions of the opera to various audiences, but it was the eve of the Franco-Prussian war, and he could generate little interest. However, at the urging of Franz Liszt a German translation was introduced in the Wiemar republic to great acclaim and later in the U.S. and the rest of Europe to enthusiastic audiences. The opera, and the “Baachanale” in particular, remain standards in most opera companies.

For his fourth selection Parkinson rolls the calendar back to 1807, when Ludwig van Beethoven took the play written three years earlier by Heinrich Joseph von Collins and decided to set it to music. “The Coriolan” was a tragedy in the classic sense, with its main character a military man intent upon invading and destroying Rome with his army until, at the last minute, he finally heeds the pleadings of his mother and halts at the city's gate. Left with no way out he kills himself.

Beethoven set the theme to memorable music, specifically “The Coriolan Overture” with its structures and themes generally following the play closely.

The concert is presented by Clear Lake Performing Arts, the Lake County music support group that also funds the CLPA Youth Orchestra. These young musicians also take part in the program with a brief presentation under the direction of Wes Follett, that takes place just after the intermission.

The full orchestra then presents its rendition of of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, sometimes called the “Destiny” or “Fate” Symphony. When he wrote it in 1808 Beethoven said that the signature rhythm (three short punctuations followed by one long) represented “fate knocking at the door” and in World War II it became the United States' musical declaration of “V for Victory,” with the three dots and a dash being the letter “V” in Morse code. “The Fifth” is perhaps Beethoven's most recognizable and popular work.

Admission is $20 for the general public and $15 for CLPA members.

Memberships in the nonprofit organization will be available at the door. However, with admission available at that day's performance the membership may be purchased at the reduced rate. As always, young people under 18 are admitted free of charge.

For more information contact Connel Murray, 707-277-7076.

LAKE COUNTY – On Saturday, Nov. 21, Carolyn Hawley and Raul Gilbert will feature the book, “Beethoven: His Spiritual Development” by J.W.N. Sullivan on the new KPFZ program “Word Weavers.”

Discussion of this classic book will be accompanied with selected examples of Beethoven’s music, which Hawley will discuss.

Word Weavers is broadcast at 4 p.m. Saturdays on KPFZ, 88.1 FM.

Tom Griesgraber (right) and Bert Lams will perform at the Tallman Hotel on Saturday, November 21, 2009. Courtesy photo.

UPPER LAKE – Tom Griesgraber, one of the world’s masters of the Chapman Stick, will be appearing at the Tallman Hotel on Saturday, Nov. 21, along with classical guitarist Bert Lams.

“Thanks to Tom’s family connections here in Lake County, we were really lucky to fit into a current West Coast tour he’s making with Bert Lams,” said Tallman owner Bernie Butcher.

“If people haven’t heard this truly amazing instrument – the Chapman Stick – played to perfection, they’re in for a real treat. Lakeport’s own Bob Culbertson brought down the house on this instrument during our Concerts with Conversation series last year, so I’m really looking forward to hearing this duo of stick and guitar,” Butcher said.

An honors graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Tom Griesgraber tours widely performing on the Chapman Stick, a unique 12-string guitar and bass hybrid played more like piano with both hands sounding notes.

"I’m proud to see one of my instruments used in such a creative way,” Emmet Chapman says of Tom’s mastery. Chapman invented the instrument named after him in 1969 and he has been promoting its use ever since.

Griesgraber is an active composer and arranger for the instrument and his shows include a mix of original material as well as arrangements ranging from Bach to the Beatles. His newest solo release "Sketchbook" features original compositions along with music by Bach, Bob Dylan and Oliver Nelson.

Bert Lams initially gained notice in 1980 as first laureate in a youth music contest in Brussels. He then went on to earn an honors degree in the study of classical guitar, eventually teaching at the Brussels Academy of Music. Since 1993, he has toured the world and released six albums with the California Guitar Trio.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, in Riffe’s Meeting House next to the Tallman Hotel, 9550 Main St. in Upper Lake. Only 40 tickets at $25 are available by calling the Tallman Hotel reservation desk at 707-275-2245.

Tickets allow holders a 10-percent discount on a dinner purchase at the Blue Wing Saloon & Café before the show.

People interested in the show can get a preview at www.Stick.com/features/artist/ .