Jazz great Maynard Ferguson coming to Bangor

The last time that international jazz legend Maynard Ferguson performed in Bangor was in 1999, and the concert sold out.

This is why Bangor High School band director Scott Burditt believes you should get your tickets now to hear Ferguson, and you have two opportunities to do so.

Regarded as one of the world’s best trumpet and brass players, Ferguson and his Big Bop Nouveau Band will participate in a clinic at 4 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. concert Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School, 885 Broadway.

Tickets for the clinic are $10 per person, and $15 for the concert. Or, you can purchase both tickets for $20.

Sponsored by the Bangor High School Music Boosters Club, all proceeds benefit projects of that organization.

Burditt, who has been a fan of Ferguson for 30 years, is thrilled at the opportunity this offers everyone. “It’s a great experience for us to have him,” Burditt said. “Obviously, his music is great, but it will also be great for our students to work with him and play along with a legend,” which they will do at the end of the concert.

Burditt said the clinic is open to anyone: band directors, students, musicians and the general public.

During the clinic, Ferguson “will work with our high school band, and give us suggestions about what we do well and what we need to work on,” Burditt said. And he emphasized that “anybody who is interested can certainly come, and he [Ferguson] will take questions from audience members.”

To get your ticket and reserve your space for the clinic, the concert, or both, call the BHS Music Department at 941-6200, Ext. 154, or visit sburditt@bangorschools.net.

People interested in restoring or repairing antique furniture are invited to attend a slide lecture and discussion by Jon Brandon at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Riverview Room of the Ellsworth Public Library, 20 State St.

A conservator for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and other institutions, Brandon is an expert in the fields of furniture and wooden object restoration and preservation. For more information about library activities, call 667-6363.

Wayne Melanson, Hospice of Eastern Maine director of volunteer services, reports that the group is seeking “compassionate men and women to share their time and friendship with our terminally ill patients and their families” in Greater Old Town-Orono.

Hospice’s 24-hour fall 2002 Volunteer Training Course will be conducted from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 15-Nov. 19, in Suite 220, Eastern Maine Healthcare Mall, 885 Union St., Bangor.

The free training aims to prepare volunteers to offer respite care, emotional and bereavement support, and other comfort services to hospice patients and their families through a team approach to patient care.

If you are interested in becoming a Hospice volunteer, call Melanson at 973-8269 by Friday, Oct. 11, to complete an application and schedule an interview.

Lucy Barnhart of the Hancock County Children’s Council in Ellsworth is offering a class on World War II history, and she “would like to enhance the class by adding personal recollections from the 1930s and 1940s to help “bring history alive for others,” she wrote.

Barnhart seeks stories, poetry, music, artwork or anything that would “add a personal view to history.”

And she would love to have photographs of individuals supplying the information.

“Please share your stories, or a message, of the younger generation,” she wrote.

If you can help, write Barnhart, HCCC, P.O. Box 1087, Ellsworth 04605, or call her at 667-5304, Ext. 246.

All this month, Mature Animals for Mature Adults of Hancock is offering a Low Cost Spay-Neuter Clinic for Cats and Kittens, age 8 weeks and up, to help prevent unwanted litters before spring.

Subsidized through donations, grants and proceeds from the M.A.M.A. thrift shop, the cost for the clinic is just $20.

To make an appointment with M.A.M.A. Spay-Neuter Clinic surgeon Dr. Ruth Dalto, call 422-2358.

Through September, the Challenger Learning Center of Maine has reached the $1.4 million milestone on the way to its $2.5 million campaign goal, with $55,000 in new contributions.

Helping make possible the purchase of Mission Control and Space Shuttle simulators, and renovation of the former Dow Air Force Base theatre on Maine Avenue in Bangor to house the Center, were contributions of $20,000 from Bangor Savings Bank and Lemforder Corp., $10,000 from Fleet Bank and a $5,000 contribution from Darling’s.

The center, which features a replica of NASA’s mission control room and a space laboratory, will be the 50th in the world.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.