LEXINGTON: Minuteman High School recently recognized four students from Stow, Arlington, Lexington, and Needham with the Student of the Term Award. The award is based on nominations from teachers and celebrates both academic achievement and good citizenship. One student is awarded per grade. Assistant Principal Brian Tildsley surprised the students, presenting them their awards in class. Later in the week the winners received a certificate and a free lunch with the staff members who nominated them in The District Restaurant at Minuteman. PHOTO: The students (from left, front row) are Robert Emken of Stow, Jamie Lehoux of Lexington, Danieliz Calderon of Needham, and Nick Krain of Arlington. Back row: English as a Second Language teacher Daniela Das, Spanish teacher Connie Maynard, Principal George Clement, Culinary Arts teacher Martin McElhinney, and Automotive teacher Don Melanson.

CONCORD: The Concord Free Public Library (CFPL) is introducing a new, monthly program for elementary school children brought to you in partnership by the Library and Open Table, a local food pantry serving Concord and surrounding communities. This hands-on program will take place May 25 and June 29 from 3pm-4pm in the Children’s Activity Room at the CFPL’s Main Branch. Different stories and activities will be used each month to help educate children and facilitate discussion on food insecurity. Children will decorate a bag and fill it with food provided by Open Table in support of the Open Table Kids' Bags program. Kids who attend will also learn about Open Table and the positive impact their organization makes for children and others in the community.

Food Donations - (Optional) Have your child bring a food donation. Shopping with your child is another great way to involve them. Needed Donations 

In-Need - If you or someone you know needs food assistance, please leave a message at 978-369-2275 or email info@opentable.org. 

For more information about Library programs and services, call 978-318-3301 (Main Branch) or 978-318-3350 (Fowler Branch) or visit www.concordlibrary.org.

LEXINGTON: Congratulations to Trevor Simon, a senior Plumbing student from Waltham, who was named Minuteman High School’s Outstanding Vocational Student of the Year. He received an award in a prestigious ceremony recently, hosted by the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators (MAVA) at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. Each vocational-technical high school in Massachusetts selected one student for the Outstanding Vocational Student of the Year Award.

CONCORD/ACTON: Registration is open for Emerson Hospital’s 23rd annual 5k Run~Walk for Cancer Care at www.emersonhospital.org/5k. All proceeds go directly to support patients who receive cancer care at Emerson.  In addition to the 5k, there will be a one-mile Kids’ Run and medals for the top finishers.

There are two ways to participate: Join the in-person event on Saturday, May 7 at 8am at Nara Park in Acton, which includes free breakfast from Blackbird Cafe, and ice cream from Kimball Farm. Or, sign up to do the virtual event with flexibility to complete the 5k anytime between May 1 – May 15. Visit the website for details, to register, and make a donation. All registrants will receive a Run~Walk high-performance race shirt.

The Run~Walk event is a great opportunity to meet up with friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Encourage everyone you know to come out and exercise while raising money to support people in the community with cancer.

All funds raised will provide compassionate care, including therapeutic acupuncture and massage therapy, support groups, transportation, and more for people who receive cancer care at Emerson. Patients value these supports to aid their healing. For more information, email runwalk@emersonhosp.org, call Emerson’s Development Office at 978-287-3084, and follow on Facebook and Instagram @EmersonHospital5K.

CONCORD: The Concord Conservatory of Music, located at 1317 Main Street in the West Concord Union Church, welcomes guest lecturer Lisa Sailer who will present a workshop on the Alexander Technique on April 9 at 11am. As a violinist and certified Alexander Technique teacher, she’ll teach us how to move around and live with a greater sense of ease and comfort—how to let go of tensions and bad habits that affect our everyday lives. This workshop is open to the public with a $15 fee for non-CCM students. Advance registration required.

The Alexander Technique is an educational method used worldwide for well over 100 years. By teaching how to change faulty postural habits, it enables improved mobility, posture, performance, and alertness along with relief of chronic stiffness, tension, and stress. As Lisa explains, “While the Alexander Technique is commonly sought out by performers or people looking for relief from pain, anyone can benefit from it.  No matter who you are or what you do, the Alexander Technique can help you move through life in an easier and more present way.”

For musicians, there’s no question that playing an instrument at times can be physically demanding on our bodies. In this workshop, Lisa will provide tips on injury prevention and how to become more aware of what your body is doing while playing an instrument. The Technique can help relieve pain through learning better coordination of the musculoskeletal system as well as enhance playing any instrument. Athletes, singers, dancers, and musicians use the Technique to improve breathing, vocal production, and speed and accuracy of movement.

Register in advance at https://concordconservatory.org/programs/alexander-technique/ Visit www.ConcordConservatory.org, email info@concordconservatory.org, or call (978) 369-0010 to learn more about CCM.

CONCORD: The Concord Orchestra presents “Poetry without Words” at 8pm on March 26, and on March 27 at 2pm.  The orchestra, directed by Filippo Ciabatti, performs George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8.   Performances take place at the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden.   A pre-concert talk by the conductor is scheduled for Saturday at 7pm.  All concerts of the 2021-2022 Concord Orchestra season are planned and directed by finalists auditioning for the position of Music Director.

A native of Florence, Italy, Filippo Ciabatti is the Music Director of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, the Dartmouth Opera Lab, and the Interim Music Director of the Dartmouth’s Choral Ensembles. In 2018-2019, he led the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra in an Italian tour in collaboration with the Orchestra Toscana dei Conservatori in prominent venues and festivals, including the Puccini Days in Lucca. Other highlights of the season include an all-Beethoven concert with Israeli pianist Sally Pinkas, and a collaboration with the NPR show “From The Top”, hosted by American pianist Jeremy Denk. In 2020, Ciabatti conducted the world premiere of a new secular oratorio composed by the renowned jazz composer Taylor Ho Bynum and has collaborated on a project with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Ciabatti holds degrees in piano, choral conducting, and orchestral conducting from Italy and the United States.

This season, the Concord Orchestra features several young performers who participated in the annual young artist competition. The competition is open to musicians of high school age or younger who live in eastern Massachusetts. This season the winners were chosen by a panel of orchestra members and Eric Culver, consulting conductor.  Winners of this season’s competition will be soloists at the March and May concerts.

Katherine E Liu (pictured), 17, winner of the young artist competition, performs Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.  Ms. Liu started her musical studies at age three and performed publicly at Boston’s Steinway Hall one year later. She has received top prizes in numerous piano competitions, including Grand Prize at the VI Chopin International Piano Competition in Connecticut, the Soloists of New England Competition, and First Prizes at the III Krystian Tkaczewski International Piano Competition, the Steinway Society Piano Competition, 2019 NEC Preparatory Concerto Competition, the 2020 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, the 2019 Rosewood Fanning International Piano Competition, and the 2021 Lowell Philharmonic Concerto Competition, among many others.  Katherine has performed with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall as a Grand Prize winner of the Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition.

Pre-concert recitals featuring competition honorees precede the concerts on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday night at 7:15 p.m., pianist Naomi Yamaguchi performs, and on Sunday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. cellist Andrew Kim performs.

Tickets for adults and seniors are $25.  Admission for youth under 18 is free. For tickets and information, call 978-369-4967 or visit www.concordorchestra.com.

LEXINGTON: The Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District recently received a $150,000 Skills Capital Grant from the Commonwealth to expand robotics and automation programming. The funding will be used to teach students Industry 4.0 skills amid a rapidly expanding logistics automation and supply chain management industry.

Logistics automation and supply chain management are crucial aspects of today’s global economy, which have only increased in importance since the pandemic began. Minuteman is expanding its programming in response to student interest and the needs of the workforce. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there has been a 140% increase in employees in the transportation and warehousing industry since 2012.

“This is a perfect example of supporting a form of career technical education that directly energizes the regional workforce and the economy,” said Edward A. Bouquillon, Superintendent-Director of Minuteman. “The Skills Capital Grant provides for technology and skills needed today in a rapidly changing global market.”

Through Governor Charlie Baker’s Workforce Skills Cabinet, this year’s Skills Capital Grants will total $3.3 million and benefit 20 schools across the state. Since 2015, 407 grants totaling $105 million have benefited 207 schools or educational organizations.

Minuteman’s business partners, including Abel Womack, Festo Didactic, and Locust Robotics are serving as advisors to the new programming.

“Exposing, inspiring, and teaching students about cyber-physical systems – the building blocks of the smart factory revolution – opens up so many successful career pathways,” said Mark Downey, chair of Minuteman’s Engineering Advisory Committee, a 1987 Minuteman alumnus and applications manager for Analog Devices of Wilmington. “Minuteman’s hands-on curriculum introduces students to these opportunities, which are critical to the modernization of Industry 4.0 and growing markets.”

Minuteman has letter of support from Quinsigamond Community College for a potential articulation agreement, which could allow Minuteman’s high school and adult students to receive course credit toward an associate degree. Simultaneously, Quinsigamond students could access Minuteman’s automated warehouse for hands-on learning.

“The logistics and supply chain industries have been rapidly automating and as a result requiring more technological skills within its workforce,” said Jennifer Stephens, chair of Minuteman’s Robotics Automation Advisory Committee and robotics and automation instructor for Mount Wachusett Community College. “Students entering this field need hands-on experience to develop the needed competencies to work in the industry. The Skills Capital Grant will provide the funding for the acquisition of the technology and equipment to support the development of these skills.”

The expanded capacity will allow for an increase in students who want to enroll in the Robotics and Automation career major at Minuteman High School. The funding will also benefit students in the Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing majors, as well as adult evening students in Minuteman Technical Institute.

Minuteman’s new building, which opened in 2019, features a warehouse designed to teach students skills in the logistics industry. With the help of the grant, the goal is to fund technology to grow the space into full-service, automated warehouse with racking systems, materials to handle equipment such as pallet movers and forklifts, and an automated inventory control system. Students will gain skills in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mechatronics.

Minuteman students will sequence and run the software and automated equipment and systems as part of the expanded logistics automation programming. Students will earn industry-recognized credentials that cover skills in distribution, warehousing, inventory management, data analyses, invoicing, purchasing and supply chain activities common to many occupations.

PHOTO: Alexander Lavernchik, a tenth-grade Engineering student from Stow, observes Robotics instructor Tina Collins operate a numeric test board at Minuteman High School in the fall of 2021.
Photo by Reba Saldanha/Minuteman High School