The Westmont theater season opens next week, Friday, Nov. 4, with Shakespeare’s achingly beautiful history play “King Richard II” at Santa Barbara Trinity Episcopal Church. It is the first in a yearlong season of events that centers on contemporary, international approaches to Shakespeare’s plays.
Politics and religion will mix at a lecture in downtown Santa Barbara next week. The Westmont Downtown Conversation will include several local community leaders of different faiths and focus on the interactions and conflicts between faith and politics in our community. It will be held, Thursday, Nov. 3, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m, at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara St.
Three local high school choirs will join voices with singers from Westmont later this month for the Fall Choral Festival Concert. The concert is Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1500 State St. Adams Professor of Music and Worship Michael Shasberger will direct guest choirs from San Marcos, Paso Robles, and San Luis Obispo High Schools. The concert will also feature the Westmont College Choir and Chamber Singers. The evening will include a cameo appearance by the guest high school choirs and will conclude in a mass choir presentation.
Two separate estate gifts totaling $3.3 million will help endow student scholarships and the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont. In its sixth year, the institute explores and promotes liberal arts education, which offers knowledge in a broad range of subjects as well as skills students need to succeed at work and in life.
Westmont President Stan D. Gaede announced he will conclude his presidency at the end of the academic year in June. He has served as the college’s president since July 2001. Previously, he was provost, the top academic officer, for five years. The 58-year old will return to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he joined the faculty in 1974 and became provost in 1993.