The Fourth Annual Westmont Christmas Festival, “Lo, How a Rose,” will ring in the advent season with three performances at First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance at State Street. Admission to the festival Friday, Dec. 5, and Saturday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m., is free, but tickets are required due to limited seating.
Violinist Philip Ficsor and local composer Emma Lou Diemer perform together Saturday, Nov. 22, at 3 p.m. in Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu Street. The Santa Barbara Music Club presents the free concert.
Nona Pyron, internationally known cellist and adjunct professor at Westmont, will gather professional musicians from across the country for a Chamber Music Retreat Thursday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 16, in Westmont’s Kerrwood Hall. Westmont students and other skilled amateurs will also participate in the master class. The retreat is full, but auditors are welcome.
Laura Montgomery, Westmont professor of anthropology, will discuss “The Global Imperative and Moral Education: Peace and Love or Something Else?” at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street, as part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The T.B. Walker Foundation, an anonymous donor and others have committed $1.5 million to Westmont toward the creation of the college’s first endowed chair in the natural and behavioral sciences. The T.B. Walker Foundation Chair in the Natural & Behavioral Sciences will honor the work of an outstanding faculty member in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering/physics, mathematics or psychology.
Makoto Masuno returns to Westmont as assistant professor of chemistry after graduating from the college in 1997. Masuno transferred to Westmont in 1995 as a junior and chose chemistry as his major, but admits he hadn’t completed a single college chemistry course when he arrived.