Piano concert
Paul Stewart, a well-known concert pianist will be in the City on December 6 and 7 to inaugurate the Kawai grand piano at the St Marks auditorium. Stewart will perform selected works of by Beethoven Chopin and Liszt during the inauguration.

Since his debut with the Toronto Symphony in 1981, Paul Stewart has established himself as one of Canada’s best known musicians, appearing frequently as guest soloist with major orchestras, in solo recital, on radio and television.

He has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and is well-known to audiences in India — his most recent appearance in Bangalore was a musical homage to the late Rani Vijaya Devi.

The concert has been put together by The Forum for Teachers which was formed and registered in 1997 as teachers especially the private teachers felt the need for a common platform to discuss problems related to teaching and to organise lectures and workshops to upgrade teaching to a professional level.

The new Kawai grand piano at the St Mark’s Cathedral music centre has been possible because of the generous contributions from students past and present, teachers and music lovers and friends.

Tickets to the concert are available at ELS Bookshop, Good Shepherd Convent and St Marks Music Academy. For details contact, 25598255 and Nalini Paul on 23438839.

Concert for visually impaired
The Ramasudha Charitable Trust is organising a special music concert exclusively for the inmates of Sree Ramana Maharshi Academy for the Blind on December 5 at 5 pm. Pandit Vinayak Toravi will render a Hindustani vocal concert, accompanied by Rajendra Nakod (tabla) and Dattatreya Velanlar (harmonium).

Jazz performance
Harvest Moon, a band with a goal to inspire young and old alike to be less self-centred and to reach out more to the people around them, will present jazz concerts on December 6 and 13 from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm at RMZ Millenia on Old Madras Road. Apart from jazz, the band also plays a wide variety of music ranging from  R&B, pop, classical, to rock n roll.

Members of the band are full time volunteers for the Family Services and work with underprivileged children, the hearing impaired and young people in general. They also play in colleges where they include drama and dance to add a social message for youngsters.
Garuda Mall Fest
The Garuda mall festival lasting through the month of December has many interesting games and fun filled activities have been organized. The events range from activities like cooking classes to fashion shows.

For all those who love to learn to cook the famous chef Arif of "The Legend of Sikander" will teach and demonstrate how to cook vegetarian starters, main dishes, soups and desserts from various cuisines like the Kahmiri, Hyderabadi, Mughlai and Awadi. The classes starting from December 3 to 7 are between 3.30 to 5 pm. The Chambor Company will also conduct sessions on basic use of make-up with their newly launched products.
A children's winter camp consisting of workshops and competitions on dance, drama, painting and crafts on the 17th to 21st along with the Christmas dance and song drama by Family Services, an NGO involved in community services for the underprivileged is the main highlight of the festival. The drama will revolve around the stories of Joseph, Moses, Jesus and the miracles he performed. This will be entwined with foot-tapping Bollywood numbers.
For all the foodies a food contest called `Bitti Oota' will be organised at the food court. The most exciting event is `hands on the car' where participants will win a Maruthi SX4 vehicle if they manage to be the one who has placed their hand on the car for the longest period of time. 

Lecture on space
National Institute of Advanced Studies is holding a public lecture on ‘Space: an ethical frontier’ by Dr Jacques Arnould of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, Paris, which is the French Space Agency’s consultant in charge of ethical, social and cultural aspects of space activities.

Since space has such mythological, psychological and cultural significance, and because it calls on a broad array of interdisciplinary skills, which are exposed to fewer social pressures (unlike medicine and genetic engineering for example), it still provides plenty of room to explore the motivations driving scientific activity, and the importance it attaches or should attach within a humanistic perspective. The lecture is on December 13, 6 pm at NIAS Auditorium, IISc Campus. The event is open to all.