The Lifetime Learning Center at Craven Community College (Craven CC) will host a performance by the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra (NCBO) on Friday, Aug. 3. The performance will be led by conductor Frances Blaker and take place at Orringer Auditorium, located on the New Bern campus. NCBO will present a program called “Fiori del barocco: Flowers of the Baroque” as a finale to the ensemble’s second annual orchestral retreat. Composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco, Antonio Vivaldi and more will be featured in a concert of baroque gems played on period instruments. Formed by sisters and musical collaborators Frances Blaker and BarbaraRead More →

The late Steve Jobs is often touted as one of the great innovators of the age, but his real genius was in taking ideas from others, tweaking them, and selling them. Jobs didn’t invent the computer mouse, smart phone or the MP3 player, for example; others came up with those ideas, but his tweaks changed everything. Taking cues from Steve Jobs, the City of New Bern has gone into he business of taking others ideas, as well. For example, take the Farmer’s Market. For $1 per year, the Farmers Market was leasing city-owned land at South Front and Hancock streets coveted by developers. Everyone wasRead More →

For companion story, click here City Market is a triangular piece of property, with the Ghent neighborhood on one side, a mixed residential-commercial street on one side, and Country Club Road/First Street on the remaining side. City Hall is giving that section of the city a lot of love and attention recently. Lawson Creek Park is right there and has benefited from a lot of improvements: a reconfigured and beautified entrance, a ball field, and more. The city moved its Parks and Recreation offices to a building off Country Club Road, and is seeking funding to improve boat access there. And it has worked withRead More →