The Carleton College Choir, under the direction of Lawrence Burnett, will present selections from George Frederick Handel’s Messiah on Saturday, March 2. The program begins at 7 p.m. with “Messiah Insights,” a pre-performance introduction on the libretto, Handel’s score, and Baroque instruments, followed by “Messiah Highlights” at 8 p.m., performed by the Choir and accompanied by a professional orchestra comprised of period Baroque instruments. This event will be held in the Carleton College Concert Hall and is free and open to the public.

Carleton College will host an exclusive performance of composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s beautiful and haunting song cycle, “Penelope,” featuring renowned classical/indie rock vocalist Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and NYC’s most in-demand new music ensemble, yMusic. This rare public performance takes place Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel on the Carleton College campus. Worden will also perform selected music from My Brightest Diamond and Sarah Kirkland Snider will also be in attendance. Following the performance will be a Q & A session with an opportunity for audience members to meet the musicians.

Pianist Nicola Melville will join the Carleton College Symphony Band in a special performance honoring the works of renowned American composers on Friday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. in the Carleton College Concert Hall. Entitled “An American Miscellany,” the program is free and open to the public.

Carleton College will present its annual student-produced and performed production of Even Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” on Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. The public is invited and there is a suggested donation of $5 to $15 at the door. All proceeds will benefit The Hope Center in Faribault and the V-Day Spotlight Campaign (www.vday.org), a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Carleton College will present a special screening of the one-hour documentary film, “Souls of Zen: Buddhism, Ancestors, and the 2011 Tsunami in Japan,” on Friday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. in the Boliou Hall auditorium. Following the screening, filmmaker Tim Graf will lead a Q & A session. Nearly two years after the disaster, Graf is showing the film at colleges around the country in order to spark a dialogue with religion scholars and students. The public is invited to this free screening, with a goal of raising awareness of Japan’s ongoing recovery process, along with supporting area fund-raising activities for disaster victims.

Siri Hustvedt, an acclaimed author whose work has been read worldwide and translated into over thirty languages, will deliver Carleton College’s convocation address on Friday, Feb. 22 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Hustvedt’s talk, entitled “Reflections on Creativity: Memory, Imagination, Narrative and the Self,” will draw upon her study of psychoanalysis, philosophy and neuroscience in looking at how personal experience and memory become transformed into narrative. Convocation is free and open to the public. Convocations are also streamed live and can be viewed online at http://apps.carleton.edu/events/convocations/.

Literary power couple Siri Hustvedt and her husband Paul Auster will spend a three-day residency in Northfield Feb. 20-22. The residency will include faculty seminars at both Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges, as well as three public appearances. All events are free and open to the public.

Do you enjoy learning about the natural world?  If so, consider becoming a Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer!

Carleton College and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership in Northfield are hosting a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer Training beginning April 1 and running through May 15, 2013. Registration is now open and the class is expected to fill up quickly.

Carleton College will present a special public screening of the acclaimed Emmy Award-winning documentary film, “Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time,” on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema. The screening is sponsored by Carleton’s Cowling Arboretum and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, a Northfield-based volunteer organization that works toward “protecting and improving the water quality and natural systems of the Cannon River watershed.” This event is free and open to the public.

The Carleton Singers invite the campus community to a special Valentine's Day mini-concert celebrating love in all musical forms -- from tragic laments to bawdy tales. Selections will include compositions by renowned Renaissance composers and be sung in a range of languages. Audience members are encouraged to bring a bagged lunch to eat (or share with a friend) during the performance. It all takes place this Thursday, Feb. 14, beginning at 12:20 pm in Severance Great Hall.

The Gender and Sexuality Center will host a public screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary film, “The Invisible War,” on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. in the Weitz Center for Creativity Cinema.  This groundbreaking investigative film uncovers the prevalence of sexual assault within the U.S. military. This event is free and open to the public.

Brenda Brenner, a violinist and pioneering music educator who is currently an assistant professor of music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, will deliver Carleton’s convocation address on Friday, Feb. 15. Brenner’s talk, entitled “Finding Our Shared Humanity: Cross-Cultural Connections in Music,” will discuss her influential work with underprivileged and underachieving elementary school students in Bloomington, Ind. Convocation is held from 10:50-11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel, and it is free and open to the public. Convocations are also streamed live and can be viewed online at http://apps.carleton.edu/events/convocations/.