Looking for Something to Do? Free Events May 14 to 20

Here are events scheduled Saturday, May 14, to Friday, May 20.

All events are free, so take a look -- and don't you dare say there's nothing to do in Pasadena!   

All Pasadena fire stations will host open houses Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Take a tour led by one of Pasadena's finest, have a hot dog and other refreshments, ask questions and take a moment to thank the brave men and women of the Pasadena Fire Department.

The Spring Into Wellness Festival Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Center will feature health screenings, workshops, games, food, community resources and more. 

Dishing with Jonathan Gold will feature the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer/critic Saturday, May 14, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Central Library. A 3 p.m. reception will be followed by a Q&A with Gold at 4 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium. Though the event is free, you must have a ticket, which you can pick up that day beginning at 1 p.m. at Central Library.

The Caltech Orchestra and Caltech Glee Club will be featured Saturday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Ramo Auditorium (inside building #77 on this map). The orchestra will perform Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor; the glee club will perform the Gregorian chant Salve Regina, Bach's Lobet den Herrn, Brahms's O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf; and the orchestra and glee club will come together to perform Borodin's Polovtsian Dances.

Centennial Square in front of Pasadena City Hall will be transformed into an outdoor concert space Saturday, May 14, at 8 p.m. for Music Under the Stars, the annual gift to the community from the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. The orchestras will be joined by special guest stars Dale Kristien, Norman Large and Katherine Strohmaier plus the JPL Chorus for a celebration of music from Broadway, the movies and the Great American Songbook. Come as early as 6 p.m., bring a lawn chair and a picnic dinner or purchase dinner onsite. 

Celebrated California poets Brynn Saito and Ron Koertge will read from their works and students will perform Les Oiseau Piano Duo and Chimera Quartet Sunday, May 15, at noon at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. A reception will follow in the courtyard. While the event is free, you must reserve a ticket. 

The Pasadena Museum of History and The Gamble House will be among six venues offering free admission on Museums of the Arroyo Day Sunday, May 15, from noon to 4 p.m.

The Caltech Music Marathon Sunday, May 15, at 2 p.m. in Dabney Lounge at Dabney Hall  (#40 on this map) will appeal to every taste in chamber music with compositions by composers from Beethoven to Piazolla. Stay for part or all of the marathon.

The Crown City Symphony will perform a special concert in memory of cofounder Cynthia Rosedale Sunday, May 15, at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Pasadena featuring Burkart's elegy, Mendelssohn's Concert for Violin and  Dvořák's Symphony No. 8.

Bike Week Pasadena is Monday, May 16, to Saturday, May 21 featuring Bike to Work Day and Bike-In Movie Night (both free) as well as other activities.  

LA Opera community educator Louis Bernstein will provide a behind-the-scenes look at supernumeraries Monday, May 16, at 1 p.m. at the Pasadena Senior Center. A supernumerary, or super, is a non-speaking, non-singing role in an opera.

The Harvard Westlake Upper School Symphony will perform classical works Wednesday, May 18, from 12:10 to 12:40 p.m. for the popular Music at Noon recital series at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

"Conrack" (1974, PG) starring Jon Voight and Madge Sinclair will be shown Wednesday, May 18, at 1 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library. The film is based on the true story of white author Pat Conroy who, as a young man, was assigned to teach on an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated by low-income, illiterate African American families who developed their own dialect and had little knowledge of life outside their island.

Middle school and high school students are invited to Open Mic Night Wednesday, May 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library to showcase poems, spoken word, rap, stomp and artwork. For more info call 626-744-4246.

Children will use their imaginations, sponges and seeds to grow grass houses with roofs and lawns Thursday, May 19, at 3:30 p.m. at Hill Avenue Branch Library. Then they will take the grass houses home where they will continue to grow. All materials will be provided. For more information call 626-744-7264.

The third Thursday (and first Friday) of every month is free admission day at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. On Thursday, May 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. enjoy the current exhibitions Claire Falkenstein: Beyond Sculpture; Brett Weston: Significant Details; and Kat Hutter and Roger Lee: Another California Day; and everything else the museum has to offer.

Everyone is invited to the fourth annual Day of Jazz at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music Friday, May 20, from 10 a.m. into the evening. Learn about jazz history, sit in on a master class, enjoy a concert with guest artist Ndugu Chancler and much more. 

"The Lady in the Van" (2015, PG-13) starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings will be shown Friday, May 20, at 1 p.m. at the Pasadena Senior Center. A man forms an unexpected bond with a homeless woman living in the van she has parked in his driveway. You don't have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend.

Sounds on South Lake presents Givers & Takers performing soul-bliss rock Friday, May 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. at 345 S. Lake Ave. (patio next to Corner Bakery).

Pasadena Conservatory of Music's final Guitar Night of 2016 will feature world-class guitarist Scott Tennant, founding member of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Friday, May 20, at 7 p.m. While the concert is free, you must reserve a ticket.

The search for life elsewhere in the solar system has tantalized humanity for centuries. On Friday, May 20, at 7 p.m. in the Vosloh Forum (Building UU on this map) at PCC, Dr. Morgan Cable with JPL's Cassini Mission will discuss the prebiotic world of Titan, one of Saturn's moons, and field expeditions by NASA to Iceland to test life detection techniques that may be used on future Mars missions. The same discussion is scheduled Thursday, May 19, at 7 p.m. in the Von Karman Auditorium at JPL.

SAVE THE DATE!

Experience traditional Native American dancers, drummers, musicians, singers, storytellers, artisans and more plus special exhibits and nature groups during the Spring Awakening Festival Saturday, May 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 22, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Eaton Canyon Nature Center.

Photo credits: Ann Erdman, Atlas Chiropractic, Boothbay Register, Pasadena Conservatory of Music, Harvard Westlake Upper School, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Albany Poets, Pasadena Museum of History, The Gamble House, Caltech Chamber Music, Crown City Symphony, City of Pasadena, Homestead & Survival, The Brett Weston Archive, Drummerworld, BBC Films, Guitar Salon, NASA, Crazy Crow,