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Tesla Quartet live at Magness Library
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The world-famous Tesla Quartet with Wonkak Kim will perform at Magness Library on Monday, Oct. 29 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is $25.
The quartet was formed at The Julliard School in 2008 and won second place at the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music competition only a few months after its inception.
The quartet consists of violinists Ross Snyder and Michelle Lie, violist Megan Mason and cellist Kimberly Patterson.
Korean-born clarinetist Wonkak Kim has captivated audiences around the globe including those in Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall, Le Louvre in Paris and Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan. A laureate of the Presser Music Award, Kim has received over a dozen international prizes and is often featured with orchestras and ensembles worldwide.
Tesla Quartet won a gold medal at the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Ind., and won third prize in the 2012 London International String Quartet Competition.
The quartet currently holds a fellowship as the Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where band members study with the world-renowned Takacs Quartet.
The quartet enjoys a busy performing schedule, both in the United States and abroad, holding concerts in London and Austria.
Kim joined the music faculty at Tennessee Tech University in 2011, where he is assistant professor of clarinet. He is the principal clarinetist of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and performs with the Cumberland Quintet, the faculty ensemble-in-residency of Tennessee Tech.
Starting the 2012-13 season, Kim was invited to be the principal clarinetist of the Albany Symphony Orchestra in Georgia. In the summer, he serves on the faculty at the Chapel Hill International Chamber Music Workshop and the Southeast Chamber Music Institute.
Kim is a recipient of many awards including the Presser Music Award in 2010, first prize at the Mary Graham Lasley Competition in 2010, and gold medal at the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition at Carnegie Hall in 2008.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community