GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : Symphony’s Season-Ending Concerts to Feature Pianist

Acclaimed pianist Ruth Laredo will accompany the Santa Barbara Symphony for its season-ending concerts this weekend at the Arlington Theatre. Renowned as an interpreter of Russian and French music, Laredo will perform Griffes’ “White Peacock,” Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” and Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2. Saint-Saens’ work will be guest-conducted by Andrew Massey.

Two concerts: 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $10 to $32. The theater is at 1317 State St., Santa Barbara. Call 963-4408.

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Thousands are expected to flock to the fifth annual Santa Barbara Harbor Festival Saturday and stroll along the marina and take advantage of assorted fun, foods and crafts.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., children can get hands-on experience at the “Creatures of the Sea Touch Tank” and the “Make Your Own” crafts area. Also on tap: clowns, jugglers, face painting, skateboard demonstrations, game booths, a dunk tank, marine exhibits, harbor cruises and free tours on the U. S. Navy ship USS Fort McHenry. The lucky winner of the “Harbor Sweepstakes” will drive away in a new Ford Ranger.

Admission is free; nominal charges for some of the activities and games will benefit Villa Majella, a nonprofit maternity home. The harbor is at Castillo Street and Cabrillo Boulevard. For more information, call 683-2838.

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The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History offers an eclectic itinerary these next few days. Have a look:

Frank Spera, professor of geological sciences, will explain a thing or two about that celestial body nearest to our dear earth. His “Lecture on the Moon’s Origin” 7:30 p.m. Friday will include a slide and video discussion on the planet’s genesis.

“Leapin’ Lizards! Great Snakes Alive!” So goes the museum’s billing of its first Reptile and Amphibian Fair from 9 to 5 p.m. Saturday. An assortment of reptiles--from rattlesnakes to a humongous anaconda--plus assorted turtles, frogs, lizards and an orange iguana will be on view.

A little bit of Santa Barbara backcountry will be brought indoors in the form of paintings. Opening Sunday, the “Landscape Paintings by the Oak Group” exhibit depicts mountain ranges, sandstone cliffs, canyons, stream-side woodlands, wildflower-covered hills and other wilderness scenes found in the area. The 25-artist exhibit of colorful oils, pastels, acrylics and watercolors continues through Aug. 8. Running concurrently, “The Magic Line: Master Engravings from the 17th and 18th Centuries,” a monochromatic exhibit of early botanical illustrations.

And, concluding the season’s series of travel films, “Captain Bligh’s South Pacific” will show at 3 p.m. Sunday. Take a Bligh’s eye view of Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu through the same waters the contemptuous captain sailed solo about 200 years ago after being cast adrift by his angered crew. Admission: $1 members, $4 non-members.

The museum is at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road. Call 682-4711.

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This week’s installment of Oak Park’s perpetual cultural events: “Children’s Festival, Spring Serendipity,” 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Likely festival fodder here: carnival games, craft workshops, pony rides, stagecoach rides, face painting, arts and crafts, magicians, clowns, foods, plus Santa Barbara Symphony’s Tiny Tots Concert. No charge. The park is at Alamar Avenue and Junipero Street, Santa Barbara. Call 968-1280.

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A bitter mind dispute of Freudian-Jungian proportions will unfold twice at Santa Barbara’s Center Stage Theater. Harvey Mindess’ acclaimed “Freud, Jung and Anna” portrays the intense relationship between the two leaders of modern psychology and psychiatry, and the effect that their acrimonious breakup had on Anna Freud’s life.

Show times: 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. This is the same full-length drama, with the original cast, that played to sold-out audiences in Hollywood in 1992. The play features original music for the dream sequences by Emmy Award-winning composer Charles Bernstein.

Tickets, $13, can be reserved by calling 962-8179 and will available at the door. The theater is at 751 Paseo Nuevo.

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Barbara Rudenko marks her 25th year of performing at the Lobero Theatre 8 p.m. Saturday. One hundred students of the Rudenko School of Dance perform “Struttin’,” an energized offering of choreography to music of the 1940s, Walt Disney movies and more. Tickets are $10, $4 children.

Also at the theater: Travel via celluloid through the verdant mountain ranges of Costa Rica--with its active volcanoes, rain forests and abundant wildlife--during “Sherilyn Mentes’ Costa Rica: The Switzerland of Central America.” You’ll also encounter pre-Colombian civilizations and the country’s modern day cultural diversity. Departures: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Your travel agent: Lobero Geographic Society Travel Film Series. Tickets are $6.50, members and students $6.

The Lobero is at 33 E. Canon Perdido St. Call 963-0761.