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Next Friday Ton Koopman, musician and Bach specialist, willreceive an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty. Thatsame evening at the Vredenburg Music Centre he will conduct thefirst performance in the Netherlands of his own reconstruction ofBach's lost St Mark Passion. "If I composed myself I would do it inbaroque style, which is my style", he says elsewhere in thisU-blad. He will soon get the chance to do exactly that, since hehas promised to cooperate with Anthony Minghella, the director ofThe English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Minghella isworking on a project in which Bach's music plays a central part.The missing musical fragments will be composed by Koopman.

Big Brother

Tonight (March 23) Bart, well-known participant in the realityTV series the Big Brother, will take part in a U-blad discussionpanel on the theme 'the popularity of reality TV'. Together withWim Meeus, professor of youth studies, psychologist Ad Bergsma, andtwo undergraduates, Bart will discuss what accounted for BigBrother's great popularity. There will be ample opportunity forquestions. The auditorium (Ottone, Kromme Nieuwe Gracht 62) willopen at 7.30 p.m. and the programme itself starts at 8 o'clock.Since the 200 seats will fill up fast, visitors are advised toarrive in good time.

University day.

April 1 will see the 364th anniversary of the University ofUtrecht celebrated in grand style. The open day for students, staffand alumni, will fuse academic pursuits and conviviality. In themorning there will be lectures by eminent speakers, including Nobellaureate Gerard 't Hooft. In the afternoon the faculties will opentheir doors to entertain alumni and staff, while in the evening thestudent societies will dazzle their guests with live bands, DJs andcabarets.

Memory.

A research team at Yale School of Medicine has developed asubstance which can reverse the degeneration of short-term memory.One of the members of the team which published the discovery in thejournal Science is Patricia Goldman-Rakic, who holds an honorarydoctorate from the University of Utrecht.