Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz won all five first prizes at the 15th International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, so dominating the contest that the judges declined to award a runner-up. That victory in 2005 opened the doors of the world's most prestigious concert halls for this amazing young artist. His concert program at Middlebury will include Bach’s Partita no. 3, Beethoven’s op. 10/3, Szymanowski’s first sonata, and two polonaises and a scherzo by Chopin.

Middlebury College seniors Davis Anderson, Jessica Lee, and Hannah Pierce will combine their diverse Interests and choreography in a joint concert April 19 and 20. Driven by dramatically different visions and processes, their movement research raises important questions about the complex intersections of body politics and identity, the impact of changing environments on human movement, and the art of performance.

New music proponent, violinist, and Middlebury College Affiliate Artist Mary Rowell will perform alongside special guest Eve Beglarian on April 5. The concert, entitled “Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been,” will follow Rowell’s unique musical journey as a professional violinist in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Director and alumnus Andrew Smith sorted through 101 scripts to create the inaugural Middlebury New Play Festival. Playwrights around the country were asked to turn the classic fairy tale inside out, using any character other than Cinderella as the main focus. Fourteen of the best submissions will make up two dynamic evenings of theatre, presented in alternation, April 10-13 at Wright.

Award-winning cellist Sophie Shao, a frequent guest on the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series, will return on Saturday, April 6 to perform a program of Beethoven’s String Trio in D Major, Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor, and Brahms’ epic Piano Quartet in A Major. Her quartet will include violinist Frank Huang, violist Roger Tapping, and pianist Pei-Yao Wang.

Considering Johann Sebastian Bach’s reputation as both an organist and an organ composer, it seems only fitting to host an organ recital on his birthday. Musician Nathan Laube will bring this organ music to life in a concert of Bach, Widor, Mendelssohn and more on Thursday, March 21 at Middlebury College’s Mead Memorial Chapel. The artist will also offer a 6:45 P.M. pre-concert lecture prior to the 7:30 P.M. performance.

The Middlebury College Department of Music is pleased to announce the winner of the 2013 Beucher Concerto Competition: Zitong (Bruce) Jia ’16. Jia earned the honors by performing Scaramouche by Darius Milhaud on the saxophone. Jia will now go on to perform as soloist with the Middlebury College Orchestra in a public concert on March 15 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts.

Choreographer and Middlebury dance faculty member Christal Brown brings her dance company INSPIRIT to Middlebury College to premiere their new work, The Opulence of Integrity. Inspired by the life and legend of Muhammad Ali, the performance incorporates elements of boxing, hip hop, martial arts, and modern dance.

Israeli-born pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. After wowing Middlebury audiences in an ensemble concert with cellist Sophie Shao in 2010, he returns to perform a solo program of Schubert, Widmann, Debussy, and Beethoven (the Wadtsein sonata).

The acclaimed Austin, Texas-based ensemble theatre company The Rude Mechs are described by the New York Times as one of a handful of theatre companies in the country "making theater that matters." Their original work The Method Gun touches on the teachings of theatre guru Stella Burden, A Streetcar Named Desire, and a surprising, high-risk creative process.

DCM celebrates its 30^th anniversary with a premiere performance January 25 and 26, featuring dance artists from the past, present, and future. Then the company heads out to Smith College, San Francisco, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies for a week-long tour.

The Middlebury College Department of Music welcomes Samuel Bakkabulindi for a four-week residency during Winter Term 2013. His visit will include public performances, workshops, a lecture, and intensive work with Middlebury College music students.

Virtuosic and playful, jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut makes his return to campus as part of a trio with acclaimed bassist Eric Wheeler and rising star Billy Williams on drums. Their concert program will feature original works and lively improvisations in the jazz tradition.

The Middlebury College Performing Arts Series proudly hosts this passionate young ensemble for two free performances: a midday recital of Kurtag and Schubert on Thursday, November 29, and an evening concert of Mozart, Bartok, and Brahms on Friday, November 30. The concerts are made possible by the Institute for Clinical Science and Art.

The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance presents the fall concert of new works by Middlebury dance students and faculty, November 30–December 1 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. This mosaic of eleven individual dances creates an evening of work that celebrates the synthesis of disparate ideas.

The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance continues its fall season with William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a play of impulsiveness, melancholy, and exile. Director Cheryl Faraone sets this new production in the early 20th century, a time when the world tipped over and all was irrevocably changed.

The Middlebury College Performing Arts Series presents the acclaimed British vocal ensemble Gallicantus on November 10. The six-member group will perform works by John Sheppard, William Byrd, and Thomas Tallis, including Tallis’s Lamentations, evoking the sacred sounds of the 16^th century.

Director Alex Draper '88 directs U.S. Drag on October 25-27. Obie Award-winning playwright Gina Gionfriddo has crafted a raucous riff on post-millenial New York City, following two stylish would-be celebrities.

Middlebury audience favorite Paul Lewis will perform Franz Schubert's last three piano sonatas on Friday, October 26 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts: a fitting finale to his run of five concerts featuring all of composer's mature piano works from the Wandererfantasie onwards. Lewis is internationally recognized as one of the leading pianists of his generation.

The Middlebury College Department of Music's talented and diverse group of professional musicians and teaching artists will come together at the Mahaney Center for the Arts for a collaborative concert on Saturday, November 3, at 8:00 P.M.

Audiences will enjoy a rare opportunity to hear two of the world’s best string quartets in back-to-back concerts on September 29 and October 2, 2012: the Emerson String Quartet, in their 32nd recital at Middlebury; and the Takács Quartet, in their 24th appearance on campus.

This year’s Nicholas R. Clifford symposium, entitled “Creativity and Collaboration,” is hosted by the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts in honor of its 20th-anniversary season. The Symposium features over 30 events, with an impressive lineup of speakers, performances, and panel discussions in both arts and non-arts disciplines.

The Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year with a season packed with hundreds of concerts, plays, museum exhibitions, dance performances, films, and more. An early highlight of the season is the Clifford Symposium on Creativity and Collaboration, hosted by the Mahaney Center for the Arts on September 27-29, 2012.

Students, faculty, and staff from Middlebury's theatre program have just returned from a successful summer repertory season with professional affiliate company PTP/NYC. The company presented Caryl Churchill's Serious Money and Neal Bell's Monster at the Atlantic Stage 2 in New York City.

The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance presents Serious Money, a play by Caryl Churchill, and directed by Cheryl Faraone, May 3-5. Set in the trading pits and board rooms of London’s financial district, known simply as “the City,” the play explores themes of greed, power, and politics.

The Middlebury College Department of Music presents The Sound Investment Jazz Ensemble on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts, fresh on the heels of the ensemble’s spring tour.

A favorite of Middlebury audiences, Paul Lewis will perform a beautiful evening of Schubert’s piano works at the Mahaney Center for the Arts on Friday, May 4. Lewis is internationally recognized as one of the leading pianists of his generation, and is a fitting artist to close the 2011-2012 Middlebury College Performing Arts Series with a flourish.

Middlebury, VT—Three days of performances, interest sessions, dancing, and workshops will link the College and the town of Middlebury together. Highlights include special guest early music ensemble ARTEK and members of the New York Baroque Dance Company, and a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Easter Oratorio, BWV 249.

Adapted and directed by Jay Dunn ’00, this new production of Molière’s last work is an exploration of the French dramatist’s final hours, re-envisioned for the modern stage with a nod to the ensemble theatre work of Jacques LeCoq.

Middlebury College senior dance majors Sarah Chapin, Alicia Evancho, James Moore, and Alexandra Vasquez will showcase their thesis work in performance and choreography in a joint concert, Consequence: The Senior Dance Concert, on April 20 and 21.

This celebrated ensemble will play a full-bodied program of works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, and Schubert’s famous “Death and the Maiden” quartet. The concert is presented free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of the Institute for Clinical Science and Art.

In their first-ever Vermont appearance, the dynamic young Elias String Quartet will play works by Purcell, Suk, and Mendelssohn, as well as Janáček’s “Kreutzer Sonata.” The quartet has experienced a meteoric rise due to their “imaginative, full-blooded playing and impeccable ensemble” (Classic FM Magazine,) and “sophisticated phrasing, subtle coloring, and impeccable tuning…” (The Independent.)

Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer Kyle Abraham and his company Abraham.In.Motion delve into identity and personal history in a performance of The Radio Show. Creating an abstract narrative around the loss of communication, he investigates a community’s reaction to the abrupt discontinuation of a radio station and how Alzheimer’s disease and aphasia impact a family.

One year after the devastating earthquake that struck Japan, Middlebury College students, faculty, and staff will reflect on the anniversary with a series of cultural events, including theatrical readings, guest speakers, and a faculty panel discussion. The events, to be held between March 11 and April 5, will also raise funds for the ongoing relief efforts halfway around the globe.

Award-winning cellist Sophie Shao, a frequent guest on the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series, will return to perform a vivid duo program featuring works by Beethoven, Kirchner, Janáček, and Franck with rising star pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute on March 9. Shao’s knack for gathering graceful combinations of musicians is a testament to her collaborative strengths.

Middlebury College students will host the Grammy-winning musician David Darling in a campus residency including music jams, movement classes, a lecture, and a free public concert. A former member of the Paul Winter Consort, Darling is a master collaborator who brings his music to bear on issues of environmentalism, spirituality, and social progress.

Middlebury's Theatre Program earned awards in dramaturgy, design, acting, and ensemble work--the latest in a long line of tributes--at the New England region ACTF competition, held in January at Fitchburg State University.

Classical pianist Steven Osborne returns to Middlebury College’s Performing Arts Series on Friday, March 2 to perform a stunning concert of solo piano works by French composer Maurice Ravel. Born in Scotland, Osborne is one of Britain’s foremost musicians, known  for his unique approach and dazzling repertoire.

Beijing-born, and now UK-based, Xuefei Yang is regarded as one of the world’s finest classical guitarists. Ever since her enchanting Valentine’s Day recital in 2008, Performing Arts Series patrons have asked when she would return to Middlebury. Audiences will surely feel the three-year wait was worthwhile when they enjoy this beautiful concert of works by Bach, Regondi, Brouwer, Chopin, and Albéniz.

Master balafon player Balla Kouyaté will perform music from the griot tradition of Mali on Friday, February 17, 2012, at 8:00 p.m.at the Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall. His ensemble World Vision, fresh from a performance at the Kennedy Center, will join him with acoustic guitar, tama (talking drum), djembé/banjo, electric bass guitar, and vocals.

DCM's newest piece will explore some of the roots of American dance forms: swing, contact improvisation, hip-hop, and modern dance. Artistic Director Tiffany Rhynard leads an accomplished group of dancers and choreographers in performances on January 27 and 28.

This sensationally gifted musician returns to Middlebury after a 2-year wait to perform works by Bach, Mozart, Liszt, as well as Rachmaninoff’s first piano sonata.

The community is invited to ring in the holidays at Mead Chapel on December 11, with the 40^th annual service of Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas. The popular event includes Bible readings and carols for choir, organ, and congregation, modeled after the long-standing British tradition.

Middlebury College students will explore the musics of Uganda in a free public concert on December 6. Directed by Dr. Damascus Kafumbe, the ensemble will present an hour-long program of instrumental, song, and dance.

Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn and the world’s most in-demand collaborative pianist, Julius Drake, will perform together at the Mahaney Center for the Arts on December 2. Their concert program will include songs by Schumann, Mahler, and Eisler.

The Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance present a play by Nick Dear, directed by Richard Romagnoli. Based on the life of 18th century painter and engraver William Hogarth, this bawdy comedy uncovers the dark underbelly of 1700s London.

Middlebury College senior Jeremy Cline ’11.5 presents his thesis dance work November 18-19. A joint major in dance and religion, Cline focuses his work on elements of ritual performance and investigates the nature of our relationships with spirit.

Russian piano sensation Alexander Melnikov makes his Middlebury College Performing Arts Series solo debut with a program of  Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, op. 87, a tour de force set of works in every major and minor key.

An eclectic group of some of Vermont’s finest performers will take to the Concert Hall stage at Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts for a collaborative performance on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 8:00 PM.

The Middlebury College Performing Arts Series presents this acclaimed Viennese string quartet in a concert of Mozart, Webern and Schubert. The concert is presented free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of the Institute for Clinical Science and Art.

Big Love, an emotionally extravagant comedy by OBIE Award-winning playwright Charles Mee, opens the 2011-2012 theatre season with performances October 27-29 at Wright Theatre. Loosely inspired by Aeschylus’ The Suppliants, Big Love takes us on a whimsical journey from Greece to Italy, when 50 Greek brides are betrothed against their will to their American cousins.

The College community bids farewell to the wooden sculpture "So Inclined" with a public lecture by artist Patrick Dougherty on October 28. The enchanting, community-created, sculptural project has stood outside the Mahaney Center for the Arts for the past four years. Dougherty will discuss his world-wide projects and commissions since that time.

British pianist Paul Lewis is internationally recognized as one of the leading pianists of his generation. This concert is the third in a series of five concerts in his worldwide Schubert project, performing all of the composer's mature piano works from the Wandererfantasie onwards.

Middlebury and Amherst College jazz groups make music together on October 10 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. The concert echoes a landmark collaboration between jazz greats Count Basie and Duke Ellington, 50 years ago.

From composer Su Lian Tan and librettist Anne Babson comes this bold new experiment in opera, featuring an accomplished international group of artistic collaborators: Brenda Patterson, soprano; Miriam Gordon Stewart, soprano; Meridian Arts Ensemble; video set designer Tim Bartlett ’98, and a host of others.

The Off-Broadway powerhouse PTP/NYC bring two shows to Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts. Both evenings of theatre are encore presentations from the company’s landmark 25^th anniversary season this summer in New York City.

Audiences are in for a treat as the 2011-2012 arts season at Middlebury College launches in September. The year will feature over 300 plays, exhibitions, concerts, dance performances, films special events, and more. Middlebury students and faculty showcase their diverse work alongside first-class artists visiting from around the world.

Hans Hielscher, the brilliant carillonneur and organist from Wiesbaden, Germany, pays a midsummer visit to Middlebury College to perform in two concerts at Mead Memorial Chapel: a carillon concert on Friday, July 29 at 7:00 PM (the “peals”), and an organ recital on Saturday, July 30 at 7:30 PM (the “pipes”).

The beautiful sounds of ringing bells will fill the air again this summer, as the 26^th annual Middlebury College Carillon Series treats audiences to free performances on Friday evenings at 7:00 P.M. in and around Mead Memorial Chapel.

The first of its kind, this community-wide Festival will further the appreciation of the music, life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach by providing College and community audiences with three days of performances and interest sessions May 6-8, 2011.

At ceremonies at the Kennedy Center on April 23, senior Carlie Crawford won the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Costume Design, and sophomore Daniel Sauermilch won the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play.

Get ready for unique sights and sounds as double physics/music major Hannah Waite '11 performs original music and speaks about the unusual instrument she designed and built herself.

On April 22, the MCO gives a free public performance including two world premieres by Middlebury College seniors: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Nicholas Tkach ’11, and Requiem for Choir and Orchestra by Noah Silverstein ’11.

The Middlebury College Community Chorus and Women's Glee Club offer a joint concert to welcome the spring and summer seasons on Sunday, May 1 in Mead Chapel. Admission is free.

An audience favorite and a frequent guest on the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series, Paul Lewis plays the second in a series of five Schubert concert programs: 12 Waltzes, Four Impromptus, Hungarian Melody in B Minor, and Sonata No. 18 in G Major.

Howard Barker's hard-hitting drama recounts the politics and history of 16^th century Britain through a distinctly contemporary lens. The Middlebury production will explore issues of violence, sexuality, and power with the energy of a punk rock show.

Alena Giesche, Catherine Miller, Christian Morel, and Heather Pynne will create a collaborative evening of work centered on the theme of relationships, with each choreographer bringing her or his own unique insight to the topic.

With performances that convey “heroic power and Olympian vision” (Los Angeles Times), as well as “splendor, drama, passion, poetry, and subtlety” (Boston Globe), this encore artist on the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series will perform works by Beethoven and Chopin.

Award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl's dreamlike retelling of the Orpheus myth asks: what would any of us do with a second chance? Directed by Alex Draper '88, with actors Gillian Durkee ’12, Willy McKay ’11, Dustin Schwartz ’11, and others.

A group of 40 students and faculty from Middlebury's Theatre Program recently spent a Saturday in New York City to see two amazing productions: "The Diary of a Madman," starring Geoffrey Rush, and "Beautiful Burnout," by Frantic Assembly/The National Theatre of Scotland.

Having gained an enviable reputation as one of the leading quartets of the new generation, this acclaimed chamber music ensemble performs a repertoire that plays to its strengths: Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, and Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G Major.

In reaction to dance competition reality shows that evaluate who is qualified to dance, Big Action Performance Ensemble (Big APE) presents Everyone Can Dance, a community-based performance project celebrating the contagious allure of movement and the dynamic capabilities of the human body, March 18 and 19.

From Ireland’s national theatre comes an original, gripping drama from playwright and director Mark O’Rowe. In Terminus, a young woman looking for love, a mother seeking atonement, and a serial killer are all ripped from their daily lives and thrown into a fantastical world.

Acclaimed young cellist Sophie Shao returns to Middlebury with violinist Carmit Zori and pianist Shai Wosner to perform a vivid piano trio program featuring works by Schubert, Ravel, and Brahms.

On Thursday, members of the Museum community gathered to watch as Associate Curator of Ancient Art Pieter Broucke and the Museum staff opened a crate containing a Roman imperial period bust from the third century C.E. Watch a slideshow>>

Curtis Institute of Music graduate Nathan Laube rings in the 40th anniversary of Mead Chapel’s magnificent Gress-Miles Organ. Concertgoers can also enjoy a behind-the-scenes organ tour led by Emory Fanning.

Widely celebrated for his considered and profound interpretations of the classical repertoire, Paul Lewis is recognized internationally as one of today’s most distinctive and poetic pianists. He is a favorite artist of Middlebury audiences.

The 2011 Dance Company of Middlebury presents “Culture, Cash, and Community: To Have or Have Not,” on January 21 and 22 at the Mahaney Center for the Arts. The Company will then head out on tour to New Orleans.

Multiple award-winning Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan graces the Concert Hall stage on January 21, performing works by Rameau, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt.

Dael Orlandersmith is a nationally-renowned poet, actor, and playwright whose play Yellowman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. As part of her Winter Term residency at Middlebury, she offers a staged reading of two short scripts on Thursday, January 13: Rave and Man of Water.

Vermont cartoonist Tim Newcomb helps tell the story of a Middlebury student whose vision for a giant mural on the back of Wright Memorial Theatre came to life this fall.

Fanning fêtes 40 years of performing professionally with a free concert with the Jupiter String Quartet and Cellist Dieuwke Davydov on Friday, November 12 in Mead Chapel.

In conjunction with the Department of Theatre and Dance's upcoming production of Hecuba, the Department of Classics hosts a symposium October 29–30 centering on Euripides' gripping tragedy.

Saturday, Oct. 16: The Friends of the Arts Museum (FOAM) celebrate 40 years of membership and support with a festive gala night on October 16, 2011.  Highlights of the night: the Jubilee Jazz Band, a delicious buffet, voting on a new work of art, and a groovy 70s dance party!

Saturday, 10/9/10: Filmmaker, former Fulbright Scholar, and Middlebury honorary degree recipient Ngawang Choephel introduces his award-winning documentary and recounts his creative journey that began in 1995, before he was imprisoned for seven years by the Chinese government on an accusation of espionage.

First-year students enjoyed an Evening at the Mahaney Center for the Arts on September 3, during Orientation Week.  Festive food, jazz music, an old-time photo booth, museum exhibitions, dancing, and even a flashmob performance by Big Action Performance Ensemble made the night a smash!

Highlights include Diana Fanning with the Jupiter Quartet; 40 Years of Collecting Artwork for the Museum; a concert honoring 40 years of the Gress-Miles Organ in Mead Chapel, and more.