May 1, Wednesday

Grady Trela '13, Senior Project

 

May 2-4, Thursday-Saturday*

The Castle*

8:00 PM each evening, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Seeler Studio Theatre

Howard Barker's play The Castle is an epic work blasting, with humor, bawdiness, violence, and the limits of desire, pain, and sexuality. After an absence of seven years, a group of Crusaders returns "home" to find authority, religion. and human relations all upended.  The Theatre Program continues to explore this controversial writer for audiences in Middlebury and later, in New York at PTP/NYC. "Barker’s visceral explosion of sex and armaments… It’s pure oxygen time again. Prepare to be wowed" --Bob Mondello, NPR. Directed by Richard Romagnoli. Sponsored by the Theatre Program. For mature audiences only: strong adult language and imagery. Tickets $12/10/6; on sale April 15.
*Please note: this play will be presented in lieu of the previously announced title, Curse of the Starving Class, on these new dates/times/locations.

 

May 3, Friday

Martin Luther King Spiritual Choir
François Clemmons, director

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

This joyful choir grew out of more than a decade of celebrations of the national holiday honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. Enjoy American Negro spirituals, some gospel selections, and more, led by Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence Francois Clemmons, who plans to retire after this season. Free

Photo Vincent A. Jones ’12

 

 

May 3–4, Friday–Saturday

Dance, Music, Light: Performance Improvisation

8:00 PM each evening, Mahaney Center for the Arts, DanceTheatre

An ensemble of dancers and musicians demonstrates the ability to compose engaging and coherent pieces “in the moment” after a semester-long study of improvisation as a performing art. Lighting is improvised by designer Jennifer Ponder. Directed by Penny Campbell and Michael Chorney. Sponsored by the Dance Program. Tickets: $12/10/6; on sale April 15.  Go to the Box Office>>

Pictured: Cameron McKinney ’12, photo Alan Kimara Dixon

 

 

May 4, Saturday

The Sound Investment Jazz Ensemble
Dick Forman, director

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

The Sound Investment Jazz Ensemble is the College’s swingin’ big band, featuring great musicians playing the music that’s been called America’s National Treasure. They continue to celebrate that “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing,” with a program of classic and contemporary jazz arrangements. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

Photo Brett Simison

 

May 5, Sunday

Kizuna String Quartet

Jennie Kim '13, violin

Alexander St. Angelo '14, violin

Matt Weinert-Stein '14, viola

Grace Bell '13, cello

4:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

In their final concert at Middlebury, the Kizuna String Quartet will perform Felix Mendelssohn's last major piece, the String Quartet no. 6 in F minor, op. 80. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

 

May 5, Sunday

Friends of the Art Museum Annual Meeting and Supper

5:30 PM, Kirk Alumni Center

Members of the Friends of the Art Museum and invited guests gather to celebrate the year in review, welcome incoming officers and trustees, and present awards for distinction in the visual arts. Membership information: 802.443.2309 or museum.middlebury.edu 

 

May 5, Sunday

Frances Qi Aderhold '13, piano

7:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

The culmination of her musical journey at Middlebury, Aderhold's senior recital program includes works by Debussy, Beethoven, and Chopin. Aderhold is an international politics and economics major and a student of affiliate artist Diana Fanning. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

 

 

 

May 6, Monday

7:30 PM; Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

 

Internationally acclaimed performer Rajeev Taranath is one of the world's leading exponents of the sarod, and a distinguished disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan. His performances masterfully combine the depth and rigor of the tradition of Hindustani classical music with an inspired imagination and emotional intensity. Anindo Chatterjee is recognized as a tabla master, and one of India’s most eminent tabla players. He is a highly popular performer and in-demand collaborator. This Performing Arts Series event is made possible through support from the Rothrock Family Fund for Experiential Learning in the Performing Arts, established in 2011, which supports opportunities that broaden the scope of Middlebury students' experience in the performing arts. Free; no tickets required.

May 7, Tuesday

Original Student Compositions

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

Student musicians in Su Tan’s class present their new works after a semester of creative study. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

 

 

 

 

 

May 8, Wednesday

Taking Flight, Spring 2013

4:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre

A “lightly produced” showing of dance experiments by the new batch of choreographers emerging from the Advanced Beginning Dance course, facilitated by Director of the Dance Program Penny Campbell. Free

 

 

May 10, Friday

Francois Clemmons, tenor

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

Alexander Twilight Artist in Residence Francois Clemmons gives his final solo concert of this chapter of his career, before retiring at the end of the school year. Clemmons has enjoyed a long and illustrious career, from his many years performing the role of Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess, to singing with the Metropolitan Opera, to his television career as as Officer Clemmons on the children's' show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, to his founding of the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble. He is a beloved member of the Middlebury community on- and off-campus, active with the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society, and a mentor to many Middlebury College students. Accompanied by pianist and Affiliate Artist Cynthia Huard. Free

 

 

Scenes and Songs

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

Music department student vocalists present a lively sampling of musical theatre, from opera to Broadway. Free

Photo Brett Simison

 

 

 

May 12, Sunday

Middlebury College Community Chorus

Jeff Rehbach, conductor

Tim Guiles, accompanist

3:00 PM, Mead Memorial Chapel

The Chorus offers a mix of music old and new for its Mother's Day weekend performance. The main work on the program is baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi's splendid Gloria!  From past performances, the ensemble reprises two works by contemporary American composer Morten Lauridsen: his beautiful settings for choir and piano of Sure on This Shining Night and Dirait-on. We introduce American composer Emma Lou Diemer's delightful Three Madrigals on Texts of Shakespeare. The program closes with an upbeat dynamic setting of the text Sing a New Song by Ron Staheli, director of the choral program at Brigham Young University. Free

Please note: the Chorus will also perform this program at the Brandon Town Hall on Friday, May 10, at 7:30 PM. Donations at the door will benefit ongoing renovations of the Town Hall as a civic and cultural center.

 

May 13, Monday

Middlebury Wind Ensemble

7:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

This community ensemble, known as the "Midd Winds," draws approximately 40 members from around Addison County to perform classical wind ensemble and concert band repertoire. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

May 13, Monday

The Ugly Rich: A Romance

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Seeler Studio Theatre

Reading of a student play by Stephen Mrowiec '13, his senior work in playwriting. In the dark days of the Great Depression, a remote community in northern Florida is rocked by a series of unspeakable crimes. Meanwhile, the remnants of the once-proud Larchmont family gather in their ancestral home for a settling of accounts. Equal parts baroque extravaganza, comic opera, and erotic nightmare, The Ugly Rich offers a bracing, uncompromising portrait of the ultimate in cruelty, corruption, and desire. Sponsored by the Theatre Program. Free

 

May 23, Thursday (through August 11)

Edward Hopper in Vermont

Middlebury College Museum of Art

This exhibit assembles for the first time many of Hopper’s 23 known Vermont watercolors and six known drawings, on loan from institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase, as well as from private collections around the country. Hopper, seen by many as the quintessentially American artist, made regular summer sojourns to the state, and the work he produced as a result is notable, both for his ability to capture an inherent sense of the place that is Vermont, and because it was for the most part produced when he was seeking new locations for inspiration. These particular works, relatively unknown to most and rarely on view—some are being shown for the first time in 50 years—are pure landscapes with few traces of architectural form. Marked by nuances of distinctive color, light, and shadow, they are studies in artistic process, illustrating how Hopper’s vision of Vermont developed between the time of his first visit, in 1927, and his last, in 1938. Free

Pictured: Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Vermont Sugar House, 1938, watercolor on paper, 14 x 20 inches. Loan from Mr. Louis Moore Bacon.

 

OPENING POSTPONED to June 25

May 23, Thursday (through August 11)

Hidden Away: 20th and 21st Century Works from the Permanent Collection

Middlebury College Museum of Art

It is the unusual museum that can exhibit all or even most of its collection on a regular basis. Some works are rarely on view because they are light-sensitive and can only be shown for limited periods of time. But in many cases museums, such as ours, simply do not have sufficient space to exhibit all the amazing works in the collection on an ongoing basis. So this summer, come see some of the Middlebury College Museum of Art’s treasures that are rarely on view. These include a mobile by Alexander Calder; sculptures by William Zorach, William King, and Harry Bertoia; glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Dale Chihuly (pictured); watercolors by George Grosz and Luigi Lucioni; and oil paintings by Arthur Davies, Edwin Dickinson, Ivan Albright, John Sloan, Grant Wood, Alice Neel, and Rackstraw Downes. Free

Pictured: Dale Chihuly, Purple Macchia with Teal Lip Wrap, 1984, glass, 8 x 14 x 14 inches. Collection of Middlebury College Museum of Art. Gift of Nancy Hamilton Shepherd ’53 and Katharine Shepherd Furney ’78

 

*POSTPONED

May 23, Thursday (through August 11)

Facts, Humor, and Fake Fur: Selected Posters of the Guerrilla Girls*

Middlebury College Museum of Art, Overbrook Gallery

*This exhibition has been postponed and will not be on view in summer 2013.

 

 

 

 

May 24, Friday

Senior Week Choral Concert
Jeffrey Buettner, conductor

8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Concert Hall

This performance celebrates Middlebury’s graduating choral musicians with selections of their favorite repertoire of the past four years, spanning national and international tours, festivals, and collaborative concerts. Sponsored by the Department of Music. Free

May 29-30, Wednesday-Thursday

Spring Into the Arts

Daylong, Mahaney Center for the Arts

Students from all over Addison County display their artwork and attend performances as part of a two-day celebration of the arts in education. Stop by and see the creative work of these young artists on the walls of the Mahaney Center for the Arts. Sponsored by the Addison Central Supervisory Union and Middlebury College. Free