Performing Arts Series

The Obie Award-winning theatre/media company Waterwell presents The Ford/Hill Project, a powerful and timely production tackling power, politics, and gender. 30 years apart, Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford provoked a reckoning about who is given the power to shape the future of our country by telling the story of one of the most private moments of their lives in one of the most public settings imaginable: the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, respectively.

The Obie Award-winning theatre/media company Waterwell presents The Ford/Hill Project, a powerful and timely production tackling power, politics, and gender. 30 years apart, Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford provoked a reckoning about who is given the power to shape the future of our country by telling the story of one of the most private moments of their lives in one of the most public settings imaginable: the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, respectively.

Learn more about the program to be sung by baritone Dashon Burton: a tribute to Paul Robeson’s concert at Middlebury 80 years ago. This free pre-concert lecture is presented by Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin.

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has built a vibrant career, performing regularly throughout the U.S. and Europe. His deep, expressive voice wields extraordinary power and warmth. At Middlebury, Burton will perform selections from the 1946 Middlebury recital of Paul Robeson, a celebrated singer, actor, athlete, and advocate for the civil rights of people around the world.

Fresh off their Juilliard residency, the multi-award-winning Katarina String Quartet makes a Vermont debut in our annual free quartet concert, courtesy of the Sunderman Family Concert Fund.  Their program “The Rest Will Change” follows the compositional journey of Gourzi, Fung, Beethoven, and Quebecois traditional music to pursue the thought that the only constant is change. Come hear one of North America’s most exciting young ensembles, founded in Montreal and now based in New York.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine transformed Bandura virtuoso Maryna Krut from being a singer and performer updating a beautiful tradition of music to being a witness testifying around the world about the devastating war in her homeland. From her temporary home in the west of Ukraine, she travels to the front lines of the war to perform for soldiers. In Ukraine, Krut gained a national following after appearances on that country’s versions of “The X Factor” and “The Voice,” as well as placing in Eurovision.

Learn more about this concert’s music in a free pre-concert lecture by Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin.

No season is complete without our perennial favorite, cellist Sophie Shao, and her talented collaborators. This year, Shao has expanded her circle of award-winning friends to six, who will delight our community with the lush sounds of the beloved sextets of Dvorák and Brahms. They’ll also play Arensky’s quartet for violin, viola, and two cellos—a deeply expressive, late-Romantic homage to his friend Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Rounding out the sextet are violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Kyu-Young Kim, Cara Pogossian and Burchard Tang on viola, and cellist Nina Lee. 

Learn more about this concert’s music in a free pre-concert lecture by Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin.

We welcome the nation’s premiere chamber music organization to our stage: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS). As one of the most popular chamber music configurations, the piano quartet bears rich fruit as it contains a Venn diagram of the players for string and piano trios.

Three visionary artists recognized for musicianship that combines poetry and purity with impeccable technique—violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Toa—combine their internationally recognized talents in the eclectic ensemble Junction Trio. The trio’s Middlebury debut program will include the Vermont premieres of this season’s Music Accord co-commission by award-winning composer Andrew Norman, a new work by Caroline Shaw, and storied works by Ravel and Schumann.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT) will share their work Shabaab (meaning “youth” in Arabic), a full-length performance by Samar Haddad King celebrating the intimacy, beauty, and tenderness of Arab male friendship. In a land where shared dreams and struggles are often overshadowed by the structural obstacles and systemic violence of occupation, the strength and sweetness of their bond is what helps these boys grow into men. YSDT believes that art is liberating, transformative, and accessible to all.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT) will share their work Shabaab (meaning “youth” in Arabic), a full-length performance by Samar Haddad King celebrating the intimacy, beauty, and tenderness of Arab male friendship. In a land where shared dreams and struggles are often overshadowed by the structural obstacles and systemic violence of occupation, the strength and sweetness of their bond is what helps these boys grow into men. YSDT believes that art is liberating, transformative, and accessible to all.

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford illuminate aspects of the elusive amalgamation that is the 17th century English notion of melancholy. The inconsolable “Mad Lover” of this program is reimagined as a character from the reign of Charles II. His tale is told through music from the pen of such violin virtuosos as the prodigiously gifted Nicola Matteis. Heightened by the exuberance and abandon common to those musicians transplanted from Italy, the beguiling nuances of this language of yearning and loss continue to echo in the popular music of our time.

House of Waters is the confluence of multiple musical streams, with immersive studies in India, Senegal, Japan, the Americas, and beyond, all influencing their genre-defying performances. This Grammy-nominated trio is at the forefront of jazz innovation, featuring an original collaboration led by Chicago native Max ZT—the “Jimi Hendrix of the Hammered Dulcimer” (NPR)—and six-string bass master and virtuoso Moto Fukushima from Japan, with a drummer to be announced soon. You won’t want to miss what Béla Fleck calls “the most original band on the planet.” 

Learn more about this concert’s music in a free pre-concert lecture by Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin.

Since his U.S. debut in Middlebury in 2003, pianist Paul Lewis has become not only a Middlebury favorite, but internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. In Middlebury, Lewis will perform a program from his Mozart+ series, juxtaposing Mozart’s lesser-known piano repertoire with works by composers such as Mendelssohn and Copland, illuminating Mozart’s influences over subsequent generations. Don’t miss this world-class finale to our 2026-2027 season.

Tierra del Sol is a community-based ballet folklorico whose aim is to preserve, present, and promote Mexican cultural heritage through traditional dance and music. They will share the rich beauty and diversity of the dances, history, and costumes of Mexico in this matinee event, alongside Middlebury dancers. This performance is the culminating event of their current Rothrock Residency working with Middlebury students. 

Free. No tickets required. Approximate running time: 75 minutes with a 10 minute intermission. A Q&A with the artists will follow the performance. 

Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund for Experiential Learning in the Performing Arts. Learn more about the artists:  https://sites.google.com/site/tierradelsolboston/

Join us in making flower headpieces that are traditionally used for Mexican folk dance performances. This will be a great opportunity to meet people from various backgrounds and create community. We will have multiple stations to allow the participants to enjoy the costume-making process. We hope to see you there! For more information visit: go/tierradelsol

Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the award-winning Celtic quintet Goitse (a Gaelic word for “come here,” pronounced “Go-wit-cha”). Named Live Ireland’s “Traditional Group of the Year” and Chicago Irish American News’ “Group of the Year,” Goitse is leading the new generation of traditional Irish ensembles. Their distinctive sound lies in the quality of their original compositions, interspersed with age-old traditional tunes, making each performance unique.