The Top Ten 2012 Language Schools Events
Please check the College calendar for updates and details. You can find it online at http://go.middlebury.edu/events/. All events are free to the public except where noted.
The Language Schools receptionist can be reached at 802.443.5510. Please note that crowd management will be in effect at Language Schools events, and venues will be filled only to their stated capacity.
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June 2012
Dear Colleagues,
I invite you to enjoy some of the cultural events that take place during the summer Language Schools. As we have done in the past, we have taken the liberty of listing for you what the Language Schools directors and I consider to be some of the special highlights of the session. These highlights, now fondly known as "The Top Ten List," are listed below. I hope to see some of you on these special cultural occasions.
As a reminder, due to changes in Vermont state laws regarding public events, the majority of the events during Language Schools will not be open to the public. Members of the College community are not considered part of the general public and may continue to attend events of interest—in language, of course. If you would like to bring a guest who is not a member of the College community, please check the events calendar to see if the event is open to the public. If it is not an open event, outside guests are not permitted to attend. The "Top Ten" and other advertised events are, of course, open to everyone.
In summer 2012, both the Arabic and Japanese schools are located at our West Coast site, at Mills College, in Oakland, California.
The faculty and staff of the Language Schools look forward to seeing you over the course of the summer.
Sincerely,
Michael E. Geisler
Vice President for Language Schools, Schools Abroad, and Graduate Programs
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Chinese School
Saturday, July 21, 7:00 p.m.- Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall
Music From China – Musical performance
Music From China is a chamber ensemble that performs a dual repertoire of traditional and contemporary Chinese music. The group was founded in 1984 by Director Susan Cheng and is under the artistic direction of erhu virtuoso Wang Guowei. What began as a mission to introduce audiences to the best of Chinese musical culture evolved into an affinity for the eclectic that embraces both traditional and new music.
French School
Saturday, July 21, 8:00 p.m. - McCullough Social Space
Le Vent Du Nord – Musical performance
Le Vent du Nord is the top traditional music group from Québec, performing melodies and stories and exploring multiple cultural music traditions. Since its beginning in 2002, Le Vent du Nord has exploded onto the folk music scene. The group’s first recording, Maudite moisson!, was awarded a prize for traditional album of the year in 2004. Their second album, Les amants du Saint-Laurent, was chosen album of the year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Le Vent du Nord won the 2011 Juno for best Roots & Traditional Album, and was an official selection of the jury of WOMEX 2011, the biggest international music fair in the world.
German School
Sunday, August 12, 8:00 p.m. - Wright Memorial Theater
A Man Walks into a World (Kommt ein Mann zur Welt) - Play
Martin Heckmanns’ play A Man Walks into a World (Kommt ein Mann zur Welt) plays on the playwright’s core theme of identity. “Who am I?” is a question Heckmanns never finds himself able to answer, as it always tends to open an even deeper abyss instead of a congruent answer. In A Man Walks into a World (2007), he presents the audience with the curriculum vitae of an emblematic character, who struggles to make decisions and exercise his free-will against the constraints of heritage and genealogy. Heckmanns manages to make this broad philosophical theme theatrically worthy by creating a linguistically witty play with action-oriented scenes. The main character Bruno Stamm is endowed with the common conviction that he is more special than the rest of mankind. During the course of the play, we witness him stumble into all the standard pitfalls of life that disappoint these convictions.
German School
Friday, August 10, 8:00 p.m. - Town Hall Theater
Mozart opera, The Marriage of Figaro – Opera Performance
Cost: Language School students and staff free. A limited number of $15 tickets are available to the general public.
The Marriage of Figaro will be performed by our German for Singers program students. This innovative Language Schools program brings in classical singers from all over the country who want to master the German language – essential for anyone who wants to sing Mozart, Schubert, Strauss or Wagner. This summer, the program will stage Mozart’s classic comedy, under the direction of Bettina Matthias. Music direction by Stefan Rütter.
School of Hebrew
Sunday, July 1, 7:30 p.m. - Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall
Gitit Shoval and Ron Druyan - Concert
Gitit Shoval is one of Israel's singing treasures. She was first discovered at the pre-Eurovision contest of 1979 when she was just 13 years old. Since then, she has performed around the world, both as a solo performer and with various musical ensembles. Gitit has performed on six solo albums, and she has four holiday and children's albums to her credit. Gitit's seventh solo album complements her current show, "From Gershwin to Dylan: The Genius of Jewish Songwriters." In addition to her work for adult audiences, Gitit Shoval has provided the Hebrew voice of many children's characters, including Smurfette, Barbie for Mattel's direct-to-DVD series, Rupert Bear, and many more.
Italian School
Sunday, August 12, 9:00 p.m. - McCullough Social Space
La Taranta – Dance performance
La Taranta is a dance performance based on Tarantismo, a hysterical, convulsive dance manifestation attributed, according to popular belief, to the bite of the tarantula, a poisonous spider thriving in the area around Taranto (ancient Tarentum) from which it derives its name.
Portuguese School
Saturday, July 28, 9:00 p.m. - Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall
Richard Miller and special guests Stacey Kent & Jim Tomlinson – Concert
Richard Miller and his acoustic guitar bring us music in several rhythmic styles, including Xote and Bossa Nova. Accompanied by Vanderlei Pereira on percussion and Gigi McLaughlin on the accordion, Miller's "Rhythms of Brazil" brings together a combination of styles whose origins span from southeastern to northern Brazil. Stacey Kent (vocals) and Jim Tomlinson (saxophone) will be joining Richard on stage.
School of Russian
Wednesday, July 25, 7:00 p.m. - Mahaney CFA Concert Hall
Leopold Erice - Piano Concert
Leopoldo Erice is a Spanish pianist born in Madrid in 1977. He studied music in his home country with José Ramón Martínez Reyero, Beata Monstavicius, and Joaquín Soriano (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid); in Holland with Rian de Waal (Koninklijk Konservatorium in The Hague); as a fellow of the prestigious “la Caixa” Foundation Fellowship Program (Spain), and in the US with Leonard Hokanson and Emile Naoumoff (Indiana University). He has won several prestigious national and international prizes, among which the “Ciudad de Albacete” and the “Acisclo Fernández” stand out. He is Assistant Professor of Music at the American University of Sharjah (UAE) and he is the founder and director of the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica de Ribadeo (Spain).
School of Russian
August 3, 8:00 p.m. - Town Hall Theater
**Special thanks to Douglas Anderson, Executive Director of the Town Hall Theater, for bringing this production to Middlebury.
Zolotoj Plyos – Concert
Cost: $15
Zolotoj Plyos, a concert of Russian Music. This prolific trio performs an astonishing variety of authentic Russian folk music, with instrumental accompaniment on over 20 authentic folk instruments (dutki, treshchetki, lozhki, balalaiki, garmoshki, etc.). The three musicians, Alexander Solovov, Elena Sadina, and Sergeui Gratchev, met at the conservatory in Saratov.
Spanish School
Friday, July 20, 9:30 p.m. - McCullough Social Space
Sarazino and Sergent Garcia – Concert
Sarazino is the brainchild of Lamine Fellah, a musician, songwriter and producer whose nomadic life is reflected in the multicultural influences in his songs. Fellah is a true child of a globalized world and Sarazino’s music draws on reggae, Latin and African grooves, Arabic music and catchy, international pop to create an upbeat celebration of the diverse world we all share. Sergent Garcia burst onto the French music scene in the late 1990s with a searing blend of Jamaican reggae and dancehall with Latin grooves that he dubbed "salsamuffin." A veteran of French punk and indie rock, Sergent Garcia has explored his Spanish roots and passion for Caribbean and Latin music to create a popular sound that earned him fans across the globe and sales of hundreds of thousands of albums.
