2015-2016 Season
Sophie Shao and Friends
October 2, Friday
8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
We can think of no better way to open the Performing Arts Series’ 96th season than to invite back our friend, cellist Sophie Shao, whose impromptu, but always note-perfect, chamber ensembles have proved a highlight of many recent seasons. Shao is joined by Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Carmit Zori, violin; and Paul Neubauer, viola. The Times Union reflects, “The players maintained a seamless cohesion and a warm, lean tone. This was all the more admirable because they’re not a regular ensemble, just colleagues and friends.” Please note updated program: Beethoven's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 16 and String Trio in G Major, Op. 9 No. 1; and Dvorak's Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Christian Steiner
Concert run time approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes with 1 intermission.
Read the press release>>
Associated Event:
Dinner and Conversation with Friends
October 2, Friday
6:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Lower Lobby
The pre-performance dinner is back by popular demand! Before settling into the Robison Hall (Concert Hall) for an evening of chamber music by Sophie Shao and Friends, join fellow concertgoers for a delicious, seasonal meal. Meet friends or make new ones at this catered buffet dinner, seated family style. Buy Tickets: $25; Box Office Info>>
Jeremy Denk, piano
October 7, Wednesday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
One of America’s most thought-provoking, multifaceted, and compelling artists, pianist Jeremy Denk is the winner of a 2013 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the 2014 Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s 2014 Instrumentalist of the Year award. The New York Times calls him “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination—both for his penetrating intellectual engagement with the music and for the generosity of his playing.” His program ranges from Bach to Beethoven and Joplin to Ives. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Samantha West
Read the press release>>
Concert run time approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes with 1 intermission.
Program * NOTE UPDATED PROGRAM
Bach: English Suite in G Minor, BWV 808
Byrd: The Passinge Mesures: the Nynthe Pavian, from My Ladye Nevelles Booke
Stravinsky: Piano-Rag-Music
Hindemith: "Ragtime" from Suite "1922"
Hayden/Joplin: "Sunflower Slow Drag"
Nancarrow: Canons for Ursula: No. 1
Bolcom: Graceful Ghost Rag
Lambert: Pilgrim’s Chorus
Intermission
Haydn: Fantasia in C Major, Hob. XVII:4
Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
An Evening in New and Ancient China
Wu Man and Shanghai Quartet
October 29, Thursday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
World-renowned pipa player Wu Man and the impeccable Shanghai Quartet meld the sounds of China with Western string quartet in an unforgettable evening of grand music. The program includes a suite of traditional Chinese folk songs, solo pipa works, Beethoven’s Op. 95 “Quartetto Serioso,” and a new multimedia work by eminent Chinese composer Zhao Jiping and his son, Zhao Lin, including one of Jiping’s most famous cinematic scores: Raise the Red Lantern. Pre-concert lecture, Stories of the Cultural Revolution, by faculty from the Greenberg-Starr Department of Chinese Language and Literature, at 6:30 PM in Room 125. Funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series, with support from the Department of Chinese and the Committee on the Arts. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students.
Concert run time approximately 85 minutes
with 1 intermission.
Discovering a Musical Heartland: Wu Man Returns to China
October 28, Wednesday
4:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Room 125
Attend a screening of Wu Man’s documentary film, followed by a question-and-answer session with the artist. Free
Upper photo Stephen Kahn
Concert Program
TRADITIONAL Xi Yang Xiao Gu (Flute and Drum Music at Sunset)
arr. WU MAN Kui: Song of Kazakhstan
TRADITIONAL Chinese Folk Song Suite for Pipa and String Quartet
HE ZHANGHAO & CHEN GANG (arr. YI-WEN JIANG) Butterfly Love
MAO YUAN & LIU TIE-SHAN Yao Dance
TAN Dun Ghost Opera, for Pipa and String Quartet (chamber version)
Intermission
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F minor No. 11, Op. 95 ("Serioso")
Allegro con brio
Allegretto rna non troppo Allegro assai vivace rna serioso - Più Allegro
Larghetto espressivo - Allegretto agitato – Allegro
ZHAO JIPING & ZHAO LIN Red Lantern, Quintet for Pipa and String Quartet
California Guitar Trio
November 6, Friday
8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
Known worldwide for their technical wizardry, breathtaking intensity, and wide-ranging repertoire, this trio performs an exciting and innovative evening of classical and contemporary works that includes everything from unique originals to dazzling, cleverly arranged interpretations of jazz, classical, rock, and world music. Trio members Bert Lams, Hideyo Moriya, and Paul Richards, hailed by Pulse Music for their “passionate virtuosity,” are graduates of Robert Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists.Their Middlebury program, including everything from Bach to Bohemian Rhapsody, will be announced from the stage. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Buy tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Workshop with the California Guitar Trio
5:00-6:00 PM, Robison Hall. Open to guitarists of all ages/levels and observers. Free and open to the public.
Photo Paolo Aizza
Read the press release>>
Lysander Piano Trio
November 11, Wednesday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
Winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, this trio has been hailed for its “passionate playing, articulate and imaginative ideas, and wide palette of colors”—The Strad. At their Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times lauded the ensemble’s “…rich sound and nuanced musicianship…resulting in a finely hued collaboration among the three musicians.” Their program honoring Veterans Day, entitled “Silenced Voices: Music by European Composers Displaced by World War II,” includes music by Krenek, Ben-Haim, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Weinberg. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students.Box Office Info>>
Photo Richard Blinkoff
Concert run time approximately 70 minutes with 1 intermission.
Read the press release>>
Program
ERNST KRENEK Triophantasie (1929)
PAUL BEN-HAIM Variations on a Hebrew Melody (1933)
Intermission
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Romanzero con Variazioni from Trio no. 2 op. 70 (1932)
MIECZYLAW WEINBERG Piano Trio (1945)
*NOTE NEW LOCATION
The King’s Singers
November 17, Tuesday
7:30 PM, *Mead Chapel
The world’s superlative vocal sextet is acclaimed for both its virtuosity and its irresistible charm, earning the group a vast international audience. The first half of the a cappella program is drawn from their recording Pater Noster: A Choral Reflection on the Lord’s Prayer. After intermission, they take a tour around the globe with songs from their “Postcards Project,” a collection of folk and popular songs amassed on their travels. Music department chair Jeffrey Buettner offers a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 PM at Mead Chapel (please note new location.) Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Chris O’Donovan
Read the press release>>
Heath Quartet
January 14, Thursday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
After hearing this U.K.-based quartet’s stunning U.S. debut here in April 2014, and seeing their exemplary work with Middlebury students, Performing Arts Series Director Allison Coyne Carroll invited this extraordinary ensemble to spend winter term 2016 as the series’ first-ever quartet in residence. They will teach, perform the entire Bartók cycle over two concerts, and offer a third, mixed-repertoire recital. In this first recital, the Heath plays Béla Bartók’s String Quartets 1, 3, and 5. This free Performing Arts Series concert is made possible with generous support from the Sunderman Family Concert Endowment Fund, in memory of Dr. F. William Sunderman, Jr. and Dr. Carolyn Reynolds Sunderman.
See associated concerts January 21 and February 4. Free; no tickets required
Read the press release>>
Heath Quartet website>>
Program:
BELÀ BARTÓK
String Quartet No. 1, BB 52, Op. 7 (Sz. 40)
Lento
Poco a poco accelerando all'allegretto
Allegro vivace
String Quartet No. 3, BB 93 (Sz. 85)
Prima parte: Moderato
Seconda parte: Allegro
Recapitulazione della prima parte: Moderato
Coda: Allegro molto
Intermission
String Quartet No. 5, BB 110 (Sz. 102)
Allegro
Adagio molto
Scherzo: alla bulgarese
Andante
Finale: Allegro vivace
*New! Associated Event:
New Compositions for String Quartet
Performed by the Heath Quartet
January 22, Friday
12:00 PM, Robison (Concert) Hall
The Heath Quartet—the Performing Arts Series first quartet-in-residence—will perform a special matinee concert of original works composed by students in Professor Su Lian Tan's MUSC309 class. Composers include Henry Pearson '17, Sam Kudman '17, York Kitajima '15, Tevan Goldberg '18, and Scott Waller '17.5. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series, Department of Music, and Rothrock Residency Fund for Experiential Learning in the Performing Arts. Free
Associated Event:
Pre-concert Lecture for PASS Members
January 14, Thursday
6:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Room 221
Members of the Performing Arts Series Society (PASS) are invited to a talk by Professor of Music Greg Vitercik about the works to be performed by the Heath Quartet. Enjoy a backstage peek into the pre-concert experience. A members-only event; membership information: 802-443-PASS (7277) or go.middlebury.edu/pass
Heath Quartet
January 21, Thursday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
Just two years ago, the Heath Quartet became the first ensemble in 15 years to win the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists Award. In this second recital as Middlebury’s winter term quartet in residence, the Heath plays Béla Bartók’s String Quartets 2, 4, and 6. This free Performing Arts Series concert is made possible with generous support from the Sunderman Family Concert Endowment Fund, in memory of Dr. F. William Sunderman, Jr. and Dr. Carolyn Reynolds Sunderman.
See associated concerts January 14 and February 4. Free; no tickets required
Program:
BELÀ BARTÓK
String Quartet No. 2, BB 75, Op. 17 (Sz. 67)
Moderato
Allegro molto capriccioso
Lento
String Quartet No. 4, BB 95 (Sz. 91)
Allegro
Prestissimo, con sordino
Non troppo lento
Allegretto pizzicato
Allegro molto
Intermission
String Quartet No. 6, BB 119 (Sz. 114)
Mesto – Vivace
Mesto – Marcia
Mesto – Burletta (Moderato)
Mesto – Molto tranquillo
Heath Quartet
February 4, Thursday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Heath Quartet was awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship and in 2012 won Ensemble Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. To round out their winter term as quartet in residence, the group plays a mixed repertoire program including Haydn’s Op 20 No. 5, Beethoven’s Op. 135, and Tchaikovsky’s Quartet No. 3. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. See associated concerts January 14 and 21. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury Students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Sussie Ahlburg
Program
HAYDN Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5
Moderato
Menuet & Trio
Adagio
Finale. Fuga a 2 soggetti
BEETHOVEN Quartet in F Major, Op. 135
Allegretto
Vivace
Lento assai, cantate e tranquillo
Der schwer gefasste Entschluss (Grave - Allegro - Grave ma non troppo tanto - Allegro)
Intermission
TCHAIKOVSKY Quartet No. 3 in E-flat Minor, Op. 30
Andante sostenuto - Allegro moderato
Allegretto vivo e scherzando
Andante funebre e doloroso, ma con moto
Allegro non troppo e risoluto
Associated Event:
Performing Arts Series Society (PASS) Reception
February 4, Thursday
6:15 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Lower Lobby
A festive evening for members to gather and celebrate the fourth year of PASS, preview select performances from the 2016–17 season, and vote on which event to support. Membership information: 802-443-PASS (7277) or go.middlebury.edu/pass
Bria Skonberg Quintet
February 19, Friday
8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
Trumpeter, vocalist, and composer Bria Skonberg is “poised to be one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation”—Wall Street Journal. Her star is on the rise: she earned a 2013 Jazz Journalists’ Association nomination for “Up and Coming Jazz Artist of The Year,” won a spot in Downbeat Magazine’s Rising Star Critics’ Poll for the past two years running, and swept the 2014 Hot House Jazz Awards in all categories nominated: Best Jazz Artist, Best Trumpet, Best Female Vocalist, and Best Group. Her Middlebury program is an ode to Louis Armstrong, plus a mix of jazz standards and her original works. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Seth Cashman
Read the press release>>
Tina Packer’s Women of Will
February 20–21, Saturday–Sunday
8:00 PM Saturday, 7:00 PM Sunday, Wright Memorial Theatre
Join master actor/dramaturg Tina Packer as she deconstructs and conjures William Shakespeare’s most famous female characters in two funny and fierce shows that are part performance and part master class. On Saturday, Packer and costar Nigel Gore perform Force and Heat: The Early Plays. On Sunday, they present Chaos and Redemption: The Later Plays. “Marvelous!”–Ben Brantley, New York Times. Book signings after each show. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series and the Theatre Program, in conjunction with the exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio at the Museum. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Kevin Sprague
Read the press release>>
Maria João Pires and Julien Brocal, piano
March 12, Saturday
8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
One of the finest musicians of her generation, Maria João Pires continues to transfix audiences with the spotless integrity, eloquence, and vitality of her art. Also a dedicated educator, she performs recitals with her most gifted piano students as part of her “Partitura Project,” designed to create an altruistic dynamic between artists of different generations. Pires shares her Vermont debut with student Julien Brocal, praising his “poetry, spontaneity, restraint, and a profound sense of structure and awareness of sound.” Pires and Brocal will take turns at the piano, playing works by Ravel and Beethoven sonatas, and will treat us to a duet for four hands by Debussy. The program is approximately 2 hours including 1 intermission. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series and the Performing Arts Series Society. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students; PASS Members $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Read the press release>>
Program *Updated 3/2/16
DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après midi d’un Faune (transcription by Ravel)
RAVEL Sonatine
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No.31 in A-flat major, Op.110
Intermission
RAVEL Miroirs
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor, Op.111
Photos: Felix Broede and Music Chapel
Associated event: *CANCELED.
Dinner and Conversation with Friends
March 12, Saturday
6:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Lower Lobby
Before settling into the Robison Hall (Concert Hall) for an evening of chamber music by pianists Maria João Pires and Julien Brocal, join fellow concertgoers for a pre-performance dinner. Meet friends or make new ones at this catered buffet meal, seated family style. Buy Tickets: $25. Box Office Info>>
*Canceled due to significant staffing changes in dining services.
Jupiter String Quartet
with Roger Tapping, viola, and Natasha Brofsky, cello
March 23, Wednesday
7:30 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall (Concert Hall)
The Jupiter String Quartet is known around the world for blazing, passionate, and energetic performances. Between three of the four members being related, and their annual treks to Middlebury, the Jupiters feel like family. This time, they visit our Robison Hall (Concert Hall) with friends: the husband and wife team of violist Roger Tapping (whom many will remember from his many years with the Takács Quartet) and cellist Natasha Brofsky. Together, these artists will wow our audience with a special evening of sextet music worthy of family: Brahms’ G Major Sextet and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series. Professor of Music Larry Hamberlin offers a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 PM in Room 125. Reserved Seating. Buy Tickets: $25 Public/$20 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Progam
SCHUBERT Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703
Allegro assai
SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4
Sehr langsam
Breiter
Schwer betont
Sehr breit und langsam
Sehr rubig
Intermission
BRAHMS String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36
Allegro non troppo
Scherzo - Allegro non troppo - Presto giocoso
Adagio
Poco allegro
Photos Brian Stauffer and Susan Wilson
Tzveta Kassabova and Friends
April 8–9, Friday–Saturday
8:00 PM, Mahaney Center for the Arts, Dance Theatre
Hailed by the New York Times for a “wonderfully evocative use of the theater,” dynamic new works by Middlebury’s own Tzveta Kassabova transform the theater using raw dance vocabulary, live music, and half a mile of rope. The program of dances features a collaborative trio entitled “Suneaters" by Paul Matteson ’00 (Five Colleges), Elena Demyanenko (Bennington College), and Jennifer Nugent (Amherst College). Kassabova’s newly crafted group work, “Of this world of ours,” reveals her fascination with the concept of space through both choreography and design. Sponsored by the Performing Arts Series and the Dance Program. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Photo Scotty Hardwig
Read the press release>>
Program
Of this world of ours
Choreography | Tzveta Kassabova with the performers |
Music | Michael Wall |
Text | Peter Handke |
Performance | Joey Loto, Lacey Moore, Keanu Brady, Tzveta Kassabova, Emma Geisdorf, and Kamen Panayotov |
Costume and set | Tzveta Kassabova |
Projection | Scotty Hardwig |
Lighting design | Michael Giannitti |
Tech. direction | Jennifer Ponder |
Intermission
Suneaters
Choreography | Elena Demyanenko, Tzveta Kassabova, and Paul Matteson ’00 |
Performance | Elena Demyanenko, Tzveta Kassabova, and Jennifer Nugent |
Music | Nicholas Brooke |
Lighting design | Michael Giannitti |
Tech. direction | Jennifer Ponder |
Nathan Laube, organ
May 1, Sunday
3:00 PM, Mead Memorial Chapel
The Performing Arts Series collaborates with the Bach Festival again this season—this time with a keyboard performance. Organist Nathan Laube treats audiences to a program of Bach and Reger that celebrates Mead Chapel’s 45-year-old Gress-Miles organ. The Oberlin Review may have said it best: “The organ is indeed the king of instruments and Mr. Laube one of its supreme players.” Laube’s brilliant playing and gracious demeanor have thrilled audiences and presenters across the United States and in Europe. He offers a pre-concert lecture at 2:15 PM. With support from the Middlebury Bach Festival and the Office of the President. Buy Tickets: $20 Public/$15 Middlebury ID holders/$6 Middlebury students. Box Office Info>>
Program
BACH Toccata et Fuga in d, BWV 565
BACH Pastorella, BWV 590
BACH Concerto in D nach A. Vivaldi, BWV 972
[Allegro]
Larghetto
Allegro
BACH Pièce d'Orgue, BWV 572
Intermission
BACH Chromatische Fantasie und Fuge, BWV 903
Transcription by Max Reger
REGER Phantasie und Fuge über den Namen BACH, Op. 46
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This concert is registered event for National Chamber Music Month and Reger 100.
