Music
The Department of Music provides a creative environment for the study and performance of music with a global perspective, and encourages students to develop skills, expand knowledge, and contribute actively to society as artists and citizens.
We offer a diverse curriculum that engages students in historical and cultural study, as well as analysis, creation, and performance of music.
Our emphasis on global perspective and experiential learning provides opportunities for each student to explore and develop their own musical passions, and to collaborate with peers and faculty in many ways, including through interdisciplinary work, ensemble participation, and independent projects.
Performance Opportunities
African Music and Dance
Chamber Music
College Choir
Community Chorus
College Orchestra
Collegium
Jazz
Musical Theater
All Music Department courses, ensembles, lessons, and other activities are equally available to nonmajors and majors alike. The curriculum for music majors offers a balance between thoroughness and flexibility, offering each student a chance to develop areas of strength in the context of a broad liberal arts education.
A wide range of lessons are available—including piano, voice, and most orchestral instruments.
Our Facilities
The MAC
The 100,000-square-foot Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts, known as the MAC, is a hub of arts activity on campus. It’s also home to the Music Department and includes practice rooms, lockers, an electronic music studio, and a 372-seat concert hall.
Explore the MACUpcoming Events
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Jazz Workshop
The Jazz Workshop provides a weekly opportunity for jazz students to study jazz history, repertoire development, jazz conventions, jazz idiom and theory, and a chance to practice strategies and tools, improvisation, and playing in small groups.
Mahaney Arts Center 221
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Middlebury College Community Chorus
The Middlebury College Community Chorus presents a world premiere for choir and piano called So We Try, composed by Peter Buffet and arranged for chorus by Peter Kiesewalter. There are also selections by Pete Seeger, Felix Mendelssohn, Ed Thompson, as well as another world premiere by Vermont-based composer Dorothy Robson. This will be an evening chock-full of new music that will challenge the way you think about choral singing, our relationship to the Earth, and our shared humanity. We hope you will join us for this wild ride! Conducted by Ronnie Romano ‘20 at the piano.
Mahaney Arts Center, Olin C. Robison Concert Hall
Open to the Public
Free
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Hadestown: A Song Cycle Sung Again
What happens when you make music together, not in pursuit of perfection, but in pursuit of connection? Since February 2025, a group of musicians and fellow artists have been putting that question into practice, finding conversation and community through the creative process. Through the music of Anaïs Mitchell (’04), we find hope through tragedy and meaning behind why we perform to begin with. This selected song cycle is not just a concert, but an ongoing gift to give: to make us all “see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is.”
Mahaney Arts Center Lower Lobby
Open to the Public
Free; no tickets required