Facilities
You’ll find numerous facilities related to your study of music across campus.
Mahaney Arts Center
The 100,000-square-foot Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts (MAC) serves as a hub of arts activity on campus and is home to the Music Department. Opened in 1992, the space includes special facilities related to the study of music:
- A 372-seat concert hall with a 27-by-40-foot elliptical stage and a wraparound balcony.
- Practice rooms, all equipped with pianos—five of the rooms contain grand pianos. See more information below.
- A French double-manual harpsichord, built by William Dowd in 1964 and upgraded in 1985, housed in one of the practice rooms. It has five octaves and three choirs of strings. Private lessons are available.
- A three-rank portatif organ, available for student use.
Electronic Music Studio
The electronic music studio, located in the MAC, houses computer workstations with software for the creation of digital music compositions. Also available in the Music Department are MIDI keyboards and computers with software for creating music scores.
Music Collection
The music collection, located in the Davis Family Library, contains reference, CD, book, video, and score collections in the field of music and dance. In the library’s Special Collections, the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection comprises an archive of recordings and other primary-sourced materials documenting the vanishing tradition of the English-language folk ballad.
Lockers
If you would like to store your musical instrument at the MAC, please stop by Room 307 to reserve a locker and sign out a key for the academic year. All lockers need to be cleaned out and keys returned before students leave campus for the summer.
Practice Rooms
There are nine practice rooms, located in the MAC. They are only reserved when requested by instructors for college student private music lessons, and a schedule will be posted on each door. Otherwise, availability is on a first-come, first-served basis. All are equipped with pianos, and five contain grand pianos.
The Chapel Organ and Carillon
The Middlebury Chapel houses a large pipe organ that was constructed by the Gress-Miles Organ Company in 1971, and dedicated by Professor Emeritus Emory Fanning, College organist. It has three keyboards and some 3,100 pipes of various sizes, composing 50 ranks, or sets of pipes. Many outstanding organists have given recitals on this brilliant and versatile instrument; it is also used to accompany numerous services and concerts. Recent additions include computer-generated key/stop action, which allows innovative assistance to the performer; as well as playback memory and digital pedal stops. Students interested in organ study should contact Professor Fanning at 802-388-6897.
The carillon, atop the chapel, is considered a traditional carillon of 48 bells. In 1915, the instrument was begun with 11 bells by the Meneely bell foundry in Watervliet, New York. Nine bells remain from that work. In 1986, the instrument was enlarged to its present size with bells made by Paccard-Fonderie des Cloches in Annecy, France. Twenty-seven bells remain from that work. In 2001, 12 bells were recast or replaced by Meeks & Watson of Georgetown, Ohio.