College Orchestra

We welcome students from all disciplines and concentration from across campus—you do not need to be a music major to participate. Faculty and staff, community members, and professional players are also welcome when possible.  

The orchestra presents two concerts a year and is involved in special events. Over the last two decades, the orchestra has performed with professional soloists from the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the College Choir, Concerto Competition winners, in Theater Department productions, radio performances, and in festivals and symposia.

Orchestra Spring Updates!

Spring Concert!

Join us for our Spring concert on Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 3pm for a fabulous program including the winner of the 2026 Beucher Concerto Competition Winner!

Korngold: Overture to The Sea Hawk

Debussy: Premiere Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Orchestra

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5

Feenix Grants!

We’re so pleased to announce the start of a grants program called Feenix! Feenix is a new program harnessing your talent, motivation, and curiosity to go higher and better faster. Feenix aims to create opportunities for student musicians to extend, enhance, and build their musical training and skills through funding student-driven and student-centered projects in performance.

Considering attending a music summer program? Looking for advanced lessons with teachers not immediately available in the Vermont area? Trying to attend or participate in a masterclass? Have another idea related to improving your performance skills? Feenix can help with all of these things and more. Grants to cover program fees, lessons, masterclass attendance, and travel costs (even internationally) and more are available. 

We just awarded the first grant for one of our musicians to attend a summer program in Berlin, Germany! More information coming on our website, so stay tuned!

Our first-ever collaboration with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra!

Last weekend on April 18, 2026, in Burlington, VT a quartet of orchestra musicians was invited to join the VSO’s chamber music concert called Jukebox. They performed works by Dvorak and Sorensen as part of a program centered on Americana roots. It was a smash success! The upshot? The orchestra has been invited to collaborate with them yearly as part of their chamber series, working and performing alongside professional musicians. Congrats to the quartet members, and we’re looking forward to more exciting programs!

Rehearsals - Spring 2026

Sunday and Thursday, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Robison Hall, Mahaney Arts Center

Our first meeting will be Thursday, February 12 at 7:00 p.m.  Please come! There will be general information for everyone, news about the group, scheduling the fall concert, and what we’re looking forward to this semester, followed by auditions. Auditions are simple, low-stress, and required for everyone including new and returning members. Please see below for audition guidelines.

Audition Guidelines

Auditions will be in-person at MAC 221 on Feb. 12 and 15

Music for auditions

• Please prepare two brief contrasting excerpts from your instrument’s solo literature that demonstrate your expressive and technical capabilities. For example, a fast, technical excerpt and a slow, expressive one. While ideally they are from different pieces, excerpts can be from the same piece—just make sure they are as contrasting as possible.

Orchestra for Course Credit

Orchestra is also a class (MUSC 0205A) that students register for during their second semester of full participation (one credit). 

Recent Repertoire

Abrams The Bronze Horseman Overture (premiere)

Beethoven Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”

Berlioz Romeo and Juliette: Scene d’amour

Borodin Symphony No. 2

Chabrier Espana

Copland Billy the Kid Suite, An Outdoor Overture

DeBouter Piano Concerto (premiere)

Debussy Nocturnes

DvorakSymphony No. 8, Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)

Elgar Enigma Variations

Franck Symphony

Herrmann Vertigo Suite

JohnsonThe Hidden Mountains (premiere)

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5, “Reformation” (revised 1830 version)

Mozart Magic Flute Overture, Bassoon Concerto

Mussorgsky/RavelPictures at an Exhibition

Schumann Symphony No. 1, “Spring”

VerdiNabucco Overture

Weber Der Freischutz Overture

Wagner Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III, Siegfried Idyll

Contact

Music Director: Evan Bennett, bennett@middlebury.edu 

President: Lincoln Pierce, orchestra@middlebury.edu

Treasurer: Arlo Thomas

Strings Librarian: Crosby Woods

Winds Librarian: Elliot Persell

Social Chairs: Anna Armstrong

About the Music Director

Conductor Evan Bennett Is Music Director of the Middlebury College Orchestra and the Northeastern University Symphony Orchestra. He trained also as a composer, oboist, and pianist, winning national and international awards for both composition and as a solo oboist. At nineteen he began playing professionally with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. He has conducted the Juventas Ensemble, Magnitude6, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Middlebury Chamber Soloists, Lowell Opera, Boston International Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. His passion for contemporary music has led to conducting the premieres of over 25 new works. His compositions have been premiered by the Brodsky String Quartet, Gemini, Cardinal Brass Quintet, Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra, and a broadcast over BBC Radio.

Awards include the Yehudi Menuhin Prize and a Naumburg fellowship. In addition to his musical activities, he has been a guest lecturer and panelist on music education in the US and internationally, including for the Korean government as part of its national KIGA program and at Tufts University. A former faculty member of Middlebury College, New England Conservatory, and Longy School, he was also Executive Director of the NEC at Walnut Hill. He is also a faculty member at Northeastern University. He holds degrees from Harvard, Juilliard, and Princeton University.