Performing Arts Series

Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin explores the Tákacs Quartet’s Bartók cycle program.

Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin explores Le Consort’s program entitled “Hidden Treasures of the Baroque.”

Award-winning pianist and humanitarian Mahani Teave is a pioneering artist who bridges the creative world with education and environmental activism. She is also the only professional classical musician on her native Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

This ambitiously inventive Nordic trio is one of the world’s most talked-about acts in the acoustic realm. Their hit “The World Was Waiting” feels spot-on, as we’ve been eagerly awaiting their return ever since their joyous, sold-out Middlebury performance in March 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

 

One of the world’s finest chamber ensembles, nine-time Grammy winners, and longtime friends of our Performing Arts Series, the Emerson String Quartet visits our campus on their farewell tour. In this, their 33^rd and final Middlebury appearance, they play quartets by Shostakovich and Ravel, Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and our Music Accord co-commission Drink the Wild Ayre by Sarah Kirkland Snider.

 

Small Island Big Song is a multi-platform project uniting the seafaring cultures of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, a region at the frontline of the climate crisis. Indigenous artists come together with filmmakers and poets to present irresistible oceanic grooves and soulful island ballads collected across 16 countries, all guided by the artists on their respective islands. Experience the concert event that Billboard calls “one coherent jaw-dropping piece.”

The dynamic and charismatic Heath Quartet—our series’ first quartet-in-residence—is one of the most exciting British chamber ensembles of the moment, steadily building a reputation for their upbeat and integrated sound. We celebrate our 20th year of support from the Sunderman Family Concert Fund with this free concert, including works by Bach, Haydn, Henriette Bosmans, and Erick Korngold. 

Applauded by the New York Times for her “eloquent, powerful” interpretations, cellist Sophie Shao has a gift for assembling impromptu chamber ensembles that are brimming with passion and talent. If you’ve never heard her play before, or if you’re a veteran of her concerts, you’ll realize why no season is complete without one of her marvelous performances! The concert program will include Messiaen’s Quartet for The End of Time, and Vermont composer David Ludwig’s Spiral Galaxy.

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 inspires people through their music and by sharing their joy of singing. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos. Their performances are praised for their meticulous timing and tuning, impressive blend, and radiant sound. VOCES8’s Vermont debut program, entitled “20 Songs from 20 Years,” features beloved music from across the centuries and pieces by contemporary composers that the ensemble proudly calls friends.

Written and performed by Rachel Mars. Award-winning theatre maker Rachel Mars performs a gloriously rude new solo show that unearths the hot-as-hell letters that make sexts blush. Before sexts there were hand-written letters—and loads of them were properly filthy. With the help of the internet, friends, and two sexologists, Mars has unearthed missives dating back centuries.