Performing Arts Series

All are welcome at this lecture/demonstration with members of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. Learn more about the company’s creative process in advance of their weekend performances of Shabaab.

For PASS Members: Wednesday, 9/9
Click here to learn more and join the Performing Arts Series Society!

For Middlebury College ID card holders: Tuesday, 9/15
Includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders

For the general public: Thursday, 9/17

For PASS Members: Wednesday, 9/9
Click here to learn more and join the Performing Arts Series Society!

For Middlebury College ID card holders: Tuesday, 9/15
Includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders

For the general public: Thursday, 9/17

For PASS Members: Wednesday, 9/9
Click here to learn more and join the Performing Arts Series Society!

For Middlebury College ID card holders: Tuesday, 9/15
Includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders

For the general public: Thursday, 9/17

Since his U.S. debut in Middlebury in 2003, pianist Paul Lewis has become not only a Middlebury favorite, but internationally regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. In Middlebury, Lewis will perform a program from his Mozart+ series, juxtaposing Mozart’s lesser-known piano repertoire with works by composers such as Mendelssohn and Copland, illuminating Mozart’s influences over subsequent generations. Don’t miss this world-class finale to our 2026-2027 season.

Learn more about this concert’s music in a free pre-concert lecture by Professor Emeritus of Music Larry Hamberlin.

House of Waters is the confluence of multiple musical streams, with immersive studies in India, Senegal, Japan, the Americas, and beyond, all influencing their genre-defying performances. This Grammy-nominated trio is at the forefront of jazz innovation, featuring an original collaboration led by Chicago native Max ZT—the “Jimi Hendrix of the Hammered Dulcimer” (NPR)—and six-string bass master and virtuoso Moto Fukushima from Japan, with a drummer to be announced soon. You won’t want to miss what Béla Fleck calls “the most original band on the planet.” 

Violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte and lutenist Thomas Dunford illuminate aspects of the elusive amalgamation that is the 17th century English notion of melancholy. The inconsolable “Mad Lover” of this program is reimagined as a character from the reign of Charles II. His tale is told through music from the pen of such violin virtuosos as the prodigiously gifted Nicola Matteis. Heightened by the exuberance and abandon common to those musicians transplanted from Italy, the beguiling nuances of this language of yearning and loss continue to echo in the popular music of our time.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT) will share their work Shabaab (meaning “youth” in Arabic), a full-length performance by Samar Haddad King celebrating the intimacy, beauty, and tenderness of Arab male friendship. In a land where shared dreams and struggles are often overshadowed by the structural obstacles and systemic violence of occupation, the strength and sweetness of their bond is what helps these boys grow into men. YSDT believes that art is liberating, transformative, and accessible to all.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT) will share their work Shabaab (meaning “youth” in Arabic), a full-length performance by Samar Haddad King celebrating the intimacy, beauty, and tenderness of Arab male friendship. In a land where shared dreams and struggles are often overshadowed by the structural obstacles and systemic violence of occupation, the strength and sweetness of their bond is what helps these boys grow into men. YSDT believes that art is liberating, transformative, and accessible to all.