A mainstay of the Middlebury arts scene, the Performing Arts Series is back for its 105th season with a lineup as rich as it is varied. From classical chamber music to modern dance, there is something to compel everyone to make a trip to the Mahaney Arts Center (MAC) this fall. The Performing Arts Series has long allowed students, professors and community members to enjoy first-class, diverse arts programming as a collective. With classes underway and back-to-school antics in full swing, don’t forget to include these fabulously curated events while marking up your calendars this syllabus week.
To start the season, the all-women ensemble Sophie Shao and Friends will perform a program of sonatas and piano trios at Middlebury on Sept. 28. Pianist Christina Dahl and two-time Grammy-nominated violinist Jennifer Frautschi will join Shao, a cellist, for an evening of musical performance. Shao is a celebrated favorite of the Performing Arts Series and helmed the chamber music performance commemorating composer Sergei Rachmaninoff this past April.
The following week, the musical duo Bala Bila will showcase the intercultural harmonies of West and East African stylings. Balla Kouyate, hailing from Mali, will be playing the balafon, calabash and bass guitar and Matchume Zango from Mozambique will be on the timbila, mbira and percussion. Kouyate and Zango will be performing in an intimate, living-room-style concert sure to highlight their skills as composers and multi-instrumentalists.
Next up, the four-man ensemble Sō Percussion, in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, will be performing on Oct. 25 for a Middlebury debut that is not to be missed. Sō Percussion was founded in 1999 at the Yale School of Music and is acclaimed by The New Yorker as having maintained an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.” The concert will feature songs from Sō’s co-composed albums with Shaw and is also set to include Middlebury percussion students to join Sō on stage for a portion of the performance.
The season’s midway point is marked by the return of the renowned Jerusalem Quartet on Nov. 3. Celebrating their 30th season, the Jerusalem Quartet will be performing a program featuring the works of Haydn, Shostakovich and Dvorák. The group has enjoyed international acclaim for a caliber of technical precision and interpretive depth that continues to elevate the string quartet tradition.
On Nov. 15 and 16, Emmy award-winning choreographer and dancer Sean Dorsey is bringing his newest piece, “The Lost Art of Dreaming” to the MAC. Dorsey’s reputation precedes him, with awards ranging from Emmies to Goldies and an impressive educational career committed to an explicitly trans-positive pedagogy. “The Lost Art of Dreaming” will make for an evening of personal storytelling performed by a five-person ensemble of trans, queer and gender-non-conforming dancers.
To round out the fall series, jazz extraordinaire Bria Skonberg will return to Middlebury with a seasonally apt program entitled “Jingle Bell Swing.” The concert will include her hit cover of “All I Want For Christmas is You,” showcasing the artist’s signature smoky vocals and New Orleans-style trumpet flair. Skonberg sold out the MAC almost a decade ago and Middlebury will be lucky enough to have her back on Dec. 4.
Looking ahead to J-Term, the ensemble Choral Chameleon will perform a dynamic, mixed-repertoire concert on Jan. 18 and will hold an additional performance alongside students on Jan. 22. Defined by their adventuresome spirit and experimentative verve, Choral Chameleon champions new and unexpected combinations of music. The group will be making a triumphant return to Middlebury after a recent sound bath concert performance in the fall of 2022. The group is led by founding artistic director Vince Peterson, who has written a new composition just for Middlebury, so these two events are a must-see.
If last year’s Performing Arts Series looked enticing, the Middlebury community is in for a treat with the selection the MAC has chosen to follow up their previous season. There are rising stars, beloved favorites and anticipated debuts to look forward to amid classes and campus hustle and bustle. And if you’re feeling inclined to write about any of these performances, our line is always open…
Catherine Goodrich '24 (she/her) is an Arts and Culture Editor.
She previously served as a staff writer. Catherine is an English major and Film minor hailing from Birmingham, Alabama. She is the prose editor for Blackbird Literary Arts Journal and works concessions at the Middlebury Marquis where she's developed a love of trivia.
