Deb Ward

Music’s Quill (Timothy Neill Johnson, tenor, and Timothy Burris, lute) will be joined by special guest Colby Professor of History Raffael Scheck on cello for a concert of Baroque continuo songs from England and Italy by Caccini, d’India, and Purcell and solo works for cello and lute.

Jinwook Park conducts his debut concert with the Colby Symphony Orchestra in a program of symphonic favorites, including the overture from Felix Mendelssohn’s magical Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gabriel Fauré’s luminous Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, and the New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak.

Making his debut at Colby, Jesse Wakeman will conduct the Colby Chorale and Chamber Choir in a performance of folk music. Enjoy a cultural tour of the continent with arrangements such as “Simple Gifts” by Jay Althouse, “Shenandoah” by James Erb, and “Ah, si mon moine voulait danser!” by Jesse Wakeman himself.

Morton Feldman’s Last Pieces is a group of four short works for piano that continue to be hot topics for music theorists and historians. Pianist Steve Pane (University of  Maine at Farmington) will perform Feldman’s work and join Colby’s Steven Nuss, Anindyo Roy, Christiane Guillois, and UMF philosopher Matthew Houston and the audience for a discussion of Last […]

Exploring compositions that pay tribute to other forms of arts, Colby Wind Ensemble presents works celebrating Picasso, José Morea, and the architect John Roebling. Included in the program are Pablo! by Richard Meyer and Brooklyn Bridge for Clarinet and Symphonic Band by Michael Daugherty with soloist, Kimberly Perkins Brewer. Also featured on the program are […]

This concert is dedicated to all things inspired by the letter B. In most jazz charts the letter B denotes the “bridge” section whose qualities usually include less memorable thematic material and less stable harmony, which can be the improviser’s great playground. Featuring tunes whose titles or forms start with B and many more. Works […]

The highly celebrated French composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, rivaled Jean-Baptiste Lully, another prolific 17th-century composer, but Charpentier’s style evolved over time to represent a synthesis of the French and Italian schools. His late work, Messe de Minuit pour Noël was composed during his final post as maître de musique of the Sainte-Chapelle, the glorious Gothic chapel […]

Led by Maestro Jinwook Park, the Colby Symphony Orchestra explores music from Russia and Norway. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite from the popular ballet of the same title and Rimsky Korsakov’s Overture on Russian Themes are featured on the program. Edward Grieg’s tuneful Holberg Suite, a tribute to Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg, rounds out the northern […]

Hear and watch students in the African Music Ensemble Jan Plan class perform music and dance. Led by master drummer Jordan Benissan, a native of Togo, West Africa, the Colby African Drumming Ensemble offers students a chance to perform music from various African cultures. Students gain hands-on experience with various instruments, including drums, rattles, and […]

Described by the New York Times as a “virtuoso playing at the edge” and “a technologically fearless violinist,” violinist/composer Mari Kimura, director of the Atlantic Music Festival’s Future Music Lab, will perform both her own compositions that integrate interactive computer and pieces written for her by other composers. These works will demonstrate how the living […]

Boston-based violin virtuoso Eunae Koh joins the Colby Symphony Orchestra in the haunting and poetic violin concerto by American composer Samuel Barber. The concert also features the world premiere of an interactive work for computer and orchestra by composer and Colby Music Professor Jonathan Hallstrom. Felix Mendelssohn’s fifth symphony, “Reformation,” closes the program with a […]

Coming of age stories, family entertainment, satire as commentary, all inspire composers to write and audiences to engage. Colby Wind Ensemble celebrates music that captures the imagination with works that include Satiric Dances for a Comedy by Aristophanes for Band by Norman Della Joio, Fantasies on a Theme for Band by Haydn and film scores […]

With a performance career spanning more than 30 years, Yoko Hiraoka is widely recognized as a master performer and teacher of Japanese traditional string instruments and vocal styles. Hiraoka returns to Colby to sing and play highlights of famous music for the biwa (four-stringed lute). The Tale of the Heike is a lyrical account of […]

Join the Colby College Chorale and Chamber Choir in collaboration with the Bowdoin Chamber Choir as they herald the spring season with joyous song. The program features works inspired by the warmth and vigor of springtime, with selections that celebrate the joys of life and love and the beauty of nature. Works include “A Jubilant […]

Since the 1950s jazz has been infused with influences from soul, gospel, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian styles. For its spring concert, the Colby Jazz Band presents an eclectic program of varied styles, such as hard bop, R&B, gospel, and funk. Works include “Sister Sadie” by Horace Silver, “My Jelly Soul” by Charles Mingus, and many more.

Fortepianist David Hyun-sun Kim returns to Colby with violinist Lauren Basney to present a program of Mendelssohn and Schumann. The duo will perform on early-19th-century instruments including a fortepiano built in Maine by Rodney Regier. Sponsored by the Music Department. Location: William D. Adams Gallery, Colby Museum of Art.

Directed by Jesse Wakeman, the Colby Collegium Musicum performs Antonio Vivaldi’s masterful Gloria. This brilliant and complex work for choir and orchestra, with soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, is sure to invigorate the soul and ring in the spring. The program will also feature two madigals and several instrumental works. Sponsored by the Music Department.

A recently formed chamber trio featuring mezzo-soprano and Colby music associate Joëlle Morris along with cellist Eliza Meyer and pianist Bridget Convey, the Resinosa Ensemble will explore the theme of love with wonderfully crafted settings of poems. Location: Paul J. Schupf Wing, Colby Museum of Art

The 2017-18 Music at Colby series opens with the virtuoso Regina Carter, “widely considered the finest jazz violinist of her generation” according to the New York Times. A 2006 MacArthur Fellow, Carter will be joined by members of her quintet for a tribute to the music of Ella Fitzgerald. This is the first of two […]

“Threnody for Ann Arceneaux,” a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano composed by Eric Thomas, Colby music associate and director of bands, is the featured work on this chamber program. The work, jointly commissioned by the Maine Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association, was premiered at the Quad State Conference in 2015. Other […]

Music from the richly varied contemporary and historic cultural traditions of the Middle East, including Ottoman Turkish classical compositions, rural Turkish folk and devotional songs, Arabic classical and folk music, and dance music from Armenian and Turkish immigrant diasporas. This performance will include Mal Barsamian, a multi-instrumentalist considered the finest Middle Eastern clarinetist in the […]

The Colby Symphony Orchestra begins the spring semester with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 — another work in the “pastoral” setting of the countryside, reminiscent of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No. 6) — and New York-based composer Emily Wong’s Symphony No. 1 “Structures.” Sponsored by the Department of Music.

The ensemble delves into the world of program music, featuring marches by composer Julie Giroux — “March of the Sundried Tomatoes,” recounting a cooking debacle, and “Tiger Tail March,” depicting a typical Louisiana parish day — and “Imbizo,” using scales and rhythms from the African continent. Completing the program are “Highlights of Chess” and the […]

The Colby Jazz Band takes up travels from a more left-coast perspective with Jimmy Giuffre’s “Four Brothers,” artist Shorty Rogers’s “Popo,” Count Basie saxophonist and composer Frank Foster’s “Shiny Stockings,” followed by Humberto Ramirez’s ballad/bolero for trumpet “Midnight Talk,” Paquito D’Rivera’s Latin funk tune “Mariel,” and Papo Vazquez’s Bomba-style work “Blue Ray.” Sponsored by the […]