Smith College - Performing Arts

The Smith College of Dance presents the Fall Grad Event on Thursday, December 14 at 8 PM in Scott Dance Studio. Catch an exciting first look at new work by Smith MFA candidates Caitlin Canty, Gabby Carmichael, Niki Farahani, Yun Lee. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Tickets $3 at https://smitharts.booktix.com. Link in bio.

The Smith College Department of Music presents the Chinese Music Ensemble Fall Concert on Wednesday, December 13 at 7:30 in Sweeney Concert Hall. Guided by the artistic direction of Chia-Yu Joy Lu, the Chinese Music Ensemble will perform a captivating collection of Chinese and Taiwanese musical pieces, drawing inspiration from both traditional and contemporary musical works. Free and open to the public.

Sweeney Concert Hall is located at 144 Green Street, Northampton, MA. The concert will be live streamed on the Smith College Department of Music YouTube channel. bit.ly/SmithMusicLive. (link in bio)

Join us for the final week of SmithArts events of the Fall Semester!

Tuesday, December 12 - 7:30 PM – Sweeney Concert Hall
Wailing Banshees
Celebrate the end of term with a rousing concert by the Wailing Banshees. As always, jigs, reels and the best craic on campus!

Wednesday, December 13 – 7:30 PM – Sweeney Concert Hall
Chinese Music Ensemble
Guided by the artistic direction of Chia-Yu Joy Lu, the Chinese Music Ensemble presents a captivating collection of Chinese and Taiwanese musical pieces, drawing inspirations from both traditional and contemporary musical works.

Thursday, December 14 - 8 PM - Scott Dance Studio
Fall Grad Dance Event
Catch an exciting first look at new work by Smith MFA candidates Caitlin Canty, Gabby Carmichael, Niki Farahani, Yun Lee. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Tickets $3 at https://smitharts.booktix.com.

The Smith College Department of Art presents Memory and Other Homes, a culminating group exhibition by senior Studio Art majors in ARS 385 Senior Studio I in the Jannotta Gallery December 1 - February 20. Featuring work by Nola Carlson, Gabrielle Coello, Dan Dao, Miranda Gibson, Gretchen Hammell, Madeleine Kehoe, Emmaline Kenny, Shelly Liu, Emma Merchant, Valerie Olivares, Sammy Oster, Victoria Partakki, Olivia Peyev, Yasmine Porath, Finn Walsh, Taylor Wells, Celosía Willison, and Jade Wong. There is an opening reception Wednesday, December 6 from 5:30 - 7PM.

The Jannotta Gallery is in Hillyer Hall. Enter through the atrium at 20 Elm Street, Northampton. Gallery hours 8:30 am to 4:30 pm M-F.

The Smith College Department of Theatre presents its Fall Studio Productions: A Collection of student directed one-act plays: Trifles directed by: Annie Grace Cummings Ledbetter, Cowboy Mouth directed by: Katherine Heyman, The Yalta Game directed by: Zoe Koeninger, and The Actor's Nightmare directed by: Claire Trivax. Join us December 7th and 9th at 7:30pm in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre to see Trifles and Cowboy Mouth, AND join us December 8th and 10th at 7:30pm in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre to see The Yalta Game and The Actor's Nightmare.

On Thursday, December 7th join us at 7:30pm in Earle Recital Hall for Songs in the Key of Sage: Divas of the 80s. Smith College Vocal Performance students are joined by a live band to present an evening of your favorite songs from the 80’s.

The Smith College Dance Department Presents: Bare Bones December 7th and 8th at 7:30om in Scot Dance Studio. This concert offers an exciting showcase of dances choreographed, performed, and produced by undergraduate students.

This Wednesday, December 6th at 7:30pm in Earle Recital Hall, The Smith College Gamelan Ensemble performs classical music from Central Java, Indonesia. Group members include Smith and Five-College students, faculty, staff, and community members. We are delighted to be joined by the foremost Javanese Gamelan drummer, Wakidi Dwidjomartono. The performance moves from serene and stately to lively and joyful, played on an array of bronze gongs, bronze percussion, drums, and with ornate singing.

Join us this week at SmithArts!

Christmas Vespers Sunday, December 3rd at 4pm in John M. Greene Hall. Streaming live here: https://fb.me/e/3xKidokZp

The Wind Ensemble Fall Concert: Weather of the Soul Monday, December 4th at 7:30pm in Sweeney Concert Hall. Free and open to the public. Also streamed here: https://youtube.com/live/Ab1fc6BFzhc?feature=share

Gamelan Fall Concert Wednesday, December 6th in Earle Recital Hall.

Songs in the Key of Sage: Divas of the '80s Thursday, December 7th at 7:30pm in Earle Recital Hall.

Bares Bones Dance Thursday, December 7th - Friday, December 8th at 7:30pm in Scott Dance Studio. Reservations required. Free tickets at Smitharts.booktix.com.

Fall Studio Productions Thursday, December 7th - Sunday, December 10th at 7:30pm in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre. Free tickets at Smitharts.booktix.com.

On Monday, December 4th in Sweeney Concert Hall, under the direction of Meghan MacFadden, the Smith College Wind Ensemble presents a concert of music centered around emotions and mental health. Works include Katahj Copley's ode to love Halcyon Hearts, Barbara Buehlman's iconic arrangement of Blessed Are They from the Brahms German Requiem, (not) Alone by Randall Standridge, and Harrison J. Collins' coming of age journey These Radiant Moments.

This Sunday, December 3rd at 4pm in John M Greene Hall The Smith College Center for Religious and Spiritual Life presents Vespers the annual holiday service of lessons and carols that has been delighting audiences for decades. Featuring the Smith College Glee Club, Chamber Singers, and Vespers Orchestra, conducted by Paige Graham and Jonathan Hirsh, and the Handbell Choir, conducted by Anita Anderson Cooper. Guest appearance by the Campus School Chorus, Cindy Naughton, director. Come ring in the holiday season! Note: One performance at 4PM, and no tickets necessary.

JostenLive! Presents Songs from the Living Tradition, today, Friday December 1 at 5 PM in the Josten Library Mezzanine. Laurie Tupper and Micah Walter sing a living tradition of Anglo-American folksong—songs from centuries ago, and originals that nearly sound as old. The words are secular, sacred and anything in between. They sing most often with unaccompanied voices: lyrical, archaic melodies with gentle yet striking harmonies. “Down to the River to Pray” (sung by Alison Krauss in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”) suggests their repertoire and style.

JostenLive! is a community-based performance series that brings the creative work of library users to the Josten Mezzanine. Always free, brief, and open to all.

Josten Library is part of the Mendehnall Center for the Performing Arts, 122 Green Street, Northampton. Also accessible from the courtyard and Belmont Street.

The first annual Smith Student Art Sale is tomorrow in the Julia Child Campus Center! It will feature items made by Smith Students, including jewelry, artwork, ceramics, clothing and more. Come support student makers by buying a one-of-a-kind item just in time for the holidays. Presented by the Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA), in collaboration with the Conway Center and the Design Thinking Initiative.

The Smith College Music Department presents: Liebesode Saturday, December 2nd in Sweeney Concert Hall. Mezzo-soprano Katherine Saik DeLugan, Core Lecturer of Music at Smith College, and pianist Jiayan Sun showcase works of late Austrian and German Romantic composers who revolutionized Western melody and harmony in service of elevated poetry and storytelling. The program consists of two song cycles by Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) and Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder. They will also be joined by guest sopranos Jenna Rae and Erin Casey to perform an excerpt from Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier.

Smith College Jazz Ensemble presents "Jazz Cuisine" Wednesday, November 29th at 7:30pm in Sweeney Concert Hall. Enjoy a refreshing evening of flavorsome food inspired jazz favorites, plus a few sweet swinging side dishes. Under the direction of Genevieve Rose. Family-friendly and free to the public.

Pictures by Shana Sureck, from the Jazz Ensemble's Spring 2023 Dance Party.

Smith College’s much-anticipated Christmas Vespers program will be held on Sunday, December 3rd at 4:00 pm in John M. Greene Hall, on the campus of Smith College. An annual tradition at Smith, the Christmas Vespers performance tells the story of advent through hymns and other anthems, prayers, and scripture readings. The program will feature the Smith College Chorus, Glee Club, Chamber Singers and Vespers Orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan Hirsh and Paige Graham, the Handbell Choir, conducted by Anita Anderson Cooper, and a special appearance from the Campus School Chorus, Cindy Naughton, director. The services will be led by Rev. Matilda Rose Cantwell, director of Religious and Spiritual Life, with readings by members of the Smith College senior class, staff, and faculty.
Free and open to the public. A free-will donation will be collected for the Hampshire County Interfaith Cot Shelter Program. Vespers will be live-streamed on the Smith College page. https://www.facebook.com/smithcollege/

Join us this week at SmithArts!

Music Monday featuring Piano Quartet OP. 47 in E-flat Major by Robert Schumann Monday, November 27th at 1pm in Sweeney Concert Hall.

Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert Wednesday, November 29th at 7:30pm in Sweeney Concert Hall.

SOFA Student Art Sale Friday, December 1st from 1pm-5pm in the Julia Child 34' Campus Center.

Liebesode Saturday, December 2nd at 4pm in Sweeney Concert Hall.

Christmas Vespers Sunday, December 3rd at 4pm in John M. Greene Hall.

The Smith College Music Department presents: Mezzo-soprano Katherine Saik DeLugan, Core Lecturer of Music at Smith College, and pianist Jiayan Sun showcase works of late Austrian and German Romantic composers who revolutionized Western melody and harmony in service of elevated poetry and storytelling. The program consists of two song cycles by Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) and Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder. They will also be joined by guest sopranos Jenna Rae and Erin Casey to perform an excerpt from Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier.

Piano Quartet Op. 47 in E-flat Major by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) featuring The Elm Chamber Ensemble: Joel Pitchon, violin; Anthony Berner, viola; Volcy Pelletier, cello; Yu-Mei Wei, piano. This Piano Quartet embodies the romantic voice of Robert Schumann. The work is full of sorrow and turbulence, instability and emotional outpouring that reflect Schumann’s mental state and represents his mature chamber music composition. The event is free and open to the public.

The Smith College Department of Dance presents: Dance @ Noon. Work created in Professor Angie Hauser’s Choreography and Creative Process course. Featuring projects by MFA 2nd years: Laura David, Frankie Baron, Maddy Sher, Gabrielle Revlock.

The first annual Smith Student Art Sale will feature items made by Smith Students, including jewelry, artwork, ceramics, clothing and more. Come support student makers by buying a one-of-a-kind item just in time for the holidays. Presented by the Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA), in collaboration with the Conway Center and the Design Thinking Initiative.

Wednesday, NOvember 29th at 7:30pm in Sweeney Concert Hall, Smith College Jazz Ensemble presents "Jazz Cuisine" - enjoy a refreshing evening of flavorsome food inspired jazz favorites, plus a few sweet swinging side dishes. Under the direction of Genevieve Rose. Family-friendly and open to the public.

TheSmith College Department of Music presents: Piano Quartet Op. 47 in E-flat Major by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) featuring
Joel Pitchon, violin; Anthony Berner, viola; Volcy Pelletier, cello; Yu-Mei Wei, piano. This Piano Quartet embodies the romantic voice of Robert Schumann. The work is full of sorrow and turbulence, instability and emotional outpouring that reflect Schumann’s mental state and represents his mature chamber music composition. The event is free and open to the public.

Join us for this week's SmithArts events!

The Orchestra Fall Concert is this today. November 19th at 3pm in Sweeney Concert Hall. It is free and open to the public.

Amplify Public Art Competition submission deadline is Monday, November 20th.

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the break!

Tonight is the final show of the Fall Faculty Dance Concert and there are still seats left! These box officers would love to sell you a ticket. Get them online at smitharts.booktix.com (link in bio) or stop by the Box Office. We are open 12-5 today.

The Art Department and the Smith Office of the Arts (SOFA) presents Art Stockings with Melanie Crean, an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in New York. Created by Professor Alex Callender, Art Stockings invites a diverse group of women-identified and nonbinary artists to talk about their work, ideas, and process. Join Melanie Crean in a discussion about her use of myth and storytelling to address contemporary social issues and cultural archetypes, and explore themes of the hero, the unruly woman, the nature of justice, and the story of America. To attend by zoom, register at https://bit.ly/ArtStockingsNov16. LINK IN BIO

Melanie Crean is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher based in New York. Her teaching and artistic practice explore the relationship between speech, space, and social structures of control. She works with new forms of moving image, narrative and performance to deconstruct contested sites and oppressive architectures.

A first peek at the 2023 Fall Faculty Dance Concert. Tickets on sale now! Opening this Thursday, November 16 at Smith College featuring a new contemporary ballet piece by Rodger Blum, a Hip Hop fusion dance by Duane Lee Holland, Jr., a contemporary piece by guest artist Sarah Konner, and the Five College Dance repertory project Dance 1 by Lucinda Childs, the first movement from Dance, a collaboration with Philip Glass and Sol LeWitt. Staged by Caitlin Scranton SC’05, with Angie Hauser as Rehearsal Director. This is a rare opportunity to see her minimalist dance masterwork live. Don’t miss this show.

The concert runs three nights, November 16, 17, 18 at 8:00 PM, in Theatre 14, part of Smith College’s Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $5-10 at https://smitharts.booktix.com. LINK IN BIO!

Join us for this week's SmithArts events!

Symbiotic Nostalgia by Liz Miller Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm in the Oresman Gallery

2023 Fall Faculty Dance Concert Thursday, Friday, Saturday 8pm in Theatre 14. Tickets $5-10 at https://smitharts.booktix.com.

Orchestra Fall Concert Sunday 3pm in Sweeney Concert Hall. Free and open to the public.

Opening next week! Tickets on sale now. The Smith College Department of Dance presents the Fall Faculty Dance Concert, featuring the Five College Dance repertory project Dance 1 by Lucinda Childs, the first movement from Dance a collaboration with Philip Glass and Sol LeWitt, and new work by guest artist Sarah Konner and faculty artists Rodger Blum and Duane Lee Holland, Jr. Childs is widely revered as one of the most important figures in modern dance. This is a rare opportunity to see her minimalist dance masterwork live. The concert runs three nights, November 16, 17, 18 at 8:00 PM, in Theatre 14, part of Smith College’s Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $5-10 at https://smitharts.booktix.com.

You won't want to miss this years Fall Faculty Dance Concert, featuring choreography from Lucinda Childs, Duane Lee Holland Jr., Rodger Blum, and Sarah Konner!

Performances November 16th-18th in Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts at Smith College. Buy tickets now at https://smitharts.booktix.net

The Smith College Department of Theatre’s New Play Reading Series presents The Right Thing to Do by Patricia Mew, tomorrow, Thursday, November 9 at 7:30. The play is set in 1960, on the heels of the Red Scare initiated by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Smith College became the focus of a nationwide hunt for certain ‘undesirables.’ The scandal that followed the discovery of damning erotic material enveloped three professors, and the college where they taught, in a story of betrayal, moral ambiguity, and professional disgrace that rocked the academic world and forced the accused to grapple with what, exactly, was the right thing to do.

Directed by Patricia Mew and Melissa Redwin with Melissa Redwin, Tobias Davis, James Cameron Emery, Gabriel CiFuentes, Bill Dwight, Mary Beth Brooker, Norm Christiansen, Chip Roughton, Nick Simms, and Steve Watson

In Acting Studio 1 in Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Enter at 122 Green Street and follow the signs! Free and open to the public.

Join the smith College Department of Art for a reception in the Oresman Gallery in Hillyer Hall on Thursday, November 9 from 4:00-5:30pm to celebrate the opening of Symbiotic Nostalgia and exhibit of work by Liz Miller. Using reclaimed lawn chairs and white, rubber coated shelving units artist Liz Miller explores our desire to acquire such objects—and our constant need to get rid of them. As ubiquitous cast-away items no longer at the peak of their function and losing their form, these objects serve as a reminder of the things we live with daily…and the things we discard daily. Through weaving of the shelving units, the woven structures of the lawn chairs are echoed, while paint both highlights and negates the woven structures. Installed in the space, these objects create an environment that is at once familiar and surprising.

This exhibit is open from November 9th to December 20th, 2023. Visit the Oresman Gallery, Hillyer Hall on weekdays from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

Jiayan Sun and Elizabeth Chang will perform the 3rd and final concert of A Beethoven Cycle II: The Complete Violin Sonatas on Thursday, November 9 at 7:30 PM in Sweeney Concert Hall. New Yorkers have a chance to see them perform tomorrow, November 5, at 3 PM in St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201).

Tomorrow, Friday November 3 at 4 PM come to the Mendenall Green Room (T114) for She Likes to Write: a performance lecture with Gina Young. Gina Young (she/they) looks back at two decades of creating radical q***r feminist work for the stage, including excerpts from their earliest musical “she cuts herself/she likes to write” (2001) all the way up through her most recent play, “This Is Why I Don’t Come Home” (2023). There will be a Q&A covering anything from making your own theatrical work to what it was like to come out in the 90s.

Sponsored by the Department of Film and Media Studies, the Department of Theatre, the Program for The Study of Women & Gender, & the Smith College Lecture Fund. Free and open to the public.

Autumn Serenade, the annual Fall Choral Concert is this Saturday, November 4 at 4 PM in Sweeney Concert Hall. The concert features the Smith College Glee Club and Chamber Singers conducted by Jonathan Hirsh and Paige Graham with the Introduction to Singing class. With special guests the Smith College Campus School Chorus conducted by Cindy Naughton and Amherst Regional High School Chorale conducted by Todd Fruth. Music by Ulysses Kay, Ronald Perera, Josef Rheinberger, and Tracy Wong, among others.

Free and open to the public.

On Friday, October 27 at 7:30, the Smith College South Asian Studies Program and the Department of Music present a concert of Indian classical music performed on sarod by young virtuoso musician Shruti De, with tabla accompaniment by Dibyarka Chatterjee in Earle Recital Hall. An Indian classical instrumentalist, an ardent music lover, and a budding Physicist, Shruti was initiated into academics and music formally at the tender age of 4. Currently, a doctoral student in Physics and renowned musician, she plays Sarod and Mohanveena in concerts around the world. Shruti was trained under the guidance of revered Guru Pt. Samarendra Nath Sikdar in the authentic ‘Guru Shishya’ Parampara (tradition) for the last 22+ years.

Sponsored by the South Asian Studies Program, Music Department, Tibetan Studies in India Program, Ada Howe Kent fund, and Lecture Committee. Free and open to the public.

Join us for the rare privilege to see and hear Lucinda Childs, considered one of America's great choreographers, as she presents the 2023 Five College Dance Lecture tomorrow, Friday, October 27 at 4:30 PM in Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center for the Performing Arts. Free and open to the public. Register at: https://bit.ly/LucindaChildsLecture (link in bio).

Widely revered as one of the most important figures in post-modern dance, Lucinda Childs began her career as choreographer in the early 1960s, as a member of the seminal Judson Dance Theater. She formed her own company in 1973 and three years later was featured in the landmark avant-garde opera Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, for which she won an Obie Award. In 1977, she and Wilson co-directed and performed in I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating, which they revived for the Festival d’Automne in Paris in 2021, where they also created an evening length work titled, Bach 6 Solo with the violinist Jennifer Koh.

Childs holds the rank of Commandeur in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 she received the Golden Lion award from the Venice Biennale and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival award for lifetime achievement. She has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York, and received an honorary doctorate from the Université Côte d’Azur in 2021.

Photo credits: Lucinda Childs and Dance 3 from Dance, Joyce Theater 2021, both by Alexis Silver.

Today! The Smith College Department of Music presents Music Mondays 1: Orpheus Guitar Duo - New Arrangements of Bach September 18 at 1 PM in Sweeney Concert Hall. Joseph Ricker and Jamie Balmer perform their own arrangements of the music of J.S Bach for concert and baritone classical guitars including the French Suite no. 4, selections from the Well-Tempered Clavier, and two famous organ chorales. Watch the livestream at: https://www.youtube.com/live/jYgVuh_lRIA?si=S2CFHtEt71DvbY2M

Music Mondays are short, free, midday concerts performed by Smith faculty and guest artists to start the week on a musical note.