Event Calendar
Fri, Oct 2, 2020
Sat, Oct 10, 2020
ASO Concert: Welcome to the Amherst College First-Year Class!
Members of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra studying on campus this semester present the annual "Welcome to the Amherst College First-Year Class!" concert at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, in a special live-streamed performance. ASO musicians present an all-Beethoven concert in celebration of the composer's 250th birthday year, and in memory of the opera devotée the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who spoke at Amherst in a visit less than a year ago.
Works to be performed include the Overture to Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, as well as the aria "Abscheulicher... Komm, Hoffnung" from Fidelio; Drei Equali for four trombones; Andante con variazione from the "Kreutzer" sonata for violin and piano; the first movement of the op. 71 wind quintet; and the Marcia funèbre from Symphony #3 ("Eroica") as arranged by Beethoven's student Ferdinand Ries for piano and string trio.
Mark Lane Swanson, music director, conducts, and is at the keyboard. Members of the Amherst class of 2024 perform in all chamber works on the concert. There is no charge to view the event on the Amherst College music website.
Tue, Oct 27, 2020
Music Department Reception
The Music Department invites students, their families, and alumni to a virtual reception with members of the department faculty and staff. Attend for a great opportunity to learn about everything happening in the department. Breakout sessions will allow attendees to speak with individual members of the department.
Wed, Oct 28, 2020
Jazz Combos Livestream
Student jazz combos Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake perform for Virtual Homecoming and Family Week from Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center.
This performance will be open to the general public through the music department's FREE event livestream on the Amherst College website.
Amherst College Jazz Ensemble Livestream from Buckley
The Amherst College Jazz Ensemble (ACJE) performs for Virtual Homecoming and Family Week from Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center. This performance will be open to the general public through the music department's FREE event livestream on the Amherst College website.
ACJE Director Bruce Diehl and the student members present music chosen from jazz composers and artists Les Hooper, Matt Harris, George Gershwin, Beethoven and others.
Fri, Oct 30, 2020
M@A Calidore 4 PM Masterclass, 8 PM Virtual Concert
M@A Presents the Calidore String Quartet
Program:
Janáček String Quartet No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata
Beethoven Grosse Fuge
Recipient of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Calidore String Quartet first made international headlines as winner of the $100,000 Grand Prize of the 2016 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The quartet was the first North American ensemble to win the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and is currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). The Calidore String Quartet has been praised by the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct.” The Los Angeles Times described the quartet as “astonishing” and praised its balance of “intellect and expression.” The Washington Post said, “Four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one.”
Sat, Oct 31, 2020
Amherst College Choral Society Family Week and Homecoming Concert
The Amherst Choral Society presents a concert from Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center. The concert will be livestreamed on the Amherst College website, FREE to the public; no in-person audience will be present.
Dr. Noah Horn and Assistant Conductor Theo Peierls '19 conduct traditional Amherst College songs including “Hand Me Down My Bonnet,” “Hymn to Amherst,” “O Amherst, Our Amherst” and “Paige's Horse.” Additional repertoire includes Samuel Barber’s “Under the Willow tree” and a virtual choir to conclude the concert with “Three Gifts” and “To the Fairest College.”
ASO Concert: "They Persisted: Concert Masterpieces by Trailblazing Women Composers"
The Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Chamber Music Program present works by Hildegard von Bingen, Ethyl Smyth, Amy Beach, Cécile Chaminade, Chrétien Hedwige, Florence Price, Valerie Coleman, Joan Tower and Ellen Taafe Zwillich in a FREE, livestreamed concert in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment establishing women's right to vote.
Female composers have long faced unjust exclusion from the concert hall. Patriarchal gate-keeping and gender bias has unfairly dictated whose music would be heard. Women are dramatically underrepresented both in the music academy and on classical music stages. The ASO seeks to do its part to begin remedying this artistic inequity in a varied program of works by women composers.
