Calendar of Events

Convocation is the academic year's first formal gathering of the first-year students, at which President Elliott and the faculty, all dressed in academic regalia, welcome the students to Amherst College. It is also a time for recently promoted professors to be awarded honorary Amherst College degrees. The ceremony includes a formal procession, remarks by President Elliott and performances by the Amherst College Choral Society.

This event is intended for faculty and first-year students. Students, alumni and community members are invited to watch via livestream. A video recording and a transcript of Opening Convocation will be available after the event.

The large Summer Research Poster Session returns to the Science Center. From first-experience STEM researchers to off-campus research projects, more than 80 posters will be on display. Student researchers will enjoy talking to you about their summer research projects-- the experiments, the questions, the findings and the next steps. Please join this festive event!

Come find out more about the music department's instructors and faculty! The Amherst College jazz faculty perform a free concert. For audience COVID concert protocols, please see the link below.

Performers:
Darryl Harper, Clarinet
Carl Clements, Saxophones/Flutes
Geoff Cunningham, Trumpet
David Sporny, Trombone
Jason Robinson, Saxophones/Flute
Bruce Diehl, Saxophone
Ann Maggs, Voice
Stephen Page, Piano
David Picchi, Bass
Claire Arenius, Drums

Composer, pianist and visual artist Jason Moran reflects on the legacy of a hero of Black music in a multidisciplinary program entitled James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: The Absence of Ruin.

An iconic figure in the evolution of African American music, ragtime pioneer and World War I hero, James Reese Europe led a crack military ensemble called the Harlem Hellfighters. In addition to their achievements in combat, Europe and his Hellfighters popularized the new spirit of jazz in a war-torn French nation fascinated with Black culture. And that’s only the beginning of their story-- their legacy has had an extraordinary impact on African American music over the past century of cultural and political change.

This concert is made possible by the Amherst College Department of Music, the Music at Amherst Series and the Presidential Scholars program.

Tickets are available as part of the M@A 2022-23 subscription packages, via the ticketing website listed below, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 1. Single tickets are also available at amherst.universitytickets.com beginning Sept. 9. Seating is by general admission.

The Aizuri Quartet has established a unique position within today’s musical landscape, infusing all of their music-making with infectious energy, joy and warmth; cultivating curiosity in listeners; and inviting audiences into the concert experience through their innovative programming and the depth and fire of their performances.

Emma Frucht and Miho Saegusa, Violins
Ayane Kozasa, Viola
Karen Ouzounian, Cello

Program
Clara Schumann: Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen (arr. Karen Ouzounian)
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 4, Sz 91
Tanya Tagaq: Sivunittinni (2015)
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet Op. 76 No. 4 in B-flat major, Sunrise

Winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award in 2022, the Aizuri Quartet took home the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, and top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. The quartet’s debut album, Blueprinting, featuring new works written for them by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim (“In a word, stunning”—I Care If You Listen), nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award and named one of NPR Music’s Best Classical Albums of 2018.

Tickets are available as part of the M@A 2022-23 subscription packages, via the ticketing website listed below from August 1- September 1. Single tickets are also available at amherst.universitytickets.com beginning September 16, 2022. Assigned seating.

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO) presents "Welcome Class of 2026!" in Buckley Recital Hall.

The first in a series of four free Thursday evening performances in the popular Jazz@Friedmann series. The featured group is TBD. Public access pending the most current College COVID protocols. Thanks to Student Activities and Jazz @ Amherst for their continued support of the series

The series of four free Thursday evening performances in the popular Jazz@Friedmann series continues. The featured group is TBD. Public access pending the most current College COVID protocols. Thanks to Student Activities and Jazz @ Amherst for their continued support of the series.

Blue Heron has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as “one of the Boston music community’s indispensables” and hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for its “expressive intensity.” The ensemble ranges over a wide repertoire from plainchant to new music, with particular specialities in 15th-century Franco-Flemish polyphony and early-16th-century English sacred music, and is committed to vivid live performance informed by the study of original source materials and historical performance practices.

Scott Metcalfe is widely recognized as one of North America’s leading specialists in music from the 15th through 17th centuries and beyond. He has been musical and artistic director of Blue Heron since its founding in 1999.

Program
Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem and music by his contemporaries and successors

Tickets are available as part of the M@A 2022-23 subscription packages, via the ticketing website listed below from August 1- September 1. Single tickets are also available at amherst.universitytickets.com beginning September 30, 2022. General seating.

The series of four free Thursday evening performances in the popular Jazz@Friedmann series continues. The featured group is TBD. Public access pending the most current College COVID protocols. Thanks to Student Activities and Jazz @ Amherst for their continued support of the series.

Celebrating over two decades of music-making, the twice-GRAMMYnominated Imani Winds has led both a revolution and an evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations and outreach endeavors that have inspired audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The ensemble’s playlist embraces traditional chamber music repertoire, and as a 21st-century group, Imani Winds is devoutly committed to expanding the wind quintet repertoire by commissioning music from new voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live.

Imani Winds:
Brandon Patrick George, Flute
Toyin Spellman-Diaz, Oboe
Mark Dover, Clarinet
Kevin Newton, French Horn
Monica Ellis, Bassoon

Program with Cory Smythe, piano
Revolutionary aka The Civil Rights Project
Reflecting the struggles we face, the times we live in and the hope we must have.
Works by Sam Cooke, Frederic Rzewski, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran and Valerie Coleman

Tickets are available as part of the M@A 2022-23 subscription packages, via the ticketing website listed below from August 1- September 1. Single tickets are also available at amherst.universitytickets.com beginning October 8, 2022. Assigned seating.

The series of four free Thursday evening performances in the popular Jazz@Friedmann series concludes for the Fall semester. The featured group is TBD. Public access pending the most current College COVID protocols. Thanks to Student Activities and Jazz @ Amherst for their continued support of the series

The ACJE performs their Homecoming Concert in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Building. This concert is FREE. General seating. Doors open half an hour before the concert. Most recent COVID protocols apply.

The Amherst College Choral Society, directed by Dr. Arianne Abela, presents their annual Homecoming Concert. Program TBA. This concert is FREE. General seating. Doors open half an hour before the concert. Most recent COVID protocols apply.

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra performs a special Homecoming concert. Program TBA. This concert is FREE. General seating. Doors open half an hour before the concert. Most recent COVID protocols apply.

After a two-year COVID delay, the Choral Society, Jazz Ensemble, and Amherst Symphony Orchestra showcase the world premiere performance of ‘Say Your Name’ composed by Reena Esmail, with texts by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell, celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage. This concert is FREE. To reserve your tickets, check back here starting October 21, 2022 for sign-up information. Most recent COVID protocols apply.

Amherst College is proud to announce the world premiere of Say Your Name, a suffrage-rights cantata composed by Reena Esmail and written by Rebecca Gayle Howell. Here is the resilient story of Democracy, a woman battered by gaslighting and confusion. As she finds the courage to remember who she is, she learns what we all must: to guard our thoughts is to guard our nation. Featuring soloist Sherezade Panthaki and the Amherst College Choir, Jazz Ensemble and Orchestra, and conducted by Arianne Abela, this startling half-hour production will inspire audiences to the voting booth, this fall and beyond.