The Middlebury College Performing Arts Series welcomes back the Gramophone Award-winning Belcea Quartet for their fifth concert appearance at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Mahaney Center for the Arts. The program will include Schubert’s Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major; Brahms’s Quartet in A Minor; and Schubert’s Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, “Death and the Maiden.”
The Belcea Quartet is known around the world for performances of dynamic and free interpretative style, unconfined by traditional boundaries. This expansive musicianship has its roots in the very diverse cultural backgrounds of its four musicians.
The quartet’s two founding members, Romanian violinist Corina Belcea and Polish violist Krzysztof Chorzelski, bring a very different artistic provenance to the ensemble, while also drawing from the best traditions of string quartet playing received from the quartet’s mentors, the Alban Berg and Amadeus Quartets. This spectrum is extended by the French musicians Axel Schacher (violin) and Antoine Lederlin (cello). The Belcea Quartet blends these diverse influences into a common musical language. The Quartet performs regularly to great acclaim in concert halls across the world.
Audience members can join fellow concertgoers for a pre-performance dinner, featuring a seasonal fall menu, at 6 p.m. in the lower lobby of the Mahaney Center for the Arts. This buffet dinner will be seated family style. Tickets $30; cash bar.
Tickets are $25 for the general public. For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 443-MIDD (6433) or go to www.middlebury.edu/arts. The Mahaney Center is located at 72 Porter Field Road, just off Route 30 south (South Main Street). Free parking is available curbside on Route 30 or in the Center for the Arts parking lot.
MACBETH AT THT
Middlebury Actors Workshop, Mid-Vermont’s Small Professional Theater Company, proudly presents William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater. Additional performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
One of Shakespeare’s most beautifully written and tautly constructed tragedies, Macbeth tells the riveting story of a couple’s descent into a hell of unbridled ambition that destroys morality, decency, friendship and honor.
Director Melissa Lourie’s lean and timeless adaptation is set in a stark northern landscape with supernatural elements, where light and sound sculpt a tense and eerie world. Macbeth stars guest equity actor Craig Maravich in the title role with Burlington’s leading lady Chris Caswell as Lady Macbeth. The rest of the superb 20-person cast is drawn from all over Vermont.
With a running time of 95 minutes, Macbeth will tour to the Paramount Theater in Rutland and to the Flynn Main Stage. Don’t miss the opportunity to see this great classic close to home!
Tickets are $22/student rush $10. For more information, call 382-9222 or visit www.townhalltheater.org.
BOB MACKENZIE’S BAND
Bob Mackenzie’s Band offers a solid selection of blues classics, jump, swing, and rhythm and blues. This combo brings it home with tunes that will get you dancing, or simply let you enjoy the night watching and listening while the band takes you back through decades of great music. They perform at Brandon Music on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m.
Celebrating American Roots Music and many traditions from Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans and Kansas City, Bob Mackenzie’s Band counts among major influences T-Bone Walker, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Paul Butterfield, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, BB King and on and on.
Bob Mackenzie’s Band, named for the harmonica/vocalist who is on hiatus, has rocked and socked clubs, wedding and community parties, and municipal celebrations all over Vermont, and anchored the gazebo stage at the last four Labor Day picnics on the Middlebury Town Green hosted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Concert tickets are $20. A pre-concert dinner is available for $25. Reservations are recommended for the show and required for dinner.Venue is BYOB. Call 247-4295 or email [email protected] for reservations or for more information. Brandon Music is located at 62 Country Club Road in Brandon.
SWING FOR THE ARTS
Love live music, a good cause, and swing dancing? Grab your dancing shoes and mark your calendar for Friday, Oct. 21, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Compass Music and Arts Foundation (CMAF) is partnering with the 18-piece big band, EnerJazz, to create Swing for the Arts, a benefit to fund programs for the community and support the many projects set up by CMAF in cooperation with local schools.
Local star from Rutland’s Dancing with the Stars, Dave Allen, will be on hand to give free swing dance instructions from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. He’ll also show off some of his faster moves with a demonstration later in the evening.
Prefer to just tap your toes? No problem, café style seating will be available. A cash bar will be serving Brandon’s own Foley Brothers Brewing and Neshobe River Winery, and light hors d’oeuvres will also be available.
Tickets are just $25, and there’s a discount for students and Friends of the Foundation. For more information and reservations contact Edna Sutton at [email protected] or 247-4295. The Compass Music and Arts Center is located in Park Village at 333 Jones Dr. Brandon VT, 05733 (Park Village used to be the Brandon Training School, located 1.5 miles north of downtown Brandon off of Arnold District Road).
INTERNATIONAL FILM
The 2016-2017 Hirschfield International Film Series continues on Saturday at Middlebury College with the 2014 Argentina/Denmark film, “Jauja,” directed by Lisandro Alonso.
An astonishingly beautiful and gripping Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Jauja (pronounced how-ha) begins in a remote outpost in Patagonia during the late 1800s.
Captain Gunnar Dinesen has come from abroad with his fifteen-year-old daughter to take an engineering job with the Argentine army. Being the only female in the area, Ingeborg creates quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together. When Dinesen realizes what has happened, he decides to venture into enemy territory, against his men’s wishes, to find the young couple.
The film, in Spanish and Danish with English subtitles, will be shown at 3 p.m. and at 8 p.m. in Dana Auditorium on College Street (Route 125). Free. Some of the films in this series may be inappropriate for children.
LIVE MUSIC AT 51 MAIN
There will be four live music events this week at Middlebury’s 51 Main. At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the 51 Main Blues Jam continues. Dennis Willmott from Left Eye Jump will provide lead guitar, bass and drums and these guys will back you up or take a break and let you play. All musicians and blues fans are welcome. Everyone will get a chance to play.
At 8 p.m. on Thursday, the Joe Moore Band take to the stage. The Joe Moore Band performs a wide variety of American rhythm and blues, funk and jazz.
Then, at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Mogani will entertain. Mogani, Middlebury’s premier Jazz/Latin/Fusion group, plays a funky fusion of hot Latin numbers, cool Jazz classic and originals.
Finally, at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Hot Box Honey will perform. Led by Jazz vocalist Jane Evans and guitarist Gregory Evans, Hot Box Honey showcases an upbeat eclectic mix of Swing, Latin, Funk, Reggae and Soul rhythms.
All ages, no cover. For more information visit www.go51main.com or call 388-8209.
“DON GIOVANNI” AT THT
Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will be broadcast live at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Three charismatic singers, Simon Keenlyside, Ildar Abdrazakov and Mariusz Kwiecien, share the role of the title hero, who goes to hell in a dazzling coup de théâtre. The ensemble of great Mozartean singers includes Angela Meade, Marina Rebeka, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Erwin Schrott and Paul Appleby. Fabio Luisi and Plácido Domingo conduct.
Tentative runtime is 3 hours 22 minutes. There will be a pre-show talk by Scott Morrison in the Jackson Gallery at 12:15 p.m., courtesy of the Opera Company of Middlebury.
Tickets are $24/$10 students. For tickets go to www.townhalltheater.org, call 382-9222, or visit the THT box office (Monday to Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.).
TWO BROTHERS TAVERN
There will be three live music performances this week at Two Brothers Tavern located at 86 Main Street in Middlebury. Join Two Brothers at 6 p.m. on Friday for The Starline Rhythm Boys. These cool cats play an authentic mix of rockabilly and country that’ll make you feel like you’re in a Texas Juke Joint. Two Brothers is thrilled to welcome them back for a special dinner-hour performance. Reservations and walk-ins welcome. $3 cover.
Then, at 9 p.m. on Friday, Two Brothers presents Totally Submerged, a rock trio from Chester, who play a mix of covers ranging from The Doors to Cake to Tom Petty. Come jam out and sing along as they showcase their eclectic taste and talent for the lounge. $3 cover.
Finally, at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Cooie DeFrancesco takes to the Tavern’s stage for the first time. Her clear and vibrant vocal styling evokes a dollop of blues, hints of jazz, folk and some old time rock and roll. Free entry. For more information, call 388-0002.
LC JAZZ SHOW AT VOH
“The Big Band Era: A Musical Journey with LC Jazz,” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Vergennes Opera House. LC Jazz is putting on a show, taking you through a quick history of the big band era that you’ll enjoy. There will be concert seating, a few tables and some room to dance in the back, and enjoy a slice of the 25th anniversary cake and punch at intermission.
Admission $10 adults, $5 seniors and students. Tickets available at the door or from any band members. For more information contact the Vergennes Opera House at 877-6737 or email [email protected]. 
CHAMPLAIN ORCHESTRA
Last but not least, The Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at 4 p.m. on Sunday in Robison Hall at Middlebury College’s Mahaney Center for the Arts.
Under the baton of guest conductor, Matthew LaRocca, the Champlain Philharmonic presents an evening of music of the great Russian masters, featuring Middlebury College student Gareth Cordery ‘20, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also includes Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italien,” Borodin’s “Steppes of Central Asia” and “The Montagues and Capulets” from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Tickets $15/$10/$5. For tickets or information visit www.middlebury.edu/arts or call 443-3168.