Upcoming Events

Joel LaRue Smith Trio
Testimony- A Journey in Jazz and Afro-Latin Jazz Rhythm
Saturday, Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m.
(Funded by the Robert J. Strider Concert Fund)

An unforgettable musical journey, blending the elegance of jazz with the rhythmic vibrancy of Afro-Latin influences and delivering a fusion of sophistication and soul.   

Colby Symphony Orchestra
Brahms and Poulenc
Director, Jinwook Park
Saturday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.

The Colby Symphony Orchestra highlights two canonical composers for the ensemble’s season opener, Brahms and Poulenc. The concert features two contrasting works by Johannes Brahms: his Academic Festival Overture (1880), which quotes multiple student tavern songs, and his melancholy, rich Symphony No. 4 in E Minor (1885). Pianists Steven Pane and Colby Associate Professor of Music, Yuri Funahashi, will join the orchestra for a cheerful, vivacious early work by Francis Poulenc, his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (1932). 

Cappella Nova Mundi
Renewals and Reincarnations
Saturday, Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m.

Cappella Nova Mundi, a specialized choral ensemble based in Dover, N.H., will perform Renaissance répertoire, focusing particularly on the works of Pierre de la Rue (c. 1452-1518).

Colby Jazz Band
Vocal Jazz with Big Band
Director, Brendon Wilkins
Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.

This concert will feature student vocalists performing with the Colby Jazz Ensemble, presenting many classics from the jazz big band repertoire. The program will include “Cry Me a River” (Arthur Hamilton), considered one of the greatest torch songs of all time, and Thad Jones’s “Backbone,” a swinging blues made famous by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in New York City. 

Choirs at Colby
PLAY: Music Meets Theater
Director, Néviton Barros
Saturday, Nov.  9, 7:30 p.m.

Choruses have their origins in the theater of Ancient Greece. A Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities theme event, the Choirs at Colby gather to celebrate the fusion of these artistic domains. This concert will feature pieces from operas, operettas, musical theater, and movie soundtracks. 

Colby Wind Ensemble 
The Path Ahead
Director, Brendon Wilkins
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m.

The Colby Wind Ensemble’s fall concert will feature exciting works from a variety of styles. This program includes Dawn by Miyuko Oda, which depicts the ever-changing colors of the sky, and Moving Paths by Kelijah Dunton, inspired by the challenges faced by Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment and the search for the path that led forward. 

Mal Barsamian and the Maine Middle Eastern Orchestra
Armenian Melodies Through the Ages 
Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.

Maine Middle Eastern Orchestra and the renowned oud and clarinet virtuoso Mal Barsamian present a beautiful program of Armenian music from the classical and folk traditions.

Colby Symphony Orchestra
Dvořák and Stravinsky
Director, Jinwook Park
Saturday, Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Don’t miss our second orchestral concert of the season, Dvořák and Stravinsky. Cellist Elena Ariza will be the soloist in Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto (1894), written during Dvořák’s final year in New York as director of the National Conservatory. The concert also includes Igor Stravinsky’s colorful depiction of a wooden puppet come to life, Petrushka, the second of his three ballets written for the Ballets Russes between 1909 and 1913.

INTERWOVEN
Friday, Feb, 28, 7:30 p.m.
(Funded by the Ermanno Comparetti Concert Fund)

This program is a celebration of contemporary music that interlaces traditional Asian instruments with Western classical string instruments and presents an anthology of fantasies of Asian folktales, art, and traditions.

Brendon Wilkins Organ Trio
Saturday, March 8, 7:30 p.m.
(Funded by the Freda M. Charles Music Fund)

Brendon Wilkins, Colby Director of Bands, leads his organ trio for an evening of swinging jazz, featuring music made famous by Stanley Turrentine, Shirley Scott, and Jimmy Smith. The Hammond B3 organ has been an integral part of the jazz tradition and is tied to the signature sound of these three musicians. Tenor saxophonist Brendon Wilkins joins Chicago-based organist Henry Dickhoff and New York City-based drummer John Sturino in this exciting performance.

Colby Symphony Orchestra
Orchestral Masterworks
Director, Jinwook Park
Saturday, March 15, 7:30 p.m.

Join us for this year’s Orchestral Masterworks concert, featuring Giuseppe Verdi’s dramatic exploration of fate, the Overture to La forza del destino (1862). Violinist Jaewon Wee will perform Polish virtuoso Henri Wieniawski’s dazzling Romantic showpiece, his Violin Concerto No. 2 (1862), and the orchestra will present Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 2 (1897-1902), which reshapes both American popular and European classical melodies into a collage of brilliant sounds.

Colby Jazz Band 
Across Time 
Director, Brendon Wilkins
Saturday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.

The Colby Jazz Ensemble features works from throughout the history of jazz. The concert includes  Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts,” which is an essential part of the jazz repertoire and is based on George Gershwin’s composition “I Got Rhythm” and Wes Montgomery’s “Cariba,” a catchy bossa nova tune arranged by Victor Lopez for big band.

Colby Wind Ensemble  
New Perspectives   
Director, Brendon Wilkins
Tuesday, April 8, 7:30 p.m.

The Colby Wind Ensemble’s spring concert presents new compositions, including Dirigo Suite, by Heather Hastings. Dedicated to the state of Maine, Dirigo Suite is a three-movement work based on folk songs connected to Maine. Overture to the Great Hall by Shaun Salem opens the concert in grand fashion. 

Colby Collegium
This Is Our Song
Director, Néviton Barros
Saturday, April 12, 7:30 p.m.

Collegium is Colby’s auditioned choir, comprised entirely of students. Its spring program will feature music composed or arranged by members of the Colby community, showcasing the diversity of talents among our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This concert will also feature an original composition written in collaboration with the Sing Me a Story Foundation.

Colby Symphony Orchestra
Director, Jinwook Park
Choirs at Colby
Director, Néviton Barros
Choral Masterworks
Saturday, May 3, 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, May 4, 3:00 p.m.

The annual Choral Masterworks concert offers two memorial pieces: Johannes Brahms’s Nänie (1881), a transcendent threnody written to honor a young artist-friend, and Joel Thompson’s intimate seven-movement cantata, Seven Last Words of the Unarmed (2015), a choral setting of the final words of Black men murdered by police officers. The concert will also celebrate a student soloist, the winner of Colby’s annual Concerto Competition, and the orchestra will perform Aaron Copland’s lively one-act ballet, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes.   

Élan Wind Quintet:
The Light is the Same
Friday, Sept. 27
Noon

Colby music associates will present a program celebrating diversity in the modern landscape through underrepresented living composers and will feature works by Reena Esmail, Jennifer Higdon, Valerie Coleman, and Leonardo Cárdenas. This performance is funded in part by the Hazel Hoyt Witherell Concert Fund.

Jawad Al Fatlawi, Oud
A Tour of Musical Scales 
Friday, Feb. 21
Noon

Colby music instructor Jawad Al Fatlawi performs a solo oud recital that will include improvisation on musical scales, Iraqi-heritage and Andalusian songs, and a number of his original compositions. The performance will offer a deep vision of the human soul of emotion, sadness, love, and peace.

Alturas Duo
Songs and Memory: Folk and Classical Music from the Andes
Friday, April 25
Noon

Praised by the Washington Post as playing with “marvelous virtuosity,” Alturas Duo is recognized as one of the most engaging ensembles performing chamber music today. With its unusual combination of viola, charango, and guitar, Alturas Duo creates spirited and passionate programs. This concert will feature new music written especially for the duo by Leo Brouwer, Javier Farias, and Ronald Pearl as well as folk music learned in the oral tradition in South America and later rearranged for the duo’s American performances.