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Annual "Service of Lessons and Carols" features readings, choral anthems, and carols with a candle lighting ceremony, December 6, 2009.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The annual “Service of Lessons and Carols,” a service of readings, choral anthems, and congregational carols, that culminates in a candle lighting ceremony, will be held at Vassar College in the Vassar Chapel on Sunday, December 6. This popular event, free and open to the public, will begin at 7:00pm. A free will offering will be taken to support Dutchess Outreach of Poughkeepsie, via the college's "Community Works" campaign (see http://communityworks.vassar.edu/index.html). The doors will open at 6:30pm, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
Experimental Theater presents the rock musical "Rent," December 2*, 3, 4, 5, 2009 (*preview)
One of the first-ever college productions of the acclaimed musical Rent, directed by Christopher Grabowski, will be presented by the Experimental Theater of the Drama Department at Vassar College, December 2*, 3, 4, and 5 (*preview performance). The performances, free and open to the public, will begin at 8:00pm in the Martel Theater in the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. Please note that seating is very limited and advance reservations are required. For information and reservations (available two weeks before the performance), call the box office at (845) 437-5599 or visit http://drama.vassar.edu.
Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre offers showcase performances in "Final Showings," November 19-21, 2009.
The Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) will present its "Final Showings," in The Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater in Kenyon Hall for three evenings at 8:00pm on November 19, 20, and 21. The performances are all free and open to the public, however they are at this time (11/19) full subscribed. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please note that reservations not claimed on the performance evening by 7:45 pm will be forfeit and released to the waiting list.
"Is Palladio Boring?" Guido Beltramini, executive director of the Andrea Palladio International Study Center in Vicenza, Italy, will examine the legacy of the 16th century Italian architect on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 5:30.
Guido Beltramini will examine the work of the 16th century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, during Vassar College Art Department's Claflin Lecture on Monday, November 23. Free and open to the public, the program will begin at 5:30pm in Taylor Hall, Room 102.
"The River," a solo exhibition by artist Linda Cross in celebration of the Quadricentennial at the Palmer Gallery, November 5 - December 17, 2009.
The James W. Palmer III Gallery at Vassar College will present a selection of works by Linda Cross in "The River," an exhibition in honor of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, on view from November 5 through December 17. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 5, from 5:00-7:00pm. The reception and exhibition are free and open to the public. The Palmer Gallery is located in the College Center in Vassar’s historic Main Building.
Art Center celebrates the work of the Northern Renaissance’s greatest artist in the exhibition, Albrecht Dürer: Impressions of the Renaissance, November 14 – December 24, 2009.
"Albrecht Dürer: Impressions of the Renaissance," an exhibition organized by the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, will feature 41 works celebrating the world of Albrecht Dürer, one of the greatest artists of the Northern Renaissance. All except one of the prints will be drawn from the permanent collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, renowned for its Old Master print collection. The exhibition will open to the public, without charge, from Saturday, November 14 through Thursday, December 24. On Thursday, November 19, exhibition curator, Patricia Phagan, The Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Art Center, will give a lecture about Dürer and printmaking, with a reception to follow.
Quadricentennial celebration includes exhibitions, concerts, and poetry readings are featured through December 24, 2009.
This fall, from September through December, there will be a wide array of activities at Vassar College offered in conjunction with the celebration of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. All of these will celebrate some aspect of the Hudson River and Valley – either through art, literature, or music. Highlights include the Art Center’s exhibition Drawn by New York (through 11/1); the Vassar College Libraries Poetry of the Hudson (through 12/24); the Palmer Gallery’s The River (11/5-12/17); a poetry reading (10/15); and concerts featuring choirs from the east and west bank of the River (9/26); an outdoor concert by the legendary Pete Seeger. All events are free and open to the public.
Department of Music presents 25 concerts during the fall 2009 semester, August 30 – December 6, 2009.
The Vassar Department of Music will present 25 concerts during the fall 2009 semester, beginning with the class of 2013 "Welcome Concert" and closing with "A Service of Lessons and Carols." The concert series will feature world-renowned musicians from Vassar's music faculty; Vassar vocal, instrumental, and orchestral ensembles; as well as acclaimed guest performers including the vocal ensemble Chanticleer, early music ensemble La Follia Barocca, Brazilian guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad, and Steve Turre from the Saturday Night Live Orchestra with his jazz ensemble, the Steve Turre Sextet. Unless otherwise noted, the programs will all take place in the acoustically-superb Martel Recital Hall in Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College. All programs are free and open to the public, with no reservations needed for general seating.
Archive
- The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble in special performance on 11/8
- Six centuries of watercolors and drawings on view at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 8/14 - 11/1
- Conceptual artist Simon Starling speaks about his current work, 10/30
- Exhibition "The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany" on view 10/1-29
- Reading in celebration of the exhibition "Poetry of the Hudson" on 10/15
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.