This April we host a Student-Supported Rothrock Residency hosted by Marco Motroni ’25 featuring a faculty ensemble of the Music Institute of Long Island (MILI). Established in 1990, MILI is a classical music school staffed by exceptional instructors from many of the most prestigious conservatories and graduate music schools in the United States and Europe. About the artists:

In addition to visiting a music theory class, MILI will offer the following:

• LESSONS: Middlebury College students are invited to signup for lessons or small ensemble coaching with the artists on Thursday afternoon, April 17. If interested, sign-ups are available online. Contact Marco Motroni if questions.
  
  
• LISTENING LUNCH: On Friday, April 17, from 11:30-1, the MILI faculty ensemble will share what recordings they are listening to that inspire them.  Open to all Middlebury ID holders. Bring your own lunch or grab from Ross Dining upstairs.  A free playlist will be provided after lunch. Signup at go/listeninglunch
  
  
• FREE CONCERT: On Friday evening, the community is invited to Robison Hall at 7:30 PM as the MILI Faculty Ensemble treats us to an evening of chamber music including Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Turina, Mendelssohn, and more!  Our own Marco Motroni ’25 will even join the artists on stage! The concert is free (no tickets required) thanks to the RothrocK Family Residency Fund. The concert program is linked below.
  

We’re thrilled to welcome dance artist Omari Wiles to campus, thanks to the winning Rothrock Residency proposal by Brys Peralta-Grant ’25.

MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2023

• Vogue Fem with Omari Wiles
  7:00 PM ET
  Mahaney Arts Center Dance Theatre
  
  Join Omari Wiles for a beginner-level breakdown of the Five Elements of Vogue Fem: Hand/Arm Performance, Catwalk, Duckwalk, Spins & Dips, and Floor Performance. Learn exercises and techniques to help you better develop your performance quality and usage of Elements and personality. Class is led with a warmup and stretch before taking the Elements across the floor! A Student-supported Rothrock Residency event.
  
  Free, Open to the Public.

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023

Artist Talk with Omari Wiles
5:00–6:00 PM
Mahaney Arts Center Dance Theatre

Come and Listen to New York-based Dancer and Choreographer Omari Wiles as he shares his Dance journey and experience in the Ballroom community.

Wiles began his training in West African dance as a child, and himself learning, training and falling in love with other styles such as Hip-Hop, House, Modern, Jazz, and Vogue. Wiles has had the opportunity to work with many artists, featuring his range of dance. His choreography has been featured with Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, John Legend, Jidenna, and Rashaad Newsome, Lady Gaga, Madonna, and many more. Wiles also appeared with his house as a contestant on Legendary Season 2 on HBOMax.

Wiles is now evolving his own style of dance with his company LES BALLET AFRIK, blending African, Vogue, Modern, and House as one. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund.
Free. Open to the Public.

FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2023

Showcase featuring Omari Wiles
7:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center Dance Theatre

Ousmane Omari Wiles is an African American West African and Vogue dancer, who has performed at the Joyce Theater, Harlem Stage, Gibney Dance, and with Works and Process at the Guggenheim, and Lincoln Center.

For the culminating event of his Rothrock Residency, Omari Wiles and students will be exhibiting choreography worked on across the week of his residency, as well as Wiles’ own work.

A student-supported Rothrock Residency event.
Free. Open to the Public.

View Omari’s dance film “Our Name, Our Legacy” on AllArts.org

The Tune-Yards exclusive virtual concert for Middlebury premiered Thursday, April 22, 2021, and was followed by a live Q&A with artists Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner.

Screenshots from both follow, as well as a summary of the original proposal by student host Francis Shiner ’23. Many thanks to Merrill and Nate for a great virtual residency!

Standard and Large-print programs available.

Tune-Yards
April 22, 2021
Proposing student: Francis Shiner ’23

Tune-Yards is an American, Oakland, California-based music project of musician Merrill Garbus, with long-time collaborator, bassist Nate Brenner. Garbus’s music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, vocals, and lo-fi percussion. Garbus described their sound as “a patchwork of sound snippets, of history in a present tense. It is a composer’s commitment to the preservation of stories, however small and unassuming.” Merrill Garbus is a musician, producer and composer who slams, wails, strums and shakes with her band, Tune-Yards and will speak to students about composition, music making during the pandemic, decolonizing Western music, and much more. 

Tuesday, February 18–Sunday, February 23, 2020
Sara Shelton Mann Rothrock Residency
Proposed by Sam Kann ’20

Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund, Middlebury Dance Program, and Middlebury Department of Music.
More information at go/mann.

Being in the Body – 3 Day Workshop
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; February 18, 19, and 20 – 4:30-6:30 PM
(FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; MUST ATTEND ALL THREE SESSIONS)
Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
What is holding the being? What is holding the body? What is your set point? What is your zero point? Participants in this 3 day workshop will engage in communication through touch, sensing, energy exploration, physical puzzles and what can be imagined. The process is directed, specific and open for your uniqueness. Come bask in the weight body, sensing body and spirit in space. Open to all. Registration at go/mann and participation in all sessions required. 

Solo Neutral Follow: A Study in Choice – Performance Lab
Friday, February 21, 2020 – 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Saturday, February 22, 2020 – 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Performance: Saturday, February 22 – 7:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
(MIDDLEBURY STUDENTS ONLY; MUST ATTEND 3 DAY WORKSHOP, BOTH LAB SESSIONS & SATURDAY PERFORMANCE)
Are you in your body? Someone else’s? Or in the “in between?” Sara Shelton Mann will lead students in an intensive, 2 day performance lab, culminating in a presentation the evening of Saturday, February 22. Solo Neutral Follow is a basic study in creating radical space. It is a training of focus and concentration and multidirectional attention. You will sweat. You will find freedom. Registration at go/mann and participation in all sessions required. 

The Edge of Balance – Master Class
Sunday, February 23, 2020 – 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
(FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)
San Francisco-based choreographer, performer and teacher Sara Shelton Mann leads a two hour class open to all levels. The study of bones, muscles and weighted nuts and bolts teach us the delicacy and strength of weight and space. We slow down action until it becomes silence in and of itself. The breath moves the heart, and we move with it. No registration required.

PERFORMANCE
Saturday, February 22, 2020 – 7:30 PM
Sara Shelton Mann, “Raine/Vortex” + “Middlebury Performance Lab”
Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
As part of the her Middlebury College Rothrock Residency, San Francisco-based choreographer Sara Shelton Mann presents two works in one evening: the culmination of an intensive performance process with Middlebury College students followed by “Raine/Vortex,” an evolving collaboration between Sara Shelton Mann and Jesse Zaritt. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund, Middlebury Dance Program, and the Middlebury Department of Music. Free.

The Mammals

Friday, April 19, 2019
7:30 PM, Mahaney Arts Center, Robison Hall
Indie-roots trailblazers, The Mammals, are no strangers to Middlebury, as frequent performers at Festival on the Green. This Americana quintet is known for just the right amount of guitar grit, soothing harmony, barn-burning fiddle, retro grooves, and storytelling savvy. Equal parts musicians and activists, The Mammals’ campus show will include selections from newest album Sunshiner, highlighting issues surrounding climate change. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund. Free.

This student-initiated Rothrock Residency is hosted by Fiona McCarey ’19.

Friday, April 19, 2019 – 3:00 PM
Being Private in Public: A Performance Skills Toolkit
with Ruth Ungar
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 221

Would you like to stand on stage and deliver a song with the same confidence as when you sing it at home in your shower? Singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ruth Ungar of The Mammals leads this workshop where participants will build a toolkit of personalized performance tricks for turning stage fright into stage presence. In a supportive space, participants will take turns on “stage,” where they’ll explore everything BUT the actual singing: what the song means, what to do with their hands, breathing, identifying current strengths, and finding new ways to re-connect to pure joy and truth. The class promises to be ”super deep and super fun.” Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund. Free

Student Rothrock Proposal:

Artist/Ensemble: The Mammals
Proposing Student (s): Fiona McCarey ’19
Residency Date(s): Friday, April 19, 2019
Summary:  Indie-roots trailblazers, The Mammals, are a high-octane Americana quintet from New York’s Hudson Valley—carrying on the work of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie—with a deep original repertoire, searing American roots sound, and a message of hope for humanity. A regular at Middlebury’s mid-summer Festival on the Green, The Mammals have a strong local bond and loyal following. Self-identifying as “subversive acoustic traditionalists” or a “party band with a conscience,” the ensemble excels in both its musicality and activism—and their newest album raises awareness on issues related to climate change.  Outreach during their one-day visit will be limited, but may include workshops in harmony singing, songwriting technique, performance skills, or instrumental lessons.

Alison Clancy

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 – 7:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
Alison Clancy is a NYC-based multidisciplinary artist working across the time based mediums of dance, music, and visual media. Her artistic endeavors are centered around the pursuit of beauty and catharsis, incorporating ritual practices and visual design into the forms of contemporary ballet and popular music, to create an otherworldly highway—the lost intersection where we search for ourselves in the shadows. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fun; this student-initiated Rothrock Residency is hosted by Annie Aguilar ’19. Free

Learn more here>>

Please also join Alison for her open master class on Monday, April 1!

Dance and Musicality Master Class by Alison Clancy
Monday, April 1, 2019
4:30 PM, Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre
The class begins with a gentle physical warm up, moving into improvisational techniques and phrasework, with a special emphasis paid to musicality. Alison Clancy is a multidisciplinary artist working across the time based mediums of dance, music, and visual media, in pursuit of beauty and catharsis. Clancy has danced for ten seasons with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and tours internationally with ZviDance. She composes music for theater and film and has released albums under the monikers Psycho Tyko, Loving You, HUFF THIS!, and Electric Child. All levels welcome. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund. Free

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw will be in residence April 10-11, 2018, as part of a student-initiated Rothrock Residency.  Proposed by Annie Beliveau ’18 and Tevan Goldberg ’18, the residency plan includes class visits to electronic music, collaborative improvisation, and dance; consults with student composers; and rehearsals with Middlebury students while Shaw is on campus. Public events include two discussions and a concert of Shaw’s original works as outlined below.

Shaw_04-10-2018_PressRelease

Campus outreach is sponsored by the Rothrock Family Fund for Experiential Learning in the Performing Arts, established in 2011, which supports opportunities that broaden the scope of Middlebury students’ experience in the performing arts. The residency is co-sponsored by Middlebury College’s Ross Commons, Chellis House, and the Department of Music.

Composer Caroline Shaw: From Pulitzer to Kanye

Tuesday, April 10, 2018 – 4:30 PM
Axinn Center, Room 229

Join Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw as she discusses blurring genre boundaries and collaboration in music making. Shaw sings with vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, plays violin with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, has composed and performed with Kanye West, and recently appeared on the Amazon TV series “Mozart in the Jungle.” Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund, Ross Commons, Chellis House, and the Department of Music. Free. See associated events on April 11.

Lunch Discussion with Composer Caroline Shaw

Wednesday, April 11, 2018 – 12:15 PM
Chellis House

Join Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, vocalist, and chamber musician Caroline Shaw for an informal discussion about the historical role of women in classical music and the work of women today to break through the musical glass ceiling. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund, Ross Commons, Chellis House, and the Department of Music. Free. See associated events on April 10 and 11.

Caroline Shaw in Concert

Wednesday, April 11, 2018 – 8:00 PM
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Robison Hall

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw caps her Middlebury residency with an evening of her music, in collaboration with Middlebury College vocal students. In addition to being the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, Shaw sings with the Grammy-award winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, plays violin with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, scored the soundtrack for the feature film To Keep the Light, and has collaborated with Kanye West. Sponsored by the Rothrock Family Residency Fund, Ross Commons, Chellis House, and the Department of Music. Free. See associated events on April 10 and 11.