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Town Hall Theater
Advance Tickets $27 (Includes $2 ticketing fee)
Walk-up tickets $32
Tickets $27 in advance
$32 at the door
Singer / Composer, Moira Smiley introduces an upcoming album called ‘The Rhizome Project’ in a concert at Middlebury Town Hall Theater at 7:30pm, Saturday, September 16, 2023.
Smiley, a widely beloved, Vermont-based folk singer, songwriter and choral composer with millions singing her music, says; “The Rhizome Project is a concert of folk songs that form the root system of my musical identity as arranged with string quartet as virtuosic, multi-textured co-narrator and sonic envelope. After working with VSO’s Jukebox Quartet, I was smitten with the string quartet’s extraordinary range of colors. That range gives me, as arranger and vocalist a a thrilling chance to express the songs’ characters and emotions with the full range of my vocal and storytelling ability.”
The Rhizome Quartet is John Dunlop (cello), Brooke Quiggins Saulnier and Laura Markowitz (violins) and Stefanie Taylor (viola). While most of the songs from “The Rhizome Project” are traditional folk songs from the Appalachian and Anglo-Celtic traditions, it will also feature a few of Smiley’s original folk songs, a cover of Joan As Police Woman’s setting of Emily Dickinson’s ‘Bloom’ and a song from composer, Malcolm Dalglish’s ‘Hymnody Of Earth’ Song Cycle.
Cellist John Dunlop has been performing in the Northeast for over twenty five years as principal cellist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Opera North, Opera Company of Middlebury, Hanover Handel Society and the Green Mountain Opera Festival. He has performed as soloist with both the VSO and BCO, premiering a new work written for him with the VSO in October of 2021, and with his piano quartet Northern Third. He is also the cellist with the fledgling new music ensemble TURN and VSO sponsored Jukebox Quartet.
Laura Markowitz, violinist, hails from Pittsburgh PA and played in the Santiago Philharmonic, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and the Florida Orchestra before joining the Vermont Symphony in the early 90’s. She plays violin in Eclectica String Quartet, viola with the band Cricket Blue and enjoys irish and swedish folk, leading summer fiddle classes with students in the area. She relishes the chance to play period music and played baroque viola in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Otter Creek Music Festival in July. Laura maintains a private teaching studio in Richmond.
Stefanie Taylor is the assistant principal violist of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and violist for the orchestra’s Jukebox Quartet. She has been principal violist and principal second violin of Middlebury Opera and principal violist for Green Mountain Opera, and leads the Champlain Philharmonic as concertmaster. She has performed with the Craftsbury Chamber Players, Taconic Chamber Players, Vermont Virtuosi, Williams Chamber Players, the Manchester Music Festival, and Capital City Concerts.
Born in Nashville, TN, Brooke Quiggins Saulnier has performed in recitals and concerts throughout the United States and Europe and has won top honors in numerous solo and chamber music competitions. She previously held the Principal Second Violin position in the Miami Symphony Orchestra, Ridgefield Symphony, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, and the Reading Symphony Orchestra. She is currently the Assistant Principal Second Violinist in the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the VSO’s Jukebox Quartet. Brooke can be heard on the Sony Classical, Naxos, Columbia Records, Blue Note, and Universal record labels and has performed or recorded with Gloria Estefan, John Legend, My Brightest Diamond (Shara Nova), Sufjan Stevens, Young the Giant, Alexi Murdoch, Kat Wright, Francesca Blanchard, Moira Smiley, and Aretha Franklin to name a few. Brooke received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.Town Hall Theater
68 South Pleasant St
Middlebury, VT 05753
Tickets $27
$32 at the door
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