Lafayette College Music Department
Music Department concerts, featuring faculty-led student ensembles along with student and faculty recitals, are presented free of charge. Tickets are required and may be ordered through the Williams Center Ticket Office. Additional events may be added throughout the year and announced online.
Jazz Combo
Tom DiCarlo, director
Monday, November 27, 8 p.m.
Monday, April 22, 8 p.m.
The Jazz Combo performs chamber music for saxophone, trumpet, vocals, and rhythm section. The focus is on learning the standard jazz repertoire and developing improvisation skills while practicing the non-verbal communication required by all musicians.
Jazz Ensemble
Jeff Watts, director
Wednesday, November 29, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, April 24, 8 p.m.
The Jazz Ensemble is a 20-member student and community group. In the ensemble’s two concerts per year, the repertoire is selected from famous songwriters such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Buddy Rich, Bill Holman, and Bob Mintzer.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Holly Roadfeldt, director
Friday, December 1, 8 p.m.
Friday, April 26, 8 p.m.
The Contemporary Music Ensemble performs chamber music composed since 1900. Its repertoire features music by established master and emerging composers with a focus on Lafayette student composers. Its performances often involve multi-media, theatrical, and digital components and a stylistic range from Impressionism to Minimalism to avant garde.
Concert Choir and Chamber Singers
Jennifer Kelly, director
Saturday, December 2, 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 27, 8 p.m.
Lafayette Choirs are made up of first-year students through seniors, from all academic disciplines, bringing their perspectives and experiences to sing together as one voice. Presenting a broad repertoire, the choirs seek music and lyrics that connect with a diverse audience. Students have agency in the development of the performance so each song engages the listener in meaningful storytelling from complex emotion to lighthearted fun.
Chamber Orchestra
Lewis Baratz, director
Sunday, December, 3, 3 p.m.
Sunday, April 28, 3 p.m.
The Chamber Orchestra is primarily a string ensemble that explores and performs repertory from the Baroque era to the present day. Ensemble members are students from all majors who have at least two years of experience on their instrument and are comfortable with sight-reading and playing a wide variety of musical styles. Recent concerts have included the music of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Vaughan Williams, and living composers.
Percussion Ensemble
Matt Wells, director
Monday, December 4, 8 p.m.
Monday, April 29, 8 p.m.
The Percussion Ensemble performs a wide variety of music from all over the world: Japanese taiko, Afro-Caribbean drumming, jazz, popular, and many others. Pieces often include humor and vary in size from one player to 30. Matt Wells, director.
Mostly Mbira Ensemble
Akiva Zamcheck, director
Wednesday, December 6, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, May 1, 5 p.m.
Mostly Mbira Ensemble practices and performs traditional and new music at early evening meetings. It plays mbira (thumb piano) with a focus on Shona music from Zimbabwe. It also experiments with combinations of instruments that push traditional music into new areas. Performances explore interlocking rhythms, melodies, and improvisation.
NOTE: Performances are in the Williams Center lobby; no tickets required.
Student Honors Recital
Friday, December, 8, 8 p.m.
Friday, May, 3, 8 p.m.
The performers in this concert represent some of Lafayette’s finest student musicians, each having been selected in a competitive audition process. The repertoire ranges from musical theater to jazz to classical, performed by one to four musicians.
Concert Band
Kirk O’Riordan, director
Saturday, December 9, 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 4, 8 p.m.
The Concert Band regularly performs original and transcribed works for band by emerging and master composers. The 45-member ensemble is comprised of students from all majors who thrive on working together to give expressive and exciting performances of music by composers such as Bernstein, Copland, Holst, David Maslanka, John Mackey, and others.
Marquis Consort
Lewis Baratz, Jorge Torres, directors
Sunday, December 10, 3 p.m.
Sunday, May 5, 3 p.m.
The Marquis Consort specializes in the performance of music before 1800 on both modern and historical instruments. Members are singers and instrumentalists who enjoy working together in a small “one on a part” ensemble. The repertory varies from music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, early and late Baroque eras, as well as Colonial and Federal America.
World Piano Day Celebration
Thursday, March 28, 8 p.m.
On the 2nd Annual World Piano Day Celebration, the 88 keys on the Williams Center’s Steinway D will come alive as we explore the biochemistry of sensation and the wonderment of sound. Performances by Lafayette College piano students, Lafayette faculty pianist Holly Roadfeldt, and some special guests will guide this musical journey with compositions by Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, Bill Evans, and more. This evening’s concert will be the end of a two-day celebration of sound exploration in collaboration with the Department of Chemistry.
Faculty Artist Series
Skip and Dan Wilkins Quartet
Saturday, Oct 21, 8 p.m.
Jazz pianist Skip Wilkins, associate professor of music, returns to the main stage in his last semester at Lafayette College. Wilkins has given 24 main-stage performances with a range of guest performers. During his tenure at Lafayette, Wilkins has released 14 CDs, featuring a broad range of American and European performers. He will perform with the Skip & Dan Wilkins Quartet, featuring son Dan on saxophones, as well as bassist Tony Marino and drummer Bill Goodwin.
Holly Roadfeldt, piano
Saturday, November 4, 8 p.m.
Praised by Gramophone as a “vivid pianist” and by the American Record Guide as “on fire,” Lafayette faculty pianist Holly Roadfeldt will take you on an hour-long musical journey in North American narratives. Four world premieres of the brilliant musical biographies from Anthony J. Lanman’s Hommages will be presented alongside the soulful “Troubled Water” by Margaret Bonds, Frederic Rzewski’s potent “Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues,” the breathtaking “Aghavni” by Mary Kouyoumdjian, and the iconic solo piano version of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.
Kirk O’Riordan, saxophone, and Holly Roadfeldt, piano
Sunday, April 21, 3 p.m.
Enjoy an afternoon of lyrical and virtuosic music for saxophone and piano. Continuing the musicians’ series of concerts that feature sonatas written for the saxophone and piano as well as transcriptions of music for voice and violin, this performance will include music by Robert Muczynski, Franz Schubert, and Lili Boulanger. The program will conclude with David Maslanka’s monumental Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano.