Bring It On! 

It's that time of year. The kids have gone back to school, the leaf-peepers are starting to arrive, and here at Seven Days we've been planning ahead . . . for show time. Finally, something to look forward to! As a stack of season programs reveals, Vermont's arts presenters can still be counted on to please, and provoke, us with a stunning variety of performances. Broadway or bluegrass, piano prodigies or puppets, sopranos or satirists - there really is something for everyone. Including some genre-bending artists who defy both convention and category.

Here's a very small sampling of what's in store on stage, now through May - please visit the websites for more. If we left anyone out, we haven't received your schedules yet. Smaller venues such as nightclubs and coffeehouses have their own section elsewhere in the paper and are not included here. Check the music section and the Seven Days calendar in Section B throughout the year.

There are times when the world can really bring us down, but dedicated artists, sharing their passion for dance, theater, music and spoken word, bring us together. Enjoy the shows.

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

Flynn Center, October 20, 8 p.m. $34/28; and Hopkins Center, October 21, 8 p.m. $26/5.

Someday, perhaps, music critics will speak about the gifted sitar prodigy and classical pianist Anoushka Shankar without once mentioning her impressive musical lineage: daughter and student of internationally acclaimed sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, and half-sister to Grammy-winning pop singer Norah Jones. But at age 25, Anoushka - she's often referred to by her first name - has emerged from the shadows of her better-known family members and proven she's a tremendous musical talent in her own right.

Drawing from the rich musical traditions of her Indian roots, Anoushka has been playing and studying sitar since she was 9, and by 13 had made her performance debut in New Delhi. She's played on numerous albums and stages with her father, and in the fall of 1998 released her first solo album, Anoushka, to huge critical acclaim. She followed that success with two more successful releases - Anourag in 2000 and Live at Carnegie Hall in 2001. The latter was nominated for a Grammy as Best World Music Album, making her the youngest musician ever to be nominated in that category.

In recognition of her artistry and musicianship, the British Parliament presented Anoushka with a House of Commons Shield in 1998, the first female recipient of this high honor - and, again, the youngest. In 2004, she was chosen as one of 20 Asian Heroes by the Asia edition of Time magazine. She's played with some of the biggest names in Western music, including Sting, Madonna, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and James Taylor.

Anoushka's fourth release, 2005's Rise, was a stylistic departure from her earlier, classical works that melded jazz, pop and world rhythms into her own unique compositions. This is Anoushka Shankar's third visit to New England in four years. Let's hope it won't be her last.

- Ken Picard

>> MORE UPCOMING WORLD MUSIC PERFORMANCES:

The Royal Drummers of Burundi, Mombasa Party, Flynn Center, October 10, 7:30 p.m. $35/28.

A Mediterranean Christmas with the Boston Camerata and Sharq Arabic Ensemble, Lane Series. December 1, 7:30 p.m. $25.

Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, Chandler Center, January 12, 7:30 p.m. $26/21.

Persian Improvisations: Kayhan Kalhor with Siamak Aghaei, Hopkins Center, January 26, 8 p.m. $24/5.

Soweto Gospel Choir, Hopkins Center, March 5, 7 p.m. $28/14/5.

(See season programs for traditional French-Canadian, Irish, Central and South American music.)

**********************

CHRISTIANNE STOTIJN

Middlebury College Center for the Arts, Concert Hall, January 19,8 p.m. $15/12/5.

Mention "Delft" and most of us think of blue-patterned pottery. But Delft is also home to Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn. Not that she spends much time there anymore. The 29-year-old - classically trained on violin and in voice - has been gigging on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years, and piling up the prizes. The European Concert Hall Organization named her a 2005-2006 ECHO Rising Star. She's also a BBC New Generations Artist, and won a coveted Borletti Buitoni Award last year in support of her blossoming career.

Critics have praised Stotijn for her "deeply expressive" performance, for her warm timbre and precise diction, and for her "fresh, eager ardor." Though she's more familiar on the European stages of Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne and London, North Americans are beginning to anticipate recitals from this young woman with flame-colored hair and passionate singing.

With pianist Joseph Breinl, Stotijn has recorded Mahler Urlicht and Songs by Schubert, Berg and Wolf, both for Onyx Records. At Middlebury College, the pair will perform a program of songs by Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss and Ives. Talk about a Dutch treat.

- Pamela Polston

» MORE UPCOMING FEMALE CLASSICAL VOCALIST PERFORMANCES:

Beth Thompson Kaiser, soprano, with Cynthia Huard, piano, Middlebury College, November 4, 8 p.m. Free.

Trio Mediaeval, Hopkins Center, March 31, 8 p.m. & April 1, 2 p.m. $26/5.

**********************

SUPER VISION

Hopkins Center, January 12 & 13, 8 p.m. $26/5.

Welcome to the Too-Much-Information Age. Please check your identities at the door before taking your seats.

The message of Super Vision, the latest high-tech, multimedia performance piece from the Brooklyn-based experimental troupe The Builders Association and the design company dbox: We are what we swipe. Bookstore purchases, travel itineraries, medical records, even the audience's online theater-ticket purchases all become part of the mountains of digital data that begin to accumulate from the moment we're born. Super Vision reveals, in humorous and often disturbing ways, how quickly that wealth of information can be strip-mined at will.

Integrating both real and virtual actors in a dazzling combination of electronic music, animation and high-tech imagery, Super Vision tells the stories of three people and the vapor trails of data that follow them wherever they go. In one story, an international business traveler endures an endless barrage of interrogations by U.S. Customs officials as he moves from one airport to another. At each terminus, the probes become increasingly invasive and absurd, until his interrogators know more about his medical condition than he does.

In another story, a man tries to escape his crushing debt by appropriating his son's identity, until his own identity begins morphing into that of the young boy. In the third, a young woman in New York stays in touch with her grandmother in Sri Lanka via webcam, probing the minutiae of the older woman's life.

If Super Vision sounds like George Orwell stepping into The Matrix, it is. "They have their finger on the pulse of trends in our global society way before anybody else," says Margaret Lawrence, programming director at the Hopkins Center. "It's just an amazing piece."

- Ken Picard

» MORE UPCOMING ISSUE-BASED PERFORMANCES:

Danny, King of the Basement, Roseneath Theatre Company (homelessness, child poverty), Hopkins Center, October 10, 7 p.m. $20/14/5.

The Capitol Steps (political satire), Chandler Center, October 26, 7:30 p.m. $34.

Kimberly Dark (gender, violence against women, poverty), Johnson State College, December 3, 7 p.m. $5/NC.

Live From the Front, Jerry Quickley (Iraq war), Hopkins Center, January 17, 7 p.m. $18/5.

**********************

IMANI WINDS

Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall, February 2, 7:30 p.m. $28.

You might expect a group that takes its name from the Swahili word for "faith" to be a little unusual, and Imani Winds are exactly that. Just being a wind ensemble, for starters, is uncommon these days. And the African-American quintet not only busts classical music's "whitey" stereotype, it busts genres, too, infusing a classical repertoire with African, Latin and American traditional flavors.

Their breakthrough album The Classical Underground, which was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year, introduced Imani Winds to a broader listening audience, but the group was already well known to programmers nationwide for their dedication to music education. Somehow, despite extensive touring and residencies, all five are on the faculties of music schools in the New York area as well.

For their Lane Series concert, Imani Winds - flutist/composer Valerie Coleman, oboist Torin Spellman-Diaz, French hornist Jeff Scott, bassoonist Monica Ellis and clarinetist Mariam Adam - will perform a program called "The Latin Connection: Latin America and Its Influence on the Wind Quintet Repertoire." Sounds academic, but the music is likely to be classical caliente.

- Pamela Polston

» MORE UPCOMING SMALL-ENSEMBLE CLASSICIAL MUSIC PERFORMANCES:

Calder Quartet, Lane Series at UVM Recital Hall, October 13, 7:30 p.m. $28.

Esterhazy Quartet, Johnson State College, October 14, 7 p.m. $10/5.

Florestan Trio, Middlebury College, October 20, 8 p.m. $15/12/5.

Pei Yao Wang, piano, and Friends, Middlebury College, November 17, 8 p.m. $15/12/5.

Musicians from Marlboro, Lane Series, November 17, 7:30 p.m. $30.

Emerson String Quartet, Hopkins Center, January 12, 8 p.m. $30/5.

Meridian Arts Ensemble, Middlebury College, January 13, 8 p.m. $5/4/3.

Takács Quartet, Middlebury College, April 13, 8 p.m. $15/12/5.

Garth Newel Piano Quartet, Lane Series, April 27, 7:30 p.m. $25.

**********************

STEPHEN PETRONIO DANCE COMPANY

Hopkins Center, January 4, 7 p.m. & January 5, 8 p.m. $28/5; and Flynn Center, January 6, 8 p.m. $34/29.

This year New York choreographer Stephen Petronio reached the big 5-0, but a young troupe keeps up his reputation for fierce, aggressive and often sexually provocative movement. He creates formal, non-narrative dances with an intellectual rigor and visceral passion. According to The New York Times, Petronio's works "map mental states instead of telling specific stories." He has also favored collaborators such as rocker Lou Reed, photographer Cindy Sherman and fashion designer Tara Subkoff - artists with unconventional firepower of their own.

For his current project, Petronio features music by the Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who in turn borrows lines from poets Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Bloom gives Petronio's focus on youth a new spin; he has enlisted local children's choirs for the piece - at the Flynn, the Champlain Valley Union Chorus will sing Wainwright's lyrics. "To engage with children is a very big thing for me right now," Petronio told the Times. "It's a kind of growing out."

It's also an attempt to engage the optimism of blooming youth "in a nasty place in a very dangerous and scary time," he added. For extra measure, the dancers will also perform Bud to a suite of Wainwright songs, as well as Petronio's rendering of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Come January, it'll be nice to think about flowering again.

- Pamela Polston

» MORE UPCOMING MODERN DANCE PERFORMANCES:

Ronald K. Brown Evidence Dance Company, Hopkins Center, September 21, 7 p.m. & September 22, 8 p.m. $28/5.

Bebe Miller Company, Middlebury College, October 3 & 4, 8 p.m. $15/12/5.

Streb, Flynn Center, November 1, 7:30 p.m. $40/34.

Fall Dance Concert (advanced student choreographers), Middlebury College, December 1 & 2, 8 p.m. $5/4/3.

Pilobolus (on front cover), Flynn Center, December 6, 7:30 p.m. $40/34; and Hopkins Center, April 4 & 5, 7 p.m. $30/5.

Miguel Gutierrez & the Powerful People, FlynnSpace, January 12 & 13, 8 p.m. $23.

Dance Company of Middlebury, Middlebury College, 8 p.m. $5/4/3.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Flynn Center, March 16, 8 p.m. $44/34.

Maureen Fleming Company, Flynn Center, April 20, 8 p.m. $32/26.

**********************

MATT HAIMOVITZ & U-CELLO

FlynnSpace, March 18, 7 p.m. $24.

Roll over, Bartok-and Jimi Hendrix, too. Matt Haimovitz's cello strings are tuned to stretch music genres to the breaking point, setting the stage for a FlynnSpace show that's sure to confront classical and classic-rock purists alike.

"Anthem," his feverish variation on Hendrix's Woodstock '69 countercultural riff on "The Star-Spangled Banner," caught the ear of many National Public Radio listeners during interviews on "All Things Considered." His current repertoire is reported to include Led Zeppelin alongside works by Bach, Bartók and Legeti.

Haimovitz draws in part on his experiences as a teen prodigy who played Carnegie Hall at 13, made his solo debut in 1984 with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and was mentored by violinist Itzhak Perlman. As he embarked on his concert career, however, Haimovitz noticed he was rarely performing for people of his own generation. So he crafted an edgy set of variations on classical and rock numbers and took his show to such iconic Stateside clubs as New York City's CBGB and Seattle's Tractor Tavern, where he wowed audiences with his frenetic fingerwork and innovative stylings.

Now a music prof at McGill University in Montréal, Haimovitz has created a four-cello ensemble called U-Cello, and teamed up with DJ Olive to put a new spin on musical convention. The results, says Flynn Center Artistic Director Arnie Malina, are in sync with the Flynn season's focus on "great music that spans the concert hall and the club scene." Maybe the generation gap will close between Haimovitz's first legion of fans and his latest, as minds open to new ways of hearing old favorites. And that, Malina adds, could address the Flynn's and Haimovitz's "mutual concern for getting younger listeners to think about all kinds of music, and to get people who know about classical music to think about younger music."

- Erik Esckilsen

» MORE UPCOMING GENRE-BENDING PERFORMANCES:

DBR & the Mission, FlynnSpace, September 29 & 30, 8 p.m. $25.

Bang on a Can All-Stars with Iva Bottová, violin/voice, Hopkins Center, January 18, 7 p.m. $26/14/5.

**********************

I AM MY OWN WIFE

Northern Stage, November 2-19, various times. $17-42; and Vermont Stage Company, FlynnSpace, March 28 - April 8, 8 p.m. $21.60-30.50.

Playwright Doug Wright spent a decade getting to know Berlin's enigmatic transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf - antiques collector, spy, museum curator and murderer - before writing a play based on her extraordinary life. Wright's title comes from a bold statement von Mahlsdorf made about why she would never marry: I Am My Own Wife. In 2004, Broadway was electrified by the tale of the man who lived openly as a woman and managed to survive both Nazi and East German communist regimes. The play garnered a Pulitzer, three Tonys and fistfuls of other prestigious awards.

The rights to stage the play regionally have just become available, leading to a flurry of local productions. The Weston Playhouse hosted the Vermont premiere this summer; Northern Stage does the show in November, and the Vermont Stage Company opens it in March.

VSC's Artistic Director Mark Nash admires von Mahlsdorf's struggle for "authenticity - how to truly be who you are." The Berliner confronted startling personal challenges in a politically explosive environment. Weston Producing Director Steve Stettler found that audiences "relished the opportunity to look at larger issues through the lens of one character's experience." This perspective humanizes history without oversimplifying it, he believes.

Nash tries to program a one-person show every year. "It's the actor's craft in its purest form, especially when it's a transformational piece like this, where the actor is playing 40 different roles," he says. "You go on a real journey . . . simultaneously identifying with the characters [while] marveling at the artistry of the actor."

I Am My Own Wife resonated powerfully enough with Weston theatergoers for the Playhouse to extend the run. Stettler reflects,"It represents the best in live theater: the chance to come into a room and meet a person and a story that makes you see things differently and more clearly than you did before you came."

- Elisabeth Crean

» MORE UPCOMING THEATER PERFORMANCES:

See programs or websites of Chandler Center, Flynn Center, Hopkins Center, Johnson State College, Lamoille County Players, Lane Series, Lost Nation Theater, Lyric Theater, Middlebury College, Northern Stage, Paramount Theatre, UVM Theatre, Vermont Stage Company, Weston Playhouse.

**********************

RUSSIAN AMERICAN KIDS CIRCUS

Flynn Center, March 11, 3 p.m. $23/17.

No doubt many rambunctious tykes will turn out for the Russian American Kids Circus show, both in the audience and on stage. After all, the members of the Brooklyn-based traveling circus troupe are all between the ages of 6 and 16.

And they sure are lively. Their energetic shows feature juggling, synchronized acrobatics, unicycle tricks, aerial feats and balancing acts. Not to mention black lights, music and outrageous costumes.

Their trainers - former Moscow Circus pro Alex Berenchtein, his wife Regina and mother-in-law Olga Partigul - have been teaching European circus arts to New York City kids since 1994. Their young charges have been featured in The New York Times and Life magazine, and on "Good Morning America."

Flynn Center Artistic Director Arnie Malina says watching these kids perform isn't just entertaining. "I think, to see young people and how capable they are is often astonishing," he says. "They teach you about the potential for living. It's just inspiring."

- Cathy Resmer

MORE UPCOMING KIDS/FAMILY FARE PERFORMANCES:

The Snowmaiden (puppetry, folk tale), Chandler Center, November 25, 11 a.m. $5.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie & Other Story Books (mini-musicals), Hopkins Center, November 30, 7 p.m. $18/14/5.

A Christmas Carol (musical theater), Flynn Center, December 10, 7 p.m. $36/31.

Mermaid Theatre (storytelling/puppetry), Flynn Center, January 12, 6:30 p.m. $15/11.

Marko the Magician, Chandler Center, February 9, 7 p.m. $10/5.

Seussical (musical theater), Flynn Center, March 25, 3 p.m. $20/14.

**********************

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR

Lane Series at Flynn Center, October 25, 7:30 p.m. $56/42.

In the two operas presented by UVM's Lane Series this year, premarital predicaments have wildly different outcomes. In Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (1786), the affianced must cut through more layers of intrigue than cake. Masters and maids embroil themselves in endless eavesdropping, fleeting crushes and gossip-induced complications. Mozart's ebullient musical writing - from arch arias to shimmering sextets - signals that knots will untangle happily by Act IV for the "I do"s.

From the opening scenes of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), however, the specter of tragedy stalks the craggy Scottish Highlands. In the Italian romantic composer's distillation of Sir Walter Scott's novel, Lucia loves the scion of her family's sworn enemies, and her brother tries to force her to marry someone else. Donizetti's ethereally beautiful music elevates the gory story of ghosts, omens, secrets, cruel fate and vows of vengeance. Lucia sings like an angel while going mad, and corpses are stacked like cordwood by the final curtain.

Lane Series Manager Natalie Neuert explains that the programming balance between comedy and tragedy is often a happy accident. "We don't have that much control over what operas we book," she says. Among offerings from top touring companies, "we tend to choose the one that hasn't been here in the longest time . . . When we saw that Teatro Lirico - a company that we really love - was doing Lucia, we were just thrilled. It's a gorgeous opera.

"And it's nice to have it juxtaposed with a really popular opera that many people have seen, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro," Neuert continues. "A lot of people who are just being introduced to opera tend to be attracted to the more well-known ones . . . But I would encourage people to go see Lucia because the music is just exquisite."

- Elisabeth Crean

» MORE OPERA PERFORMANCES:

Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Lane Series at Flynn Center, February 9, 7:30 p.m. $56/42.

**********************

ANNE GALJOUR

Hopkins Center, February 6, 7 p.m. $20/5; and FlynnSpace, February 9, 8 p.m. $23.

Playwright/actor Anne Galjour grew up in a small Cajun hamlet an hour from New Orleans, an area since devastated by Hurricane Katrina. But her one-woman show - first produced in the early 1990s - isn't about that epic storm. Galjour, who has lived for the past two decades in San Francisco, says she was inspired by the people she met and heard about while riding out storms as a child.

"The adults would tell us stories of past hurricanes while the wind was wailing outside," she writes in an email. "It was always like hearing our ancestors crying in the wind. It left an indelible mark on my psyche."

In Hurricane, Galjour channels six Cajun characters, whose lives intertwine against the backdrop sound of a storm. Says the San Francisco Chronicle of her performance: "Galjour doesn't only make us see and hear her characters. We smell and taste them, too, in a sumptuous flow of Southern language filled with vivid imagery."

Though Katrina doesn't make an appearance, the devastation it wrought has undoubtedly changed audiences' experience of the play. "A couple of the towns 'Hurricane' is set in have been almost wiped out," notes Galjour. "The story is now a living document of a place that is forever changed."

She hopes to create a similar piece depicting the lives of New Englanders. The Flynn Center, in conjunction with Dartmouth's Hopkins Center, has commissioned Galjour to develop a new play set in this region. She's already begun interviewing locals to develop her characters.

"This play is part of a three-year initiative that explores issues of class, locals vs. newcomers," she writes. "My hope is that hardworking, underserved members of your community will see themselves on stage."

- Cathy Resmer

» MORE UPCOMING THEATER PERFORMANCES:

Mike Daisey, Hopkins Center, October 18, 7 p.m. $24/5.

Kimberly Dark, Johnson State College, December 3, 7 p.m. $5/NC.

Live From the Front, Jerry Quickley, Hopkins Center, January 17, 7 p.m. $18/5.

**********************

MCCOY TYNER

Hopkins Center, January 13, 8 p.m. $30/5.

The Hop booked two of jazz music's elder statesmen for this performing arts season: The legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins' show is already sold out, and fans will have to be quick to snap up remaining tickets for pianist McCoy Tyner and his trio.

Tyner has been caressing the keys for more than 40 years, in a career that spans his stint as a founding member of the late, great John Coltrane Quartet and his Grammy-winning disc, Illuminations, in 2005. But it's not just in the recording studio where Tyner shows his mastery, transcending tradition while seeming to invent new paths to melody. On stage, he's still on fire. And he's on stage a lot. Last year a Boston Globe critic dubbed Tyner "the jazz world's answer to Bob Dylan" - a reference primarily to his constant touring, but also to the pencil-thin moustache both sixtysomething gentlemen are sporting nowadays.

That's where the similarities end, however; Tyner favors an elegant approach to his attire and to his playing, even when putting that famously percussive left hand to work. Coltrane said of his piano man that he could "take anything, no matter how weird, and make it sound beautiful." Call it good taste. Call it great music.

- Pamela Polston

» MORE UPCOMING JAZZ PERFORMANCES:

Sonny Rollins, Hopkins Center, September 23, 8 p.m. $45/5. (Sold out.)

Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Flynn Center, October 13, 8 p.m. $36/29.

Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Johnson State College, October 21, 8 p.m. $75/25.

Glenn Miller Orchestra, Chandler Center, November 6, 7 p.m. $25/20.

Rufus Reid Ensemble, Lane Series. November 10, 7:30 p.m. $25.

Bill Frisell's Unspeakable Orchestra with Ron Miles & Greg Tardy, Hopkins Center, November 14, 7 p.m. $26/5.

Ned Rothenberg's Sync with Strings, FlynnSpace, February 10, 8 p.m. $24.

The Susie Arioli Band with Jordan Officer, Lane Series, February 14, 7:30 p.m. $28.

Luciana Souza with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (Brazilian), Lane Series, March 30, 8 p.m. $35/30; and Hopkins Center, April 12, 7 p.m. $26/5.

Bobby Watson Quartet, FlynnSpace, April 14, 8 p.m. $25.

Kurt Elling Quintet, Bill Charlap Trio, Hopkins Center, April 20, 8 p.m. $26/5; and Flynn Center, April 21, 8 p.m. $41/33.

**********************

THE WAILIN' JENNYS

Barre Opera House, March 2, 8 p.m., $10-26.

With a moniker that puns off country-music renegade Waylon Jennings, you'd expect Canada's Wailin' Jennys to be a little rough around the edges. Actually, this all-female trio makes some of the sweetest sounds in contemporary Americana. Their appealing mix of country, folk and pop has earned WJ critical acclaim and a growing fan base.

The band regularly appears on NPR's popular "A Prairie Home Companion," and has impressed audiences on three continents. Last year, they won a Juno Award for their debut disc, 40 Days; its follow-up, Firecracker, will no doubt garner additional praise. Featuring impeccable harmonies and intimate arrangements, the disc takes the group a little further down that long and dusty country road toward fame.

- Casey Rea

» MORE UPCOMING ROOTS/FOLK/AMERICANA PERFORMANCES:

Kathy Mattea (country), Barre Opera House, September 29, 8 p.m. $10-34.

Garnet Rogers, After Dark Music Series, September 30, 7 p.m. $18/20.

Rosanne Cash (country), Flynn Center, October 6, 8 p.m. $42/35; and Hopkins Center, October 7, 8 p.m. $40/5.

Eliza Gilkyson (Texas guitarist/songwriter), Lane Series, October 27, 7:30 p.m. $25.

Cheryl Wheeler, After Dark Music Series, October 27, 7 p.m. $22/24.

Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky, Chandler Center, November 11, 7:30 p.m. $26/21.

Christine Lavin, After Dark Music Series, December 2, 7 p.m. $18/20.

Buckwheat Zydeco, Marcia Ball (New Orleans), Flynn Center, January 26, 8 p.m. $38/30.

The Holmes Brothers, After Dark Music Series, February 10, 7 p.m. $22/24.

Cherryholmes (bluegrass), Flynn Center, March 9, 8 p.m. $30/25.

Elana James & the Continental Two, After Dark Music Series, March 24, 7 p.m. $18/20.

Crooked Still, Chandler Center, March 24, 7:30 p.m. $23/18.

The Roche Sisters Reunion Tour, Lane Series, April 13, 7:30 p.m. $25.

Chris Smither, After Dark Music Series, April 14, 7 p.m. $18/20.

MORE INFO & TICKETS

- After Dark Music Series United Methodist Church, Middlebury, http://www.afterdark musicseries.com, 388-0216

- Barre Opera House http://www.barreoperahouse.org, 476-8188

- Cathedral Church of St. Paul Burlington, 864-0471

- Chandler Center for the Arts Randolph, Chandler Music Hall, http://www.chandler-arts.org, 728-6464

- Flynn Center/FlynnSpace Burlington, http://www.flynncenter.org, 863-5966

- Higher Ground Presents South Burlington, http://www.highergroundmusic.com, 652-0777

- Hopkins Center various venues, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., http://www.hop.dartmouth.edu, 603-646-2422

- Johnson State College, Dibden Center for the Arts, http://www.johnsonstatecollege.edu, 635-1476

- Lamoille County Players, Hyde Park, http://www.lcplayers.com, 888-4507

- Lane Series various venues, Burlington, http://www.uvm.edu/laneseries, 656-4455

- Lebanon Opera House http://www.lebanonoperahouse.org, 603-448-0400

- Lost Nation Theater Montpelier, http://www.lostnationtheater.org, 229-0492

- Lyric Theatre Company Burlington, http://www.lyrictheatrevt.org

- Middlebury College various venues, http://www.middlebury.edu, 443-6433

- Northern Stage Briggs Opera House, White River Junction, http://www.northernstage.org, 296-7000

- Paramount Theatre Rutland, http://www.paramountvt.org, 775-0570

- Pentangle Arts Woodstock, http://www.pentanglearts.org, 457-3981

- UVM Theatre Burlington, http://www.uvmtheatre.org, 656-2094

- Vergennes Opera House http://www.vergennesoperahouse.org, 877-6737

- Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble http://www.vcme.org, 859-9009

- Vermont Mozart Festival http://www.vtmozart.com, 862-7352

- Vermont Stage Company FlynnSpace, Burlington, http://www.vtstage.org, 862-1497

- Vermont Youth Orchestra http://www.vyo.org, 655-5030

- Vermont Youth Orchestra http://www.vyo.org, 655-5030

- Vermont Symphony Orchestra http://www.vso.org, 800-876-9293, x10

- Vermont Youth Orchestra http://www.vyo.org, 655-5030

- Weston Playhouse http://www.westonplayhouse.org, 824-5288