This fall, the versatile Hopkins Center for the Arts will be transformed into a comedy club, concert hall and more as the College hosts a number of artists including Mark Morris Dance Group, The Knights, Reggie Watts, Bella Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Tetzlaff Quartet and A Tribe Called Red.
"We have a real mixture of artists this year who are quite famous in North America and internationally," Hop director of programming Margaret Lawrence said. "We are aware of the curriculum at Dartmouth and look for artists who would engage in potential outreach activities such as guest lectures or master classes."
Lawrence said she is excited for several pieces that will premiere on campus this year.
"What I'm most proud of as a programmer is when we're supporting something new and students are the first students to see and hear something," she said.
Kicking off the season is world-renowned Mark Morris Dance Group, which will perform three shows all set to live music and exclusively feature the choreography of artistic director and founder Morris.
The modern dance group performed previously at Dartmouth around 10 years ago. At the Hop, the company will perform three works including The Argument (1999), Silhouettes (1999), Festival Dance (2011) and A Wooden Tree (2012).
John Heginbotham, a former MMDG member and last year's Dartmouth Dance Ensemble guest director, praised the Hopkins Center as a "first class theatre complex."
"I've performed at campuses all over America and some universities in Europe, Japan and Australia and I've never seen anything like Hopkins Center's model," Heginbotham said. "The fact that the center brings huge names, like Brooklyn Rider and Alvin Ailey, yet is still in align with campus and supports student ensembles is amazing."
Heginbotham reflected on Mark Morris' work, emphasizing his desire for dance to be open to all people.
While working with the ensemble at Dartmouth, Heginbotham followed this same philosophy, opening up classes and workshops to the greater campus community.
"I think Mark Morris' philosophy was dance is not for everyone, but it is for anyone,'" Heginbotham said. "I tried to follow that at Dartmouth and taught a workshop of learned repertoire from Mark Morris Dance Group," he said.
MMDG will perform in the Moore Theatre from Sept. 17 to 19 at 7 p.m.
Just a few days later, sound and visual artist Tristan Perich will bring his work to campus. Heralded as an "intense, hypnotic force and a surprising emotional depth" by The Wall Street Journal, tech-savvy Perich will be in creative residence at the Hop from Sept. 24 to 27.
Young, innovative, New York-based chamber orchestra The Knights will arrive in early October to perform a variety of works, including premiering a new piece, Concerto for Santur and Violin. Called "the future of classical music in America" by the Los Angeles Times, the group essentially grew out of brothers Eric and Colin Jacobsen's living room.
"It's kind of like an orchestral garage band," Colin Jacobsen said. "So I hope we're able to make Dartmouth our living room with an orchestra."
The Jacobsen brothers are also members of Silk Road Ensemble and the famed quartet Brooklyn Rider, which performed on campus last year.
Colin Jacobsen recalled a great evening he spent at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction and said he valued meeting people and hearing about town happenings as it helped create a better connection during the performance.
Colin Jacobsen said he looks forward to returning to the Upper Valley with a larger orchestra.
"The Knights is a bigger group so it's almost like we're not just bringing a nuclear family but a community of people to Dartmouth," he said.
Concerto for Santur and Violin, which he composed with Iranian Santur-player Siamak Aghaei, is a concerto grosso piece where two or more soloists lead the orchestra.
"This program represents who The Knights are," Colin Jacobsen said. "A concerto grosso is a party within the party."
Listen to the piece's premiere in addition to a slew of other works on Oct. 4 in Spaulding Auditorium.
Comedian and musician Reggie Watts will descend on campus to perform his original monologues and spur-of-the-moment songs.
Watts has performed multiple times on "Comedy Bang Bang," "Conan" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."
Known for never giving the same show twice, the nationally recognized musician has been praised by numerous publications from The Village Voice to Time Out New York. Watts will perform on Oct. 5 in Spaulding.
In a rare joint showing, banjo master and 15-time Grammy Award winner Bela Fleck and American-Chinese inspired singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn will unite at Dartmouth to present a mix of traditional and original songs that span across every genre, from bluegrass to jazz on Oct. 17.
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who last performed at the Hop two years ago, returns this fall with a quartet. The chamber music focused group has worked together for almost 20 years, creating sensitive and detailed music.
The group will perform a set of both classical and modern pieces ranging from Haydn's String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20/2 to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132 in Spaulding Auditorium on Oct. 18.
For theater fans, poet, playwright and actor Edgar Oliver will showcase his work "Helen and Edgar" to Hanover in October, a play inspired by Oliver's childhood in Georgia that highlights his relationship with his quirky mother. Oliver is well known in the New York theater scene and "Helen and Edgar" has been hailed as "utterly absorbing and unexpectedly moving" by The New York Times. His thrilling, frightening and hilarious project will be performed on Oct. 22 and 23 in the Warner Bentley Theater.
What promises to be a mystifying performance by British singers The Tiger Lillies comes to the Hop just in time for Halloween.
The group is known for their over-the-top clown-like makeup and costumes and croon twisted songs about seedy London characters, nightmares and horror stories. Their hauntingly high-pitched falsettos are accompanied by clanging pots and pans among other instruments. Get scared on Oct. 25 in Spaulding.
DJ trio A Tribe Called Red will spin danceable beats in Collis Common Ground on Nov. 1, sponsored by the Native American Society. The trio represents Canada's First Nations Youth Movement and works to overturn cultural stereotypes about Native Americans and indigenous Canadian people. Called "smart and political" by Hop Programming Director Lawrence, the group's performances are often accompanied by live native dancers and multimedia effects.
The three DJs mix traditional powwow vocals and drums with dubstep and hip hop to create thought-provoking, fist-pumping tunes.
On Nov. 14, the Hop will co-commission the world premiere of "Playing For Peace," a 25-year-old classic Apple Hill String Quartet program that uses chamber music to promote cultural awareness and understanding in regions of turmoil. The performance will feature Kinan Azmeh playing alongside the Hop's pianist-in-residence and Israeli-born Sally Pinkas accompanied by the New Hampshire-based quartet.
