Performance Ensembles
Smith's lively community of performing ensembles encourages student participation throughout the year. Most ensembles are open to any student (some require an audition) and perform in a wide variety of styles. Many students take part in more than one ensemble.
The Smith College Orchestra, Glee Club, and Chorus perform pieces from various repertoires, including key pieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, 20th-century works (including some composed by Smith faculty and staff) and works from the folk and popular canon as well. The Choral Society and Orchestra collaborate for our annual Vespers concert in December and masterworks such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Fauré's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, and others. Highlights of such collarbations include a trip to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the University of Michigan Glee Club. Other special events include international tours, such as the Smith College Chamber Singers' 2010 tour of Sicily.
Smith has six (sometimes more!) student-run a cappella groups who perform throughout New England. Our talented groups are well known in the area and Groove, an a cappella group made up of members of Choral Society, hosted a Silver Chord Bowl event in Northampton on February 9, 2010.
As part of the ethnomusicology area, the Smith Gamelan was founded in 1995 and serves as an immersive ensemble for studying the music of Java. The group is directed by Smith faculty member Margaret Sarkissian and Sumarsam, a Gamelan master and adjunct professor at Wesleyan University.
In addition to the various student ensembles noted above, the Smith Chamber Music Society (formerly the Smith Chamber Ensemble) gathers Smith College faculty and friends for performances of chamber music from the seventeenth century through today.
