The University of Vermont English Department, with support from the James and Mary Brigham Buckham Fund, presents a performance of “Four Quartets: Variations.”  Four poets, four actors, four trombones, and a percussion quartet breathe life into and around T.S. Eliot's inimitable poem, with vocal recitation, variation, improvisation and instrumental music.

The event, free and open to the public, will take place Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Davis Center's Silver Maple Ballroom.

“Four Quartets: Variations,” which revolves around T. S. Eliot's incomparable sequence Four Quartets, is a theatrical, musical and poetic tour de force. Moored by the performances of four vocalizing actors and four poets interacting with excerpted and remixed text of Eliot’s Four Quartets, the project also features byways into performance sets by the Iktus Percussion Quartet and The Guidonian Hand, a trombone quartet, which expand the musical reaches and correspondences of the poem. Emphasizing the profundity and structural revelations of Eliot's book-length poem, the actors and musicians surround the poets' recitations with extended techniques of all varieties, from improbable instrumental sounds to extremes of vocal and improvisatory production, letting the text re-echo in time past, time present and time future.

The quartet of actors are Marya Lowry, Corianna Moffatt, Phil Timberlake, and Nate Speare, while participating poets include Paige Ackerson-Kiley, Oni Buchanan, Major Jackson and Jon Woodward.

This event is produced by Ariel Artists, an artist management company designed and staffed by classical musicians.

Information: (802) 656-3056.