118 Elliot Event Calendar
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Nu Mu 5 ‘The Mending Wall’ Music and Art Festival – August 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21
Thu, July 16, 2026 at 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Nu Mu Festival of Music and Art Opens Gallery Walk, August 7, 2026
With ‘Minding a New Way’ Art Show
followed by
Renowned Jazz Musicians Hilliard Greene and Jeff Lederer
Playing Traditional and Contemporary African American Spiritual Music
with Pete Simoneaux and other Local Musicians
July 16, 2026, Brattleboro, VT: Brattleboro’s annual festival of music and art celebrates its fifth year with: Nu Mu 5: “Minding a New Way”. The festival will be held at 118 Elliot and is scheduled over 3 weekends in August from 7th–21st. The opening evening will feature celebrated bassist and storyteller Hilliard Greene with his famed musical project: “Milestone Negro Spirituals Until The Civil War: When Folksongs Bring Freedom.” Greene will be sharing bass lines and the stories behind the spirituals associated with the Underground Railroad as well as coded messages that runaway slaves used to elude capture, such as ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and others.
Greene’s powerfully moving performance will begin at 8:30 pm following the Gallery Walk opening of the ‘Minding a New Way’ art exhibition in the 118 Elliot Gallery with paintings by Liza Cassidy and John Loggia. After Greene’s performance, saxophonist Jeff Lederer and other local musicians including Pete Simoneaux will explore the echoes of the spirituals in contemporary Jazz.
Subsequent weekends of the festival will feature acts such as Southern Vermont’s Anarchoharmonia musicians with 10 visiting students from Long Island University’s Post Modern Ensemble, percussionist Julian Gerstin and his original Jazz compositions, NYC-based emo-gaze band Cannon Fodder, the Turbulence Orchestra with its large format improvisation ensemble, a Sunday morning open-to-all meditation session, all culminating in a raucous finale designed to help audiences and players revel in ‘Sonic Liberation.’
More background on performers can be found on 118elliot.com and the attached PDF.
About the festival:
Nu Mu is a community-oriented, inter-generational, new, experimental and improvised music and art festival that brings together recognized jazz musicians and sound artists with local talent and students creating singular opportunities for collaboration and experimentation. These events have been shaping Brattleboro up to be a regional hub for ‘fringe’ music and sonic exploration.
The Nu Mu festival is directed by 118 Elliot’s John Loggia, a painter and musician, and Jeff Lederer, a New York City-based saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator whose work crosses the genres of jazz, Latin and creative improvised music. Lederer has been featured in Downbeat and JazzTimes Magazine and spends his summers in Guilford, Vermont. This is the third year that students from Long Island University will participate in the Nu Mu Festival.
“Nu Mu 5 “Minding a New Way” highlights the struggle for a more inclusive society and how improvised music reflects the democratic struggle of balancing individual expression with group dynamics,” Loggia said.
“Participating in the Nu Mu festival is an incredible opportunity for my students from Long Island University to collaborate with diverse musicians while learning all aspects of what it takes to put on a festival,” Lederer said. “They are excited to work and play together with the many talented and passionate individuals the festival gathers.”
Our full schedule is below. All events are at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301 unless otherwise noted. Updates at 118elliot.com