who we are
Known for our imaginative musical performances, Vermont-style quirkiness, rustic cabin living, gourmet family-style meals, and tight-knit community, NMOP is unique among music festivals. NMOP has been the birthplace of hundreds of new musical works, plus countless spontaneous moments of beauty and social connection. NMOP produces an annual community concert series, which brings music to new audiences in outdoor settings. Music and nature connect and combine in unexpected, magical ways.
Our Place in the World
NMOP sits lakeside beneath the Green Mountains, under a night-time sky filled with stars. Located on beautiful Lake Dunmore in Leicester, Vermont, we are approximately 15 minutes from Brandon (south) and Middlebury (north). The Middlebury region is steeped in Vermont beauty, including extensive farm and orchard country and the Green Mountain National Forest, with gorgeous hiking trails nearby. New Music On The Point uses the property of Point CounterPoint, a summer chamber music camp which has been in operation since 1963.
Our Staff
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Our BOARD
Jenny Beck
FREDERICK COHEN
Faith Daya
THERESA HARRIS
ANdrea LANDSBERG
DAVE LEWIS
VIRGINIA RAUH
JOHN PICKFORD RICHARDS
How we began
In 2008, Jenny Beck was planning to buy a quiet cabin in Vermont when she stumbled across Point CounterPoint, a chamber music summer camp for kids and teens, then closed and for sale. By 2011, Jenny Beck had rebuilt Point CounterPoint as a thriving program. That’s when she heard contemporary music for the first time at a concert at Yale. Jenny had a vision for a summer festival that brings young composers and performers together to create brand-new music, and she teamed up with Yale professor Kathryn Alexander to create New Music On The Point. NMOP entered the music world in June 2011 and has become one of the most notable summer festivals for contemporary music. Amy Williams replaced Kathryn as Artistic Director in 2015. The June Festival expanded in 2025 to include a five-day September Retreat for early to-mid-career composers.
NMOP Timeline
2011
NMOP’s inaugural year, with Kathryn Alexander as Artistic Director. Participant works performed in our off-campus performance home, Salisbury Congregational Church. The first of many memorable June festivals to come!
2012
JACK Quartet becomes NMOP’s Ensemble-In-Residence, joining vocalist Jennifer Beattie, pianist Donna Loewy and faculty composer Laura Schwendinger.
2013
Our June Festival faculty includes members of the International Contemporary Ensemble and composer Jason Eckardt. Constant rain doesn’t dampen the music!
2014
JACK Quartet returns along with members of the American Modern Ensemble and an amazing group of faculty composers.
2015
Amy Williams becomes NMOP’s new Artistic Director, along with Technical Director Brian Riordan. A special performance of faculty composer Robert Morris’ Arboretum on the Middlebury Town Green.
2016
NMOP adds participant Ensembles-In-Residence, starting with the fabulous Argus Quartet.
2017
Vocalist Tony Arnold joins, Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetry at Brandon Music, a memorable concert of works by featured guest composer Christian Wolff, plus JACK Quartet performs a soft premiere of John Luther Adams’ Everything That Rises on the floating dock at dawn for an iconic NMOP moment.
2018
NMOP gets ambitious, hosting a cross-state public concert with Roomful of Teeth and Caroline Shaw. We all party with Ted Hearne, and get in the lake to perform The Lake by Juraj Kojs!
2019
Another big year for NMOP: this June Festival features a day-long celebration of the music of John Luther Adams at Shelburne Farms, plus an incredible residency by Pamela Z.
2020
COVID forces NMOP to cancel the June Festival, but we still hold a virtual alumni event with 10 world premieres to celebrate 10 years of NMOP!
2021
A hybrid NMOP, with outdoor concerts at the Burlington Discover Jazz festival and on campus. Manny joins as Assistant Technical Director. In September, hundreds of people come out for Eve Beglarian’s A Murmur in the Trees, featuring 24 double basses in the woods.
2022
A day-long New Music Crawl all around Middlebury, an unforgettable performance by bassist Robert Black, new ensemble explorations with Susie Ibarra, Levy Lorenzo, and Amy Beth Kirsten.
2023
Mazz Swift leads a conduction workshop, Manny conducts Darius Jones’s WAR, the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo plays Nancarrow, and JACK and Amy play Feldman at Barn Opera.
2024
Juraj Kojs serves as Interim Artistic Director bringing us an unforgettable “Artphibian Experience” including a group performance along the Falls of Lana trail. Plus Chef Kai joins our kitchen staff!
2025
We celebrate our 15th anniversary with a fiddling workshop at Bread and Butter Farm, Nicole Mitchell and the Bergamot Quartet at the Discover Jazz Festival, and the first-ever September Retreat!
pAST FACULTY
Want to learn more about NMOP?
Check out past NMOP performances on our YouTube channel.