BENNINGTON -- Claudia Schmidt, well known for her vibrant folk performances, will be at Bennington's Meetinghouse Café of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Friday, Jan. 11. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. The Fellowship is located at 108 School Street in downtown Bennington.

For almost four decades Claudia Schmidt has been exploring the nuances of acoustic music with her voice, 12 string guitar and mountain dulcimer with an exciting collection of original, traditional, and contemporary writing.

She has performed in small clubs and on large concert stages. She has been featured on PRI's A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, a television documentary on KTCA-TV in St. Paul called "I Sing Because I Can't Fly", and has written music for and acted in the musical "Bag Lady Tendencies" with Friends Mime Theater in Milwaukee and Frank Galati's production of "Good Person of Szechuan" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, for which she won a Jefferson Award.

Claudia Schmidt mines the humor and poignancy of our lives and shapes it into a ‘one-woman revitalization movement', as a journalist from Oakland, Ca. described her. The stage is her natural habitat, and every member of her audience is made to feel welcome and energized by her presentation.

Fourteen of her own CDs and several collaborations with other musicians beautifully archive the musical journey she has undertaken, and she is showing no signs of slowing down, writing furiously, more recording in the works, and touring a big part of the year.

Information about the concert is on the UU Fellowship's web page at www.uubennington.com