LEWISTON — World-acclaimed American pianist Richard Goode and Chanticleer, an internationally renowned a cappella ensemble, will kick off the 25th anniversary celebratory season of the Olin Arts Center at Bates College.

Goode will present a program of works by Mozart and Chopin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, at the Olin Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. Tickets are $20, $12 for students and seniors. They are available at www.batestickets.com.

Goode was the first American-born pianist to record the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas, producing an edition nominated for a Grammy Award.

He is a 1983 Grammy Award winner for “Brahms: The Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 120,” a collaboration with clarinetist Richard Stoltsman.

Goode is known for the energy and expressiveness he brings to each interpretation. “Few can match his unfailingly beautiful tone, effortless technical command, interpretive insight and total emotional commitment to the music he plays,” wrote a reviewer for The Washington Post.

The pianist last visited Bates a decade ago, performing with his wife, violinist Marcia Weinfeld.

A Nonesuch Records recording artist, he has released more than two dozen albums since the mid-1980s.

During the 2011-12 season, he will tour the nation and the globe giving performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a West Coast tour with the Boston Symphony; and recitals at Carnegie Hall, as well as in Chicago, Philadelphia, Berkeley, Kansas City, Baltimore, Detroit and at universities around the country.

On Saturday, Oct. 1, Chanticleer will perform its popular program “Love Song,” spanning 500 years of music. Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert in Olin Concert Hall are $25 and $15; available at www.batestickets.com.

The program features songs, chansons and ballads by composers as diverse as De Sermisy, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and Ralph Vaughan Williams; and includes a new composition by Stephen Paulus and a new Vince Peterson arrangement of “Somebody to Love” by Freddy Mercury.

Founded by the late Louis Botto in 1978, the all-male Chanticleer is known as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its voices ranging from countertenor to bass and its original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, from gospel to intrepid new music.

“The singing of Chanticleer is breathtaking in its accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, variety of color and swagger of style,” noted a writer for The Boston Globe.

Chanticleer will perform more than 100 concerts in 2011-12 and will perform on the soundtrack of the 10th anniversary release by Microsoft of its legendary video game “Halo.”

Twenty-fifth anniversary events at Olin Arts Center also include an “open house extravaganza” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, featuring tours of the building led by the Asphalt Orchestra, New York City’s urban nontraditional marching band. There will be music, dance and visual art by Bates students, alumni and faculty, face-painting and balloon animals.

While on campus, the Asphalt Orchestra will give workshops, flash concerts, conversations and collaboration. The group will also visit local schools and create spontaneous music outdoors with parades and gatherings celebrating the arts in Lewiston-Auburn, Portland and locations in between.

Since its dedication on Oct. 11, 1986, Olin Arts Center has brought enrichment to the cultural scene for both the community and the Bates campus. Diverse programs have ranged from French singer Jean Paul Poulin in 1987 and the world-famous Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio in 2000 to the Atlanta Virtuosi Chamber Music Concert Series in 2004, as well as programs of shadow puppetry and Indonesian-style music by Bates College’s own percussion-based Gamelan Mawar Mekar Orchestra.

In keeping with the college’s philosophy of broad exposure to learning, the Gamelan is open to participation by any of college’s students, not just those in music courses.

The Olin Arts Center also has hosted gubernatorial debates, many speakers, film showings, the Stanton Bird Club’s Maine Bird Conference and numerous other events.

“Richard Goode and Chanticleer are the heavy hitters for the center’s 2011-2012 season,” said Seth Warner, manager of the Olin Arts Center.

Goode, who has performed about 10 times at Bates, has a “special affection” for the Steinway piano at Olin Arts Center, Warner said.

Goode has not announced his program for his Sept. 30 appearance because, Warner said, “he wants the piano to decide.”

Piano performance at Bates College is also defined in an extraordinary manner by artist-in-residence Frank Glazer, now in his late 90s, who performs often at Olin Arts Center. He will present a free concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13.

Warner noted that Olin Arts Center has been a particularly important venue for jazz and chamber music. The concert hall’s 300 seats provide an intimate setting for singers and songwriters. Among those who have appeared in recent years are Josh Ritter, Suzanne Vega and India’s Vijay Iyer.

Olin Arts Center, built with a gift from the F.W. Olin Foundation, is also home to the Bates College Art Museum. At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, Brad Kahlhamer and Kelsey Barrett in collaboration with the Museum of Art group exhibition “Tale Spinning” will present a storytelling program called “Yondering.” Admission to the program supported by guitar and drums is free, but tickets are required.

The Olin Arts Center houses 10 practice rooms with pianos, three teaching studios, five classrooms and seminar rooms. The Bates College Department of Music owns a Steinway concert grand piano, a new Disklavier, a William Dowd harpsichord, an 18th century replica fortepiano and a magnificent tracker organ in the college chapel.

The Bates Computer Music Studio includes up-to-date Macintosh computers, synthesizers, and recording equipment with software for sound synthesis and music notation. It’s available to all students in music courses. The computer and recording studios are electronically connected to 12 classrooms.

Ticket prices and information about concerts at Olin Arts Center may be found at www.batestickets.com. Many of the presentations throughout the season are free to the public.

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