Alumni News

Christopher Adler (Ph.D. 1999) has released a new CD of his compositions entitled Ecstatic Volutions in a Neon Haze (Innova Recordings). The CD includes five groove-based compositions performed by musicians from across the U.S., including the ensemble pulsoptional and Adler on piano. In February, his composition Music for a Royal Palace was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Ensemble ACJW, the new ensemble-in-residence at Carnegie Hall. In June, Adler co-organized and performed in the 2nd annual soundON Festival of Modern Music in La Jolla, CA, with three days of new music by living composers from around the world. Christopher Adler is an associate professor at the University of San Diego.

Todd Atlas (Trinity ’01, Law: J.D. ’08, Fuqua School of Business: M.B.A. ’08) is opening a commercial recording studio, and high end guitar boutique in Durham, NC. Todd has been running a Durham-based organization, Sound Pure LLC, specializing in high end recording studio product sales for nearly 10 years. Sound Pure supplies studio recording equipment (and now high end guitars and amplifiers) to major recording professionals and serious hobbyists all over the world. Sound Pure’s new facility, and a result of Todd’s two year redevelopment of an old downtown-Durham warehouse, will be a multi-room class-A recording facility housed in an early 1900’s warehouse located at 808 Washington St. in downtown Durham (at Trinity and Washington), just 5 blocks away from Duke's East Campus. The live room will be the largest in the greater Triangle area, suitable even for full-orchestra work, and contains a brand new Steinway B, 7’ piano.

Sheena Baratono (Trinity '07) will be attending the University of Pennsylvania in an MD/PhD program. A violinist in the Symphony Orchestra during her time at Duke, Sheena is planning to join a local orchestra while she works on her graduate degrees.

Chris Boerner (Trinity ’01), has been working as a professional guitarist based in the triangle, and has recently joined Sound Pure LLC, developing its high-end boutique-guitar sales arm. Chris, a very versatile professional guitarist, has been touring with several bands in a wide variety of genres, and has been building the unique guitar-collection at Sound Pure over the last two years. The new downtown-Durham Sound Pure facility will house an “art-gallery” like showroom containing numerous one-of-a-kind guitars ranging from master built acoustic and electric guitars & amps as well as extraordinary arch-top jazz guitars. Chris, like Todd, has both engineered and produced numerous professional recordings, and will be actively involved in the facility’s recording studios.

Todd and Chris hope to be operating out of the new facility and booking studio time as early as July 2008, with an anticipated “official” grand opening sometime in fall 2008. They are excited to be the closest commercial recording facility to Duke Music and Biddle, as well as being the best equipped facility in the Triangle. They both look forward to continuing to build and expand their relationship with Duke-affiliated musicians. They have a limited number of “grand opening” tickets available for those interested, and are delighted to provide tours of the facility at any time. Sound Pure LLC can be reached by phone toll-free at 888-528-9703.

John Bower (Ph.D. 2007) is an instructor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He is a recipient of a 2008 McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship and a 2007 American Composers Forum subito career advancement grant. In January 2008, Boston's Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble gave the premiere full performance of his viola concerto, The Echo Over the Voice, with Anne Black as the soloist.

Samuel Breene (Ph.D. 2007) was named a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joy Calico (Ph.D. 1999) has been awarded a Howard Fellowship to conduct two summers' worth of archival research for her book entitled Musical Remigration: Schoenberg's 'Survivor from Warsaw' in Postwar Europe. Additional information about Joy's new book, Brecht at the Opera, and her other achievements can be found in a profile written for the Music Department by Joyce Kurpiers.

James R. Carlson's (Ph.D. 2000) The Water Cycle received its world premiere last November by the University of Tennessee Saxophone and Percussion Project. James also composed music for the play Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton, based on a true story about a girl who endured the trials of being in Jewish labor camps during WWII. She miraculously saved hundreds of letters she'd received while in the camps and kept them a secret from her family until the 1990s. They play was performed in December 2007 at the Tennessee Williams Center at Sewanee, The University of the South. Other recent work includes serving as Music Director and composer for Art Moves, an annual dance production by Momentum Dance Lab at the Knoxville Museum of Art, and being Producing Director for Waging Peace in Times of War, an eclectic multimedia event featuring short films, poetry readings, dance and musical performances that took place in April and featured the premiere of James' A Sound As Yet Unheard for soprano and piano that was composed in response to the events of 9/11. This summer, James is composer-in-residence at the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, TN, where he will attend a performance of his Mirage for flute and piano. More about James and his music can be found at his website, www.alembickmusic.com.

Timothy J. Dickey (Ph.D. 2003) is currently working in the Office of Research at OCLC(the global library cooperative that manages WorldCat, the FirstSearch databases, ILLiad inter-library loan, etc.), where he also serves as editor for the journal RLG DigiNews. Since graduation, he has taught on the faculties of the University of Iowa, the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music, and Ohio Wesleyan University, and he has published in Plainsong & Medieval Music, Early Music History, Explorations in Renaissance Culture, Information Technology & Libraries, Libri, and the Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology.

William D. Gudger (Trinity 1969; Chapel and Music Dept. staff 1974-76) was just made Professor Emeritus after 30 years of teaching music history and theory at the College of Charleston (SC). During the Spoleto Festival this year he conducted three Handel organ concertos with three different soloists on three concerts of the organ recital series, using his edition (Barenreiter) of the concertos.

Lily Hirsch (Ph.D. 2006) has received an advance contract from Michigan University Press for her upcoming book, Jewish Music in Nazi Germany: The Jewish Culture League and Music in Nazi Berlin." She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Cleveland State University.

Joe Keefe (Trinity '04) is working as an acoustical consultant in NJ, and in the fall will be the percussion instructor for the marching band of the high school from which he graduated.

Kasey Mattia (Ph.D. 2008) received her Ph.D. in May. Her dissertation was entitled Crossing the Channel: Cultural Identity in the Court Entertainments of Queen Henrietta Maria, 1625-1640.

John Mayrose (Ph.D. 2007) was named a postdoctoral teaching fellow at Lawrence University in Appelton, Wisconsin.

A new recording of Carl Schimmel's (Ph.D. 2008) Elemental Homunculi, for saxophone and piano, has been issued by AUR (Arizona University Recordings), with saxophonist Taimur Sullivan and pianist Inara Zandmane. In spring 2008, Carl received a Ph.D. in Music for his Piano Concerto, written for Blair MacMillan, who will perform it in November with the Raleigh Civic Symphony. This summer, Carl will be in residency at the artists' colony Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY, working on a work for Due East, a flute and percussion duo, as well as a work for the Netherlands-based sax and clarinet duo Henri Bok and Ann Evans. This fall, he will be a visiting lecturer at Grinnell College in Iowa, where he will be teaching composition.

Jayne Swank (Trinity '08) will be a Lilly Fellow in 2008-2009. As a Fellow, she will be living in the Duke Pathways house, and she will use her stipend to work as an apprentice to Dr. Ben Hutchens, Director of Music at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Durham.

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Email Elizabeth Thompson, Publicist, Dept. of Music