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Faculty and Student News

Faculty News

John Brown (Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music and Director of the Duke Jazz Program) receives a thumbs-up in the Spring 2008 issue of Jazz Improv magazine for his CD, Terms of Art: A Tribute to Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Reviewer Mark Lomanno says, "As both homage and on its own merits, Terms of Art is a solid success that should leave sympathetic listeners wanting more from Brown and his group." More information about John's recording projects and other recent work is available on his website, www.jbjazz.com.

On Alumni Weekend in April, Paul Bryan (Professor of Music Emeritus) entertained 19 alumni who participated in the Duke Marching Band (DUMB) and/or Wind Symphony during the period that he served as Director (1951-62). He notes that some of them had returned to campus for their official 50th reunions. Sharing memories of the Wind Symphony, he writes, "... we initiated concerts from our position on the flagstones in front of the fish pond in the Duke Gardens. And we began touring during spring vacation. Some of our prominent players in later years reported that our performances in their high schools were the chief reason that they applied for admission. So the positive results were more than just fun for us, although it certainly was that."

Laura Byrne (Lecturer, Harp) performed the Debussy Danses Sacrée et Profane for Harp and Strings with Harry Davidson and the Duke Symphony Orchestra in December 2007. She also performed the Saint Saens Fantasie for harp and violin with Richard Luby in the "France & Romance" concert at Memorial Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill in November 2007. Mrs. Byrne was a featured instrumentalist in the concert and CD recording of Festival of Carols with Sue Klausmeyer and the Chapel Hill Community Chorus, and gave a harp and flute recital with flutist Pam Nelson in the Smedes Parlor Concert Series. She also performed throughout the Triangle as the Principal Harpist with the North Carolina Ballet's Nutcracker and with the Opera Company of North Carolina's productions of Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, and in "Va Pensiero," a concert of favorite opera arias.

Sandra Cotton (Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music, Voice) will sing a program entitled Night and Day: An Evening of
'Delovely' Music by Gershwin and Porter on July 30 for the Eastern Music Festival and Greensboro Opera. During the 2008-09 season, she will tour as Hansel with Capital Opera of Raleigh's Outreach Production of Hansel and Gretel.

Harry Davidson (Professor of the Practice of Music and Music Director of the Duke Symphony Orchestra) has focused on opera this past spring. In February, he conducted four performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he holds the position of Music Director of Opera. Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg wrote, "Harry Davidson conducts an elastic account of the score, including a fine reading of the overture. His pacing is considerate of the singers, and the CIM Orchestra responds with playing of noble and detailed assurance." Prof. Davidson returned to Durham to conduct 2 semi-staged concert performances of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera, Hansel and Gretel, with the Duke Symphony Orchestra and professional opera singers in April, concluding an exciting season for the DSO.

Stephen Jaffe (Professor of Composition, Chair of the Department of Music) has a new CD out from Bridge Records, which includes Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2003), Homage to the Breath: Instrumental and Vocal Meditations with a text by Thich Nhat Hanh (2001), and two compositions recorded live in concert by the North Carolina Symphony, Grant Llewellyn, music director, in January 2006: Cut Time (2004) and Poetry of The Piedmont (2006). The compositions were premiered by the National Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and the 21st Century Consort. Soloists on the disc include cellist David Hardy and mezzo-soprano Milagro Vargas; and besides the North Carolina Symphony, the Odense Symphony of Denmark (Paul Mann conducting) and the 21st Century Consort (Christopher Kendall conducting). At a May 18 concert by the Kennedy Center Chamber Players in Washington, David Hardy and Lambert Orkis presented the premiere of Jaffe's SONATA in Four Parts for Cello and Piano. This summer, Prof. Jaffe is a guest composer at the Composers' Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley College. A new composition, Cíthara mea (Evocaciones): Spanish Music Notebook for Orchestra has been commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony in connection with the Nasher Museum of Art's exhibition "El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III." This new piece will premiere on Oct. 2, 2008 at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, NC.

Hsiao-mei Ku's (Associate Professor of the Practice of Music (Violin) and Member of the Ciompi Quartet) CD, Ma Sicong: Music for Violin and Piano (Naxos 8.570600), received a very favorable review in the January 2008 issue of Strings Magazine. Reviewer Greg Cahill writes, "This CD features some of the most beautiful recorded chamber music that you will encounter this year, fiercely romantic and filled with heartfelt emotion."

Scott Lindroth (Vice Provost for the Arts and Professor of Music) has received a commission from the Monadnock Music Festival for a trio for flute, guitar, and viola, and a commission from the American Bandmasters Association for a new wind ensemble work. He is one of the developers of soundSpace, an interactive movement and sound exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science (running through October 2008).

Tom Moore (Music Librarian and Director of the Collegium Musicum) will be in Rio de Janeiro this summer interviewing Carioca composers. While there he will also be recording a compact disc of Telemann flute duets.

Brenda Neece (Adjunct Assistant Professor and Curator of the Duke University Musical Instrument Collection) was this year's Smithsonian "What's Your Story" winner. Given all of her photography activities at DUMIC, Neece has embarked on an online degree BFA in photography at the Academy of Art University this summer. As a part of DUMIC's digital initiative, Neece has been working on a number of technology projects. As a follow-up to the UMPC grant her Music 201 class received in Fall 2007, Neece attended two CIT programs, one of which was a demonstration of the UMPC at the Spring 2008 CIT Showcase. She also attended number of the Spring CIT technology workshops and a continuing education short course on web design. Over the summer she has been experimenting with new flash drive micro computers, in particular an Asus eee PC Surf 4GB. This computer is the size of a portable DVD player but is fully capable of surfing the internet and use in the classroom. Another technology she has been working with is the new 80GB Zune. This device is slightly larger than an ipod but allows for music and image sharing, showing slide shows on TV or computer screens (including the classroom projector screens), projecting video, and playing audio examples. Zunes can beam music and images to one another, but the music licenses are carefully guarded and only allow for three plays or three days. As demonstration devices for teaching music, these gadgets have great potential. Neece has already been using them with her summer cello campers with great success.

Robert Parkins (University Organist and Professor of the Practice of Music) will perform two recitals this fall in conjunction with "El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III," a remarkable exhibition coming to the Nasher Museum of Art. On September 11 he will present Cabezón to Cabanilles: The Golden Age of Iberian Keyboard Music on the harpsichord in the Nasher Auditorium. A second program on October 19 will feature Iberian Organ Music from the Golden Age on the Brombaugh organ in Duke Memorial Chapel. For many years Prof. Parkins has specialized in early Iberian keyboard music, publishing several articles on performance practice as well as making recordings on a number of different labels.

Fred Raimi (Professor of the Practice of Music and Member of Ciompi Quartet) has a busy performance schedule this fall. On September 13, he'll perform Bach's Fourth Cello Suite in E-flat, Britten's Third Cello Suite, Op. 87, as well as Bach arias with cello solos in Gerrard Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus as part of the UNC Department of Music's 2008-09 performance season. On September 26 & 27, he will perform a concert of Russian music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Zaderatsky, and others with Jane Hawkins (piano), Terry Rhodes (soprano), and Dmitry Sitkovetsky (violin) at Duke University and UNC-Greensboro.

Randy Reed (Lecturer, Guitar) was invited to participate in the 2008 Tennessee Guitar Festival in March, where he gave a solo recital and taught a master class. In that recital Mr. Reed performed the complete Segovia cycle of 20 Concert Etudes by Fernando Sor performing all the edited changes and new fingerings featured in Reed's recently finished (self published) book of the same material.

Philip Rupprecht (Associate Professor of Music) has been named one of two Franklin Humanities Institute/UNC Institute for the Arts and Humanities Exchange Fellows for 2008-09. During fall semester 2008, he will be in residence at UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities working to complete a book manuscript, Avant-Garde Nation: British Musical Modernism Since 1960, under contract with Cambridge University Press. In August, he will present a paper, " 'Avoid all cliques': the Society for the Promotion of New Music and the British Avant-Garde, 1943-1963" at the North American British Music Studies conference at York University, Toronto.

Although he retired six years ago, Alexander (“Lex”) Silbiger (Professor of Music Emeritus) continues to be as busy as ever. He writes: “I had visions of a quiet life of reading good books, listening to music, traveling, and some volunteering, but it has not worked out that way. Yes, I do a bit of all of those things, but I could not suddenly stop being a scholar and a teacher. I was having too much fun.” Lex has been teaching both in the Duke University Department of Music, filling in for faculty on leave (last fall he taught a graduate seminar on Schubert), and for Duke’s OLLI (learning in retirement) program. Last spring he taught an OLLI course on “Modern Symphonies,” and this fall he will be teaching “Modern Operas,” hoping to introduce senior citizens to the joys of twentieth-century music. On the scholarly front, he is involved in several projects to apply the potential of the Internet to early music. One of these is the creation of an online thematic catalogue and database of the works of the seventeenth-century composer Girolamo Frescobaldi. He also has been serving as General Editor of the Web Library of Seventeenth-Century Music, a pioneering series of online scholarly editions of music that until now had remained unpublished. At this time (June 2008), twelve volumes have appeared in the series, which is accessible to the general public without charge. In July 2008 Lex will present a paper on "The Promises and Pitfalls of Online Scholarly Music Publishing" at a Conference on Early Music Editing: Principles, Techniques, and Future Directions at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands.

R. Larry Todd (Arts & Sciences Professor of Music) will be very busy in 2009 with celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn. On January 10, the Basel Chamber Orchestra with Mathias Kirschnereit will present the world premiere of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto in E minor, with the final movement transcribed by Prof. Todd from the final movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64. In February, Prof. Todd will give a pre-concert talk at the Lyric Chamber Music Society, NY at the world premiere of Mendelssohn's Liederbuch for his wife Cécile, from the Juilliard Manuscript Collection, edition prepared by Duke doctoral student, Angela Mace. Also in February, Prof. Todd will give a lecture at the Library of Congress entitled "Reflections on the Mendelssohn Bicentenary." In March he will give a pre-concert talk at the Lyric Chamber Society, NY, and attend the NY premiere of the E-minor Piano Concerto.

This spring Elizabeth Tomlin performed solo and collaborative works in the Messiaen Centennial concert at Radford University in Virginia, gave concerts at High Point University and Radford University with the Blue Mountain Ensemble, and performed an all-Gershwin concert with the Mallarme Chamber Players. This summer she is collaborating with soprano Jeanne Fischer to make a recording for the CD anthology, A History of Music in Western Culture, by UNC Distinguished Professor Mark Evan Bonds. In July, Dr. Tomlin will perform with the Blue Mountain Ensemble on the Sights and Sounds series at the NC Museum of Art.

Jacqueline Waeber (Associate Professor of Music) has been awarded a research grant award from the ASCFR (Arts and Sciences Council for Research) for 2008-09. In September, she will deliver the keynote address at the conference "Music and the Melodramatic Aesthetic" at the University of Nottingham.

Peter Williams (Professor of Music Emeritus) was honored by the publication of a “Festschrift”: Music and its Questions: Essays in Honor of Peter Williams (Richmond, VA: OHS Press, 2007) edited by Thomas Donahue, with a Foreword by Professor Emeritus Alexander Silbiger.

Rodney Wynkoop conducted two performances of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem in April at Duke Chapel. Over 300 singers from the Duke Chorale, the Duke Chapel Choir, and the Choral Society of Durham joined forces with the Durham Children's Choir, full orchestra, and chamber orchestra for these performances. Soprano Esther Hardenbergh, tenor William Hite, and baritone Christopheren Nomura were the vocal soloists. During the week leading up to the concerts, a variety of lectures and presentations were offered, including Professor George Gopen's characterization of the poet Wilfred Owen and Professor Philip Rupprecht's lecture on Britten and the background of the War Requiem.

In the summer of 2007, Prof. Wynkoop led the Triangle Brazil Choral Exchange, a group of 30 singers from the Duke and Durham communities, on a two-week musical tour of Brazil. The choir gave a variety of performances in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. One of the highlights of the tour was joining forces with several Brazilian choirs in performances, including an intergenerational performing group in Cidade de Deus, the largest of the slums in Rio de Janeiro.

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Student News

Honors & Awards, 2007-2008

The William Klenz Prize in Music Composition
Janet Jieru Chen, Isolated Island (for chamber ensemble)

The Henry Schuman Music Prize
"to a graduating senior for an original composition or a distinguished paper in music history or analysis"
Winner:
Christopher DeStasio, “Treatment of the Khorovod Melody in Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps”
Honorable Mention:
Melissa Bromley, Times Ain’t Like They Used to Be: How the Heralded ‘Non-Performance Tradition’ of Old-Time Music Is Socially Performed

* * *

The innovative chamber orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, will be in residency at Duke in spring 2009, sponsored by the Department of Music and Duke Performances. Four composition graduate students, Amy Scurria, George Lam, Kathleen Bader and Janet Jieru Chen, will create new works for the ensemble, to be premiered in February of 2009.

Janet Jieru Chen has been accepted at the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD) for the International Music Course in Composition. Janet's composition, Isolated Island, was the winner of this year's William Klenz music prize for composition, and also was performed by the Luxembourg Sinfonietta as Taiwan's representative at the World Music Days sponsored by the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music).

Chia-Yu Hsu received the Stern Dissertation Fellowship for work on her Ph.D. thesis, entitled Fan Jing (Folk Images) for orchestra. One portion, Feng Nian Ji (Harvest Festival) is to be featured at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music on August 10, under the direction of Marin Alsop. Chia-Yu has also received an artist residency this summer at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her piece, Hard Roads in Shu, was performed by the Charlotte Civic Orchestra in May as the first prize winner of the Charlotte Civic Orchestra Composer Competition. Other works scheduled for performance this summer include Huan (World Harp Congress in Amsterdam) and Sextet (to be premiered at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East. Chia-yu is also the recipient of the M. Anne Hill Fellows Endowment Summer Research Fellowship.

Makiko Kawamoto is the recipient of the Evan Frankel Fellows Endowment Fellowship and the Julian Price Endowed Dissertation Research Fellowship.

Alex Kotch has been accepted into the international program A Counterpoint of Tolerance, a special project of the Transatlantic Arts Consortium (TAC), " to bring together 10 talented young composer/performers from all over the world to work with David Rosenboom in creating a new, concert-length work exploring the potential of creative music making to enhance how we understand human conditions in the new era of Globalization. The project will be developed in two, two-week, summer residencies to be held in Southern California at Idyllwild Arts in July, 2008 and 2009. Composing will continue during the intervening year, and the final project will be premièred in the fall of 2009."

George Lam has founded a new opera company, Rhymes With Opera, with Baltimore-based composer Ruby Fulton, a graduate student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. The new company produced its first show, One-Track Mind, in May 2008 in collaboration with pulsoptional, Durham's composer collective. Rhymes With Opera is dedicated to bringing new works of opera and music-theater into unconventional spaces. In other news, George's piece for wind ensemble, Loud Sunsets, was performed recently by the Duke Wind Symphony and the Boston University Concert Band. The piece was commissioned by the Theta Beta chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi for the BU Concert Band. George was also the winner of the 2007-08 Volti Choral Arts Laboratory competition, which afforded him the chance to work with the San Francisco-based chorus in a workshop last fall, and also a commission from Volti for a new piece, Words Become Unlatched, which was premiered by the group on May 17 and 18 in San Francisco and Berkeley. George's 2003 piece, Sonata for Solo Flute, won third prize in the Luna Nova / Beethoven Club Composition Competition and was performed in the 2008 Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee in June. On September 4, George will be one of five finalists to compete in Analog Arts Ensemble's 2008 Iron Composer Omaha competition, to be held at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. A secret ingredient will be revealed to him at 10am, and he will be delivering a piece for a mystery ensemble by 5pm, with the judging and concert taking place later in the evening. George is the director of [dnme], the Duke New Music Ensemble. For [dnme]'s concert on September 26 at Duke University in conjunction with pulsoptional, the group is planning a memorial concert featuring the music of Duke alumna Jennifer Fitzgerald (1975-2007).

Paul Leary spent 2007-08 as Visiting Instructor at Denison University in Ohio.

Angela Mace will deliver a paper entitled "Reception of Felix Mendelssohn's 'Hear My Prayer' in England" at the North American British Music Studies, Third Biennial Conference this summer. She is currently editing Mendelssohn's Liederbuch für Cecile, 1845, held by the Juilliard Manuscript Collection. Most of the Lieder are published in other versions, but this manuscript contains alternate versions, some with significant differences. Angela's edited version of the Liederbuch will be premiered on February 3 (Mendelssohn's 200th birthday) in New York by the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York.

Amy Scurria's orchestral work, Beyond All Walking, was performed by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in April. The Long Leaf Opera Company has commissioned a 20-minute chamber opera from Amy to be performed in the spring of 2009. She will also serve as Long Leaf's resident composer in 2008-09.

Paul Swartzel will attend Bang on A Can's summer festival in Massachusetts. Paul composed Into the River and Through the Wood for Piano and percussion for Eighth Blackbird last spring; the same work also received honorable mention in ASCAP's Morton Gould Young Composers Competition.

Kelley Tatro will conduct field research in Mexico City in 2008-09 for her dissertation, Grassroots Fraternity: Sonideros, Voice and Advocacy in Mexican Migrant Networks.

Jessica Wood has been selected to participate in the Franklin Humanities Institute's Dissertation Working Group for 2008-09. The fellows in the group participate in monthly writing workshops, as well as in smaller discussion groups, and are awarded supplementary conference/ research funding. Jessica will be writing her dissertation, entitled Keys to the Past: Building Harpsichords and Feeling History in the Postwar U.S. She is also a recipient of the Julian Price Endowed Dissertation Research Fellowship in Humanities and History. In addition, she will hold a Special Collections Library Internship and has been awarded a Graduate School Teaching Mini-Grant for a workshop series on teaching critical aural skills to non-majors in order to facilitate the integration of sound analysis into cultural studies and ethnographic approaches to music studies.

Jennifer Woodruff has been named a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow for 2008. The 2008 Newcombe Fellowship, a highly competitive national award, is given by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to support 12 months of work on a dissertation in the humanities or social sciences that addresses questions of religious or ethical value. Jenny's dissertation title is Learning to Listen, Learning to Be: African-American Girls and Hip Hop in Durham, NC. Jenny is also the recipient of the Dora Anne Little Award, a Women's Studies award given to a Duke student who has excelled in service to the campus and community which extends beyond the classroom.

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