Bryan Christian's composition Airs no Oceans keep was selected to be performed on the 8th Colorado Composers Concert by the Playground Ensemble on April 26, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. Christian also had the opportunity to have his music workshopped by the Hilliard Ensemble when the group visited in January as part of Duke Performances' season.
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Congratulations to David Kirkland Garner, who successfully defended his dissertation, Dark Holler, a 50-minute composition for chamber orchestra.
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Three Duke graduate students will participate in the International Association for the Study of Popular Music's 2014 conference at UNC-Chapel Hill in March. Sarah Bereza will present the paper, "The Age of Innocence: Solo Female Voices in Fundamentalist Christian Music." Darren Mueller will present "Secret Sonic Weapon on Record: Dizzy Gillespie and the Ambassadorial Politics of Jazz," and Matthew Somoroff will deliver the paper "Voices Above His Head: James Baldwin as Listener and Ethnographer." Professor Louise Meintjes will deliver the keynote address, and alumnus Dan Ruccia (Ph.D. 2013) will deliver the paper "Rock’s Forbidden Elements: US Maple’s Deconstruction of Syntax."