Department of Music
Graduate Degrees Conferred Cody Black, Ph.D. (Ethnomusicology) -- SPRING 2023 Dissertation: "Analog Optimism: Voice, Digitalized Life, and the Aural Labor of Becoming in South Korea." Committee Chair: Louise Meintjes James Budinich, Ph.D. (Composition) -- FALL 2022 Dissertation piece: "Third-Millennium Heart, song cycle for 10 instruments and soprano, setting poetry by Ursula Andkjaer Olse." Committee Chair: Scott Lindroth Joanna Chang, Ph.D. (Musicology) -- SUMMER 2022… read more about Congratulations to our Ph.D graduates »
Music Department Awards The Julia Wilkinson Mueller Prize for Excellence in Music Francesca Herrera Nathaniel Maxwell This award is in honor of a former chair of the Department of Music and member of the Ciompi Quartet. It goes to a graduating senior for achievement in musical performance. The William Klenz Prize in Music Composition Ethan Foote for his chamber orchestra composition Wild Requiem Awarded to a graduate or… read more about Music Department Awards 2023 »
A lot of people wish they could play the violin. Nathaniel Maxwell’s ambition was to write music for it. Maxwell, who is graduating with majors in Mathematics and Music and a minor in Statistical Science, is an accomplished pianist and trumpet player who has performed in the Duke Symphony Orchestra, the Duke University Marching Band and the Chamber Music Program. Throughout his time at Duke, he has also studied piano with Professor David Heid. “I'd done a lot of playing and even some composition in high school,” he said… read more about Composing Outside His Comfort Zone: Nathaniel Maxwell’s “Piano Quintet” »
The Durham Symphony Orchestra's RESURGENCE concert on April 23 features Tears in Rain, a new work by Duke graduate composer Josué Collado-Fregoso. Tears in Rain is the winning work from the Durham Symphony's first Young Composers Competition—this year based on the theme of resurgence and drawn from a talented pool of Duke University students taught by Stephen Jaffe. Tears in Rain is a sonic reflection on the transitory nature of moments,… read more about Durham Symphony Premieres New Work by Josué Collado-Fregoso »
Students in MUSIC 337S, Introduction to Hip-Hop Production. (Jared Lazarus/University Communications) Starting in Fall 2023, Duke students will have a new option to explore the music they love. The Minor in Music: Listening-focused will join the Department of Music’s current Minor in Music: Score-focused, providing an alternative path of study for students who wish to engage deeply with music but who don’t necessarily read musical notation or have a background in Western classical… read more about New Listening-Focused Music Minor Turns Music Lovers Into Music Scholars »
For most students, Spring Break is when they take a break from academic rigors by taking a quiet (or loud) week away from Duke and its classes. But some students spent their week learning about subjects possibly far outside their normal areas of study. Spring Breakthrough is an annual set of courses offered during Spring Break that aren't graded, instead meant to be learning experiences that students otherwise wouldn't have access to. The 2023 Spring Breakthrough courses included: Motorcycle Revival: Repairing and… read more about Learning New Subjects During Spring Breakthrough 2023 »
On March 10, eleven Duke voice students traveled to Lynchburg, VA to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Student Auditions with other college singers from Maryland; Washington, DC; Virginia; North Carolina and South Carolina. Some categories were so large that they were split into two rooms. The students who placed in those rooms had a sing-off round to determine which 5 or 6 will advance to the initial online round of the National Student Auditions (NSA… read more about Voice Students Advance to National Auditions »
Hyebin (Monica) Song will present her paper "Influence, Individuality, and Stylistic Evolution in Collaborations of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn" at the Music by Women Festival to be held at Mississippi University for Women on March 2, 2023. The paper, published by The Kapralova Society Journal in Toronto, Canada, focuses on how outside influences are as important as the mutual influence of Hensel and Mendelssohn in understanding Fanny Hensel’s stylistic development. In her talk,… read more about Hyebin (Monica) Song to present paper at the Music By Women Festival »
The Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform a horn quartet, The Impetuous Winds, by Jamie Keesecker (Ph.D. Composition, 2016) in Disney Hall as part of a Chamber Brass concert on April 11. LA Phil Associate Principal Trombone James Miller is curating the concert, which spotlights LA Phil brass performers. The Impetuous Winds has been performed several times since Keesecker composed it in 2008, including a performance in Scotland by Scottish horn quartet, The Rookh Quartet, in January 2020, but… read more about Los Angeles Philharmonic to premiere horn quartet by Jamie Keesecker »
On March 5, Amy Scurria's (Ph.D. Composition, 2015) Katia on Mt. Unzen will be performed at the International Women's Day Concert in Chicago. Katia on Mt. Unzen, on a text by Germaine Shames about the life and death of Katia Krafft, was premiered in New York City in June 2022 through the Art Song Preservation Society of New York by mezzo-soprano Madison Marie McIntosh and pianist Shaobai Yuan. 2023 is off to a busy start for Scurria. In January, Listening, on a text by… read more about Amy Scurria's "Katia on Mt. Unzen" to be performed at the International Women's Day Concert in Chicago »
Piano student Zirui Yin performed the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and their music director Stephan Sanders on February 4, 2023. Zirui was a winner of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra's 2021-2022 Harlan Duenow Young Artist Concerto Competition. Zirui grew up in Shanghai, China, and began playing the piano at the age of 6. He is now a student of Professor Ieva Jokubaviciute at Duke University, where he is a member of… read more about Pianist Zirui Yin performs with the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra »
In May, Jacob Egol will earn his bachelor’s of science degree in Biology with a concentration in cell and molecular biology, as well as a minor in Music. He was introduced to biology at Duke as a first-year student in the Exploration of Genetics and Genomics FOCUS cluster. Inspired by the course, as well as the many others spanning the subdisciplines of biology, Egol is pursuing an interest in cell and molecular biology and developmental biology. The senior currently works in the Silver Lab, part of the Department of… read more about Biology and Music Enhance the Human Experience »
To strengthen the role of the arts at the university and to attract nationally and internationally known artists to the faculty, Duke should establish a new tenure track for visual and performing artists, a faculty committee reported to the Academic Council Thursday. The special pathway in the report would be part of the university’s normal appointments, promotions and tenure (APT) process and would allow for appointments (external or internal) of tenured full professor or professor of the practice to attract the most… read more about Academic Council Considers Tenure Pathway for Creative Artists »
Brittany J. Green's shift.unravel.BREAK will premiere on I Care If You Listen on January 19, 2023 at 5pm ET as a part of the Copland House Cultivated Spaces 3.0 series. The premiere will begin with an introduction of the piece and conclude with a conversation between Green and clarinetist-composer and CULTIVATE director Derek Bermel. shift.unravel.BREAK was commissioned by Copland House for CULTIVATE 2022, an intensive creative workshop and mentoring program for… read more about Copland House premieres Brittany J. Green's "shift.unravel.BREAK" »
Ph.D. Composition student Chris Williams' "I pray the sea" was part of The Song Company's production Arms of Love, which toured Australia August 24 - September 4, 2022 with performances in seven cities, including Sydney and Melbourne. The production interwove the seven cantatas of Dieterich Buxtehude's "Membra Jesu Nostri" with the seven short movements and longer final movement of Williams' "I pray the sea." "Membra Jesu Nostri" was reimagined with contemporary Indigenous choreography from Karul… read more about Chris Williams' "I pray the sea" premiered in Australia »
Huijuan Ling, Ph.D. candidate in Composition, has been awarded First Prize in the 5th New Vision International Composition Competition for her woodwind quintet, Towards a Rediscovery. Towards a Rediscovery, created for Duke’s residency program with the Imani Winds, will be performed by the Cracow Golden Woodwind Quintet at the Polish Consulate in New York on November 2, 2022, as part of the 24th International Chopin and Friends Festival. The New Vision… read more about Huijuan Ling wins 5th New Vision International Composition Competition »
For advanced chamber music students in Music 490S (Meeting the World Through Chamber Music), interacting with the community is an integral component of the course. Sometimes the community is a group of first-year students, like the audience that gathered in the common room of Pegram dorm on East Campus on Sept. 12 for an informal performance. The seven students in Music 490S, divided into two chamber groups: Daphnis, Chloé et Aram Piano Trio (Aram Lindroth, piano; Joie Jamison, violin… read more about Outreach is part of the curriculum for advanced Chamber Music students »
Allan Friedman joins the Duke Music faculty this fall as Director of the Duke Chorale. Friedman's connection to the Chorale runs deep, as he was a member of the group during his days as an undergraduate at Duke. After graduating in 1999 with a major in Music, including studies in South Africa with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, he earned a Masters in Musicology from UNC - Chapel Hill (2001) and a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from Boston University (2005) with a dissertation on Russian Jewish Choral Music. The Director of… read more about Every Duke Chorale rehearsal is a homecoming for Allan Friedman »
New in Fall 2022, Laptop Ensemble (MUS 211-18) is taught by Brooks Frederickson. Supported by a Bass Digital Education Fellowship, this ensemble focuses on creating / writing / improvising / interpreting music with laptops / tablets / phones. It’s open to all students no matter their musical or technological backgrounds. read more about Music on Laptops: Duke’s Newest Ensemble Takes Flight »
