News

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Musicology Lecture Series: Spring 2015

Friday, January 30 @ 4 pm Biddle Music Building, Library Seminar Room   Naomi Waltham-Smith (University of Pennsylvania) "Beethoven's Blush"   Naomi Waltham-Smith's research sits at the intersection of music theory and Continental philosophy. She is interested in how the critical resources of recent French and Italian thought might be deployed to interrogate the ethical significance of the processes and structures of music and listening. Her works engages with the… read more »

John Supko's & Bill Seaman's new CD, "s_traits"

Duke faculty composer John Supko’s s_traits, created in collaboration with media artist Bill Seaman, Professor in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, comes out Tuesday, November 4 on the Manchester-based Cotton Goods label. It is the second album devoted to Supko’s music, following drawn only once on New Amsterdam in 2011. s_traits is the product of three minds: two human, one artificial. With a discarded… read more »

Master Classes, Fall 2014

All master classes are free and open to the public. WIND INSTRUMENT MASTER CLASS WITH HELIAND CONSORT Thursday, October 16 @ 5 pm Bone Hall, Biddle Music Building Heliand Consort (Elisabeth LeBlanc, clarinet; Rachael Elliott, bassoon; and Cynthia Huard, piano) is a dynamic group of virtuoso musicians who perform engaging classical music, from the baroque era through 20th century and contemporary repertoire. Rachael Elliott, who teaches bassoon at Duke, is a founding member… read more »

Musicology Lecture Series: Fall 2014

Friday, August 29 @ 4 pm Biddle Music Building, Room 101 Jeremy Begbie (Duke Divinity School)  "Disquieting Conversations: Bach, Modernity and God" Jeremy S. Begbie is Thomas A. Langford Research Professorship in Theology at Duke Divinity School. Educated largely in Scotland, before entering the theological world he read music and philosophy at Edinburgh University, studying composition with Kenneth Leighton. Holding piano performing and teaching qualifications, he was… read more »

Encounters 2014-15 season: Da Capo Chamber Players and the return of yMUSIC

The Encounters 2014-2015 season features two residencies with outstanding new music groups.  On November 9, the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players will perform in Baldwin Auditorium, presenting Steve Reich's "Double Sextet" and Duke composer Stephen Jaffe's "Light Dances" (Chamber Concerto No. 2). Da Capo's residency continues on November 10 with recordings of works by Duke graduate… read more »

Composer Alexander Goehr at Duke

Alexander Goehr, the eminent British composer, visited Duke’s Music Department on April 7, 2014. Following a lively lunch with Composition and Musicology students, Goehr spoke publicly about his music in a discussion moderated by Professor Philip Rupprecht. As well as sharing personal impressions of the 1950s Darmstadt Summer Courses in New Music--at which he gained early professional performances—Goehr spoke (among other topics) of his own rhythmic language as a composer, and his attitude to setting texts… read more »

Duke named one of top 10 music colleges in the U.S.

USA Today's College Factual names Duke one of the top 10 music colleges in the United States. Joining the ranks of lauded music programs at Yale, Columbia, and Stanford, Duke's music program is praised for providing "a comprehensive education in performance, theory, history and ethnomusicology. The undergraduate program exposes students to a wide-range of musical knowledge to prepare them for potential graduate work… read more »

Ciompi Quartet in France: May 2014

The Ciompi Quartet visited France in May, where they appeared at the Festival Fougères musicales and performed concerts at L'église Saint-Sulpice (Fougeres, below) and the Franco-American Institute (Rennes).       Ciompi cellist Fred Raimi writes:       The Ciompi Quartet played two concerts at the Fougeres Music Festival in Brittany, France, in May of 2014.  It was a lovely trip, made so by the two essential elements: good… read more »

Alumni News: March 2014

Joy Calico's (Ph.D. 1999) new book, Arnold Schoenberg's 'A Survivor from Warsaw' in Postwar Europe, was released this month from the University of California Press.  Calico is Assoc. Prof. of Musicology at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University. ****** Paul Leary (Ph.D. 2011) and pianist Thomas Rosenkranz were featured on WUNC 91.5 FM's "The State of Things" on March 6, discussing the premiere of Leary's piece, "Perfume," a tribute to the music of Kurt… read more »

Graduate Student News: March 2014

While attending the Dublin New Music Festival to present a paper, Bryan Christian had the opportunity to interview English composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle. ****** David Kirkland Garner will receive a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters at the Academy's annual ceremony in May. The Ives Scholarships are given to "composition students of great promise… read more »

Faculty News: March 2014

Thomas Brothers appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show discussing his new book, Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism.  [LISTEN] [READ MORE] about Prof. Brothers' research and Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism in The New Yorkers' "Page-Turner" blog feature by Ben Schwartz.   ******************** Bryan Gilliam will be giving a number of… read more »

Graduate Student News: February 2014

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. ********************** Congratulations to David Kirkland Garner, who successfully defended his dissertation, … read more »

Faculty News: February 2014

Thomas Brothers' new book, Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism, is garnering enthusiastic reviews from critics and scholars alike.  A Washington Post review calls Master of Modernism "painstakingly researched, profoundly evocative and altogether admirable...".  A review also appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal.  [READ/LISTEN TO Dr. Brothers' interview on NPR's "Dinner Party… read more »

Ken Shifrin, Class of 1974

Dr Ken Shifrin (Class of 1974) was President of the Wind Symphony while a student at Duke. A native of Washington, DC, he earned a Ph.D. in Musicology from Oxford University and is Principal Trombone (former) of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (England). From 2000-2004, he was a Research Scholar at the Czech Academy of Science. In 1982, Ken Shifrin was appointed Principal Trombonist of Great Britain's City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra by Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle who declared him "not… read more »

Graduate Student News: January 2014

Bryan Christian's article, and part of his dissertation, “Combination Tone Class Sets and Redefining the Role of les couleurs in Claude Vivier’s Bouchara” passed peer review and has been accepted for publication in Music Theory Online Volume 20, no. 2, forthcoming in June 2014. David Kirkland Garner's dissertation piece, Dark Holler, was recorded by yMusic and guests in early November 2013. LISTEN to the recordings and VIEW… read more »

Thank you!

Thank you to those of you who came out last Friday afternoon for our first Rare Music concert of 2014! Randy, Eric, and William Conable played beautifully, and it was a treat to hear William's beautiful instrument, as well as DUMIC's piano and new violin. It was a pleasure to see so many excited faces at the concert and afterwards in the museum. We hope that you enjoyed it and will join us next month for our next Rare Music concert! To read a short write-up about the concert and see more photos, click here. To learn more… read more »

Faculty News: January 2014

Thomas Brothers' new book, Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism, will be released on February 3 from W.W. Norton & Company.  Kirkus trumpets Master of Modernism as “A masterful performance that displays the author’s vast archival research, musical knowledge, familiarity with cultural history and profound sensitivity to America’s vile racial history,” and a starred review in Booklist raves, “A bravura accomplishment..." The John… read more »

Alumni News: January 2014

After graduating in May 2013 with her PhD in Musicology, Angela Mace Christian took up her post as Assistant Professor of Music History at Colorado State University. In October 2013, she presented her paper "Negotiating Private and Public Personas in the Sonntagsmusiken of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel" at the Annual Conference of the German Studies Association in Denver, Colorado, which she co-organized. The first chapter of Mace Christian's dissertation, on Fanny Mendelssohn's contributions to Felix… read more »

Ciompi in China, Dec. 2013

The Ciompi Quartet visited China in December, playing a number of concerts and conducting master classes.  Here are some photo highlights of the tour.  (Click the image to view additional photos.) The Quartet visited the building site of DKU, Duke Kunshan University, and performed a Duke-sponsored concert.     The Quartet visited Wuhan University, Duke's partner for DKU, and worked with arts students.  They also coached the Wuhan University student orchestra and… read more »

Master Classes, Spring 2014

All master classes are free and open to the public. Thursday, January 16 @ 5 pm Nelson Music Room, East Duke BuildingAlexander Technique Master Class with William Conable William Conable enjoys worldwide renown as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, a method for improving freedom and ease of movement and physical coordination which is of special interest to musicians and other performing artists. He is Emeritus Professor of Music at the Ohio State University, and has appeared as… read more »

Musicology Lecture Series: Spring 2014

Thursday, January 23 @ 5:30 pm Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, 1st floor*Reception precedes lecture at 5 pm*Lydia Goehr (Columbia University) “Music and Painting: Reviewing the Mediums of Voice, Ear, & Instrument” Lydia Goehr is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is a recipient of Mellon, Getty, and Guggenheim Fellowships, and in 1997 was the Visiting Ernest Bloch Professor in the Music Department at U. California, Berkeley, where she gave a series of lectures on… read more »