Department of Music
Zeller's paper is part of his dissertation, "The Emancipation of Timbre: From Mahler to Varèse; Functional Orchestration, Syntax, and Planal Analysis." The dissertation focuses on timbre's functional role in musical logic in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century music. This talk he will deliver at AMS/SMT, "Timbral function in Klangfläche Technique," focuses on how timbre contributes to musical logic in works by Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, focusing on moments where two musical planes… read more about Musicology graduate student Matthew Zeller to present a paper at the national conference of the American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory »
“A historically masterly and musically literate unraveling of some of the most-admired credits in 20th-century popular music....This is musicology with taste as well as ears.” —The Wall Street Journal “An erudite, engagingly written history . . . Brothers’s rich analyses make for an engrossing narrative that illuminates some of pop music’s greatest creative collaborations.” —Publishers Weekly “A sweeping history of 20th-century popular music. . . . A fresh blend of scholarly musical analysis and… read more about Thomas Brothers' "Help! The Beatles, Duke Ellington, and the Magic of Collaboration" released by W.W. Norton »
"The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian Trust have awarded Duke Arts with a $500,000, 3-year grant to redefine arts education in film, music, and dance." "With the support of this gift, Duke students will learn from, and collaborate with, accomplished visiting artists. This gift will also extend the impact of artist residencies beyond campus through partnerships with Durham Public Schools and community arts organizations. Programming in all three areas kicks off in Fall 2018."Read the… read more about Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Funds Ambitious, 3-year Arts Initiative at Duke »
The Hermitage Artist Retreat and The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) announce that Sid Richardson, a composition student at AMFS, has been awarded the 2018 Hermitage Prize. Richardson receives a six-week residency at the Hermitage, along with a $1,000 stipend for travel and food expenses. Richardson was selected by a jury that included Alan Fletcher, AMFS president and CEO; Robert Spano, music director of AMFS and the Atlanta Symphony; and the composition faculty of AMFS. (Photo: Hermitage director Bruce Rodgers… read more about Sid Richardson (Ph.D Composition, 2018) wins the 2018 Hermitage Prize »
"Lattice Scattering" premiered on Saturday, July 21 at the Teatro degli Illuminati as part of the 3rd International ilSuono Contemporary Music Week in Citta di Castello, Italy. The work was commissioned by ilSuonon Academy and performed by Ensemble Suono Giallo. Eren Gumrukcuoglu is a PhD candidate in music composition at Duke and holds a master's degree from Istanbul Technical University and a bachelor's degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Performers of his music include New York… read more about Graduate composer Eren Gumrukcuoglu has a work premiered at the 3rd International ilSuono Contemporary Music Week »
"A Forest Unfolding” is a new, collaborative cantata by Duke faculty composer Stephen Jaffe, Melinda Wagner, Eric Moe and Duke alumnus David Kirkland Garner (Ph.D. 2014), with texts by National Book Award-winning author Richard Powers, Anne Labastille, and others. "A Forest Unfolding," inspired by Richard Powers' new New York Times bestselling novel, The Overstory, features excerpts from the novel as well as additional prose texts and… read more about Premiere of collaborative cantata "A Forest Unfolding" by Stephen Jaffe, Melinda Wagner, Eric Moe and David Kirkland Garner »
Governor Roy Cooper’s Hometown Strong Initiative supports North Carolina's underserved communities. The program will support targeted rural counties that currently offer very limited music education and music exposure to students. Professor Brown's charge is to increase awareness of the power of music in supporting and enhancing the school curriculum. This builds on the education concerts he usually gives for young people across NC each Spring, with workshops for teachers and interactive performances for… read more about John Brown selected to fulfill the music component of Governor Cooper’s Hometown Strong Initiative »
If you are a pianist, have you ever had to move your own piano onstage and wire it into a massive portable sound system before your performance? This is one of the many firsts that I went through during my experience in DukeEngage Zhuhai in China. This program gave me a lot of firsts: first time performing in front of 2500 people, first time teaching, first time managing sound for a show, and so many other things that I can’t list them all. No pictures or videos would ever do justice when I talk about my DukeEngage… read more about Senior Aaron Hong's summer experiences in Zhuhai, China, teaching music with DukeEngage »
The Chinese Music Ensemble (MUS 211-2-11) is a course for students who would like to further their musical and cultural experiences. In addition to one weekly session (time TBD) coached by GuZheng master Jennifer Chang, all students participate in one performance at the end of semester which includes a variety of Chinese musical styles. Students who play any kind of musical instrument (including vocal) at any level are welcome to join the group! The course will be graded Pass/Fail. For more information,… read more about Chinese Music Ensemble: new class offered Fall 2018 »
R. 拉里 托德博士的《十九世紀鋼琴音樂（第2版）》(人民音樂出版社,譯：吴源淵)收錄現當代國外知名音樂學者對於19世紀鋼琴音樂的學術研究文章，對19世紀的重要音樂家的鋼琴作品及創作進行了不同角度的分析討論，是一本極有價值的理論文献。共有11章，書中在詳細闡述了19世紀鋼琴發展和演奏實踐的基础上，分别對貝多芬、舒伯特、孟德爾頌、肖邦、李斯特等19世紀偉大的鋼琴家和作曲家为專題進行研究和分析。 R. 拉里 托德博士 是杜克大學文理學院音樂系教授。 他的《孟德爾頌：音樂的一生》(Mendelssohn: A Life in Music)於2003年獲得美國出版商協會的最佳傳記。2011年 他的 《范妮：另一位孟德爾頌》 (Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn)獲得 ASCAP Slonimsky傑出音樂傳記獎. 托德博士 曾獲得古根漢基金會(Guggenheim Foundation)研究學者獎 及任美國國家人文中心訪問研究員。如今他是牛津大學出版社之Master Musician Series 的編輯，兩本近作：Beethoven’s Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and… read more about Chinese edition of R. Larry Todd's "Nineteenth Century Piano Music, 2nd edition" published »
At this summer's festival (June 27 - June 30), Budinich gave a talk about his music and had his work “Evening, in the Open Air” performed as part of Mise-En's marathon concert on Saturday, 6/30. For more information, visit: https://festival.mise-en.org/2018/about.html read more about Graduate composer James Budinich was a Visiting Composer at the Mise-En Festival »
On Pig Film, Supko collaborated with colleague Josh Gibson. Gibson, who directed and produced the film, is Director of the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image at Duke. His films and videos have screened internationally at such venues as The National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), LA Film Festival, Full Frame, New York Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival, among many others. Pig Film is described on the… read more about Film scored by John Supko premieres in Edinburgh »
Undergraduate Degrees Conferred First Major Shauna Alexis BierlyHighest Distinction for her composition MemoriALZ: A Journey Through Life, Time, and Alzheimer’s, for chamber ensembleThe Henry Schuman Music Prize to a graduating senior for an original composition or distinguished paper in music history or analysis, for her composition MemoriALZSophie Olivia CaplinThe Julia Wilkinson Mueller Prize for Excellence in… read more about 2018 Graduates and Award Winners »
The reading and archival recording session took place on May 9, 2018, in Meymandi Hall (Raleigh, NC) with the North Carolina Symphony and Music Director Grant Llewellyn. This opportunity is the second in an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Music's graduate composition program and the North Carolina Symphony, supported by a grant from composer Penka Kouneva (Ph.D 1997). In March 2016, the North Carolina Symphony recorded "Invès" by Yahn Wagner de Mello Pinto and "Vicious Circles" by Scott Lee, both works… read more about North Carolina Symphony reads new works by graduate composers Yuxin Ouyang and Maximiliano Amici »
Gloria Biddings, Housekeeper Specialist, has been at Duke 29 years, many of them spent caring for the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building. On April 26, Gloria was the recipient of a Meritorious Service Award at Duke's 2017 Presidential Awards ceremony at the Washington Duke Inn. Thank you, Gloria, for all you've done for us and continue to do every day! read more about Gloria Biddings wins Meritorious Service Award »
Crisenbery's presentation is derived from her dissertation, which is supported by a James B. Duke International Research Travel Fellowship for 2017-18. Her dissertation, “Opera in Fascist Italy: Romanità, Reception, and Masculinity in Mussolini’s Third Rome,” examines reception and representations of masculinity in four operas by Italian fascist composers during the height of the fascist regime, from 1935-1941. The operas include Pietro Mascagni’s Nerone (1935), Gian Francesco Malipiero’s Giulio… read more about Musicology graduate student Liz Crisenbery to present a paper at the national conference of the American Musicological Society »
Canadian-born cellist Caroline Stinson has been appointed the new cellist in Duke University’s Ciompi Quartet upon the retirement of Frederic Raimi from the group at the end of this season. A member of the Lark Quartet since 2008 and previously a member of the Cassatt Quartet, she taught cello and chamber music at Syracuse University from 2004-2013 and in the Juilliard Pre-College and Music Advancement Programs in New York from 2012-2018. Ms. Stinson performs widely as a chamber musician, soloist, and recitalist, appearing… read more about Cellist Caroline Stinson joins the Ciompi Quartet, appointed Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University. »
The team of Budinich, Frederickson, and Rebecca Uliasz (a graduate student in Computational Media, Arts, and Cultures) will use techniques of interactive media, improvisation, and community art-making with the assistance of a number of guest experts to present performative works to the Duke and Durham communities that blur the boundary between performer and audience. They will present four events over the 2018-19 academic year under the umbrella of the Duke Music Department. This approach views… read more about Graduate composers James Budinich and Brooks Frederickson awarded a project grant from the Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies »
Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Illinois State University, Schimmel has also won Columbia University’s Joseph Bearns Prize, the Lee Ettelson Award, and the 2017 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From the Guggenheim Foundation's website:Praised by the New York Times as “vivid and dramatic,” his recent music is dense with literary and musical references, often humorous, and combines intensity of expression with a structural rigor which is influenced in… read more about Carl Schimmel (Ph.D. Composition, 2008) receives 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship »
On March 22, 2018, the graduate composition seminar Music for Large Ensemble (Music 690) hosted a discussion with Ben Gernon (Principal Guest Conductor, BBC Philharmonic and Guest Conductor, North Carolina Symphony), and Martin Sher, (Vice President and General Manager of the North Carolina Symphony) for an insightful discussion about the orchestra and its future. Music for Large Ensemble is taught by Stephen Jaffe, Mary D. B. T. and James H. Semans… read more about NC Symphony leaders visit Music 690: Music for Large Ensemble »
The award was presented at the Southeast Chapter of the American Musicological Society meeting at the University of South Carolina on March 2-3, 2018, in conjunction with the spring meeting of Music Theory Southeast and the Public Music Discourse symposium in honor of the Leonard Bernstein centenary. At the meeting, Imani was also elected as the new student representative for the Southeast Chapter of AMS, to serve a two-year term from 2018-2020. read more about Musicology graduate student Imani Mosley wins 2017-18 AMS-SE Best Student Presentation award »
In addition to performing reference work helping researchers, scholars, and members of the public, Paul will collaborate on exhibitions and create instruction sessions with materials from the Music Division’s extensive collections. Paul has also had a seminar proposal accepted for the Society for American Music conference next year. Co-sponsored with Kendra Leonard, Director of the Silent Film Sound and Music Archive, the seminar is entitled "Music & Sound in Horror Media." It will… read more about Paul Sommerfeld (Ph.D. musicology, 2017) to work in the Music Division of the Library of Congress »
The Duke University Saxophone Quartet (shown l to r with instructor Susan Fancher in the center: Glenn Huang, Larissa Cox, Bilva Sanaba, and Matthew Tedesco) will perform Revolution by Marc Mellits on a master class by the Kumoi Saxophone Quartet on March 9. Duke saxophone instructor Susan Fancher will perform Concerto for soprano saxophone by Mark Engebretson (version… read more about Duke saxophonists perform at the National Biennial Conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance »
Nathaniel Stookey received his PhD in Composition from Duke in 2003. Currently based in San Francisco, he has collaborated with many of the world’s great orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The National Symphony, The Toronto Symphony, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and The Hallé Orchestra, where he was composer-in residence under Kent Nagano. His newest release, ZIPPERZ, is an album-length "he-… read more about Alumni Profile: Nathaniel Stookey »
During the intensive program, Meese conducted the London Classical Soloists in rehearsal and two concerts while receiving coaching from Achim Holub on conducting technique, musical interpretation, and creating a successful career as a conductor. With the orchestra, he worked on the second, third, and fifth movements of Schumman's 3rd Symphony, and the first movement of Mozart's 39th Symphony. He conducted the Mozart first movement and Schumann finale in two concerts. (See the videos of Robby… read more about Sophomore Robby Meese participated in a week-long conducting class in England »
The Duke University Musical Instrument Collections (DUMIC) are founded on the flagship collection, the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived at Duke in 2000. The Eddy Collection inspired further generous gifts and the acquisition of the Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments (2003) and The Robert D. Miller Collection of replicas of early instruments and related materials, including a small library of printed music (2006). While the Eddy Collection… read more about Duke University Musical Instrument Collections set to open Thursdays, 1-4 PM »
In a video produced by Julie Schoonmaker (Duke University Office of News & Communication), Arts & Sciences Professor R. Larry Todd discusses the cultural and historical contexts of Beethoven's cello sonatas. Beethoven's Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World is the first English-language book to examine these works in depth. Earlier in 2017, Professor Todd produced a video with cellist Nancy Green in which he performs Beethoven's A Major Sonata, Op. 69 and discusses Beethoven… read more about R. Larry Todd: "Beethoven's Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World" »
The five undergraduates were students in Prof. Louise Meintjes' Fall 2017 Duke in New York class "Sound in Social Life." Jessica Wood (Ph.D. 2010), Assistant Curator, Music Division, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts helped the students put together the disco-themed exhibit, which is on display in the Rogers and Hammerstein Archives for Recorded Sound. View more photos! read more about Duke in New York students create exhibit for the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts »
The reading and archival recording session will take place on May 9, 2018, in Meymandi Hall (Raleigh, NC) with the North Carolina Symphony and Music Director Grant Llewellyn. This opportunity is the second in an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Music's graduate composition program and the North Carolina Symphony, supported by a grant from composer Penka Kouneva (Ph.D 1997). In March 2016, the North Carolina Symphony recorded "Invès" by Yahn Wagner de Mello Pinto and "Vicious Circles"… read more about Graduate composers Yuxin Ouyang and Maximiliano Amici to have works recorded by the North Carolina Symphony »
Scott Lee has been accepted as a Composition Fellow at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Festival, and Sid Richardson has accepted the invitation of the Aspen Music Festival to join its program as a Composition Fellow. Both of the programs are among the most known programs for the study of contemporary composition. read more about Composers Admitted to Summer Fellowship Programs »