Best of Biddle

Welcome to Best of Biddle, a virtual series of concerts, workshops, and lectures curated by Duke Music faculty.

The Best of Biddle virtual series began in Fall 2020 as a way for Duke Music to highlight the creativity, resilience, and musicianship of our students and faculty during the Covid-19 pandemic. All the Best of Biddle videos, from October 2020 to the present, are permanently available on this blog to view free of charge.

Return to music.duke.edu.

Mary Duke Biddle Music Building, Duke University

Mary Duke Biddle Music Building, Duke University

Wagner Songs and Student Chamber Music

Video will premiere on Friday, February 25 at 7:30 pm EST.

Pianist David Heid (Duke) and soprano LaToya Lain (UNC-Chapel Hill) present Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, followed by Student Chamber selections filmed in November, 2021.

“Five Poems for Female Voice,” more commonly known as Wesendonck Lieder, is Richard Wagner’s most performed non-operatic work. The setting of five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck was written while Wagner was working on Tristan und Isolde, and some of the songs represent true sketches that would be fully realized in the Tristan score. The songs were originally written for voice and piano but Wagner later orchestrated them.

View the program

Introducing Our Faculty: Winter 2022

This video premiered on Friday, February 4 at 7:30 pm EST.

View the complete program with bios and program notes.

This video features performances by bassoonist Jessica Kunttu, who joined the Duke Music faculty in 2020, and violist Simon Ertz, who joined us in Fall 2021.

Program:

Jessica Kunttu
Adolphus Hailstork: Bassoon Set for solo bassoon (2003)
Seong Ae Kim: Fever Dream (2021), with Annie Brooks Stankovic, piano
Francisco Mignone: Sonata No. 1 for Two Bassoons (1961), with Duke student Michael Manns

Simon Ertz

Kenji Bunch: The Three Gs (2009)
Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for Viola and Piano (1919), with Christy Wisuthseriwong, piano
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, mvt. iii (1909), with Lyricosa Quartet (Carol Chung & Lyda Cruden, violins; Simon Ertz, viola; Rosalind Leavell, cello)

Ieva Jokubaviciute & R. Larry Todd: J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (Rheinberger/Reger transcription for two pianos)

This video premiered on Friday, January 21 at 7:30 pm EST.

In this video, recorded in Duke University’s Baldwin Auditorium, Music faculty Ieva Jokubaviciute and R. Larry Todd perform J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations BWV 988 arranged for two pianos by Josef G. Rheinberger.

Ieva Jokubaviciute has performed in prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center. She is a faculty member of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School, has toured nationally with Musicians from Marlboro, and collaborates in recitals with violinist Midori in Europe, Asia, and South America. She joined the Duke Music faculty last year as Associate Professor of the Practice.

R. Larry Todd is Arts & Sciences Professor of Music, and co-author, with Marc Moskovitz, of Beethoven’s Cello: Five Sonatas and Their World (Boydell & Brewer, 2017), 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award.

Duke Jazz Ensemble with guest artist Javon Jackson, saxophone

This video premiered on Saturday, January 15 at 7:30 pm EST.

On December 3, 2021 the Duke Jazz Ensemble welcomed guest artist Javon Jackson to the stage in Baldwin Auditorium. For its first release of 2022, the Best of Biddle virtual series brings you a video of that performance.

The Duke Jazz Ensemble is directed by John V. Brown. The associate director is Evan Roberson.

View the program of the December 3 concert online at https://music.duke.edu/sites/music.duke.edu/files/documents/Jazz%20program%2012_3.pdf.

“Javon adds a modern twist to the music we grew up with. Everybody get ready for a funky good time.” – Branford Marsalis

Tenor Saxophonist Javon Jackson came into international prominence touring and recording with the legendary drummer Art Blakey as a member of his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Symbolizing a new generation of musicians that blended tradition with neo-jazz, Jackson went on to release 16 recordings as a band leader and tour and record over 135 CDs with jazz greats including Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Haden, Betty Carter, Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, Donald Byrd, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Richard Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Curtis Fuller, Joanne Brackeen, Stanley Turrentine, and Ben E. King.

Duke Symphony Orchestra with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute

This video premiered on Friday, December 17 at 7:30 pm EST.

Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K 488 with the Duke Symphony Orchestra, directed by Harry Davidson.

This concert was performed on December 1 in Baldwin Auditorium, and also featured the Overture to Haydn’s “L’Isola Disabitata” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major. View the complete program.

Prof. Jokubaviciute has performed in prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center. She is a faculty member of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival and School, has toured nationally with Musicians from Marlboro, and collaborates in recitals with violinist Midori in Europe, Asia, and South America. She joined the Duke Music faculty last year as Associate Professor of the Practice.

[dnme] Duke New Music Ensemble: Fall 2021

This video premiered on Friday, December 10 at 7:30 pm EST.

On November 19, [dnme] presented a concert of experimental, avant-garde works. The program featured a wide-range of works for acoustic instruments, voices, electronics, and chocolate by composers Julius Eastman, inti logan figgis-vizueta, Pauline Oliveros, and Mieko Shiomi, along with a multimedia premiere by Duke graduate student Minato Sakamoto. View the complete program.

[dnme] is under the direction of Brittany J. Green and features performers Quran Karriem, Jerry Liu, Arvind Mallikarjunan, Brandon Nutt, Irene Qiao, and Kenneth Stewart.

Duke University Wind Symphony: Points of Reflection

This video premiered on Saturday, December 4 at 7:30 pm EST.

The Duke University Wind Symphony’s Fall 2021 concert cycle concluded on November 18 with a program entitled “Points of Reflection.” The music on this concert was inspired by a quote from the program note of “Stillwater,” by Kelijah Dunton:

“We as people forget sometimes that we are so much more deep and vast beneath our hard surfaces. We work, we go to school, we take care of our families, we deal with the struggles of the day-to-day routine militantly. But, if we just take a moment to listen within ourselves; we discover our passions, our longings, and our sense of belonging.”

This concert aimed to offer all in attendance the opportunity to reflect on these aspects of life. View the program at https://music.duke.edu/sites/music.duke.edu/files/documents/Wind_Symphony_11_18.pdf.

J. Benjamin Jones was interim director of the Duke University Wind Symphony for the Fall 2021 semester and conducts the ensemble in this concert.

On the Persistence of the Spiritual in Black Music with tenor Albert Lee

This video premiered on Saturday, November 13 at 7:30 pm EST.

On October 22, Duke Music and the Humanities Unbounded Lab, “Black Music and the Soul of America” presented “On the Persistence of the Spiritual in Black Music” in Baldwin Auditorium.

Tenor Albert Lee (pictured); the Ciompi Quartet; Duke Chorale, conducted by Rodney Wynkoop; NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble, conducted by Lenora Helms Hammonds; cellist Timothy Holley, and pianist Anthony Kelley performed works by Florence Price, Olly Wilson, William Banfield, and others. View the program.

The Best of Biddle virtual series brings you a recording of that outstanding concert.

Horszowski Trio premieres works by Scott Lindroth and Ryan Harrison

This video premiered on Friday, October 29 at 7:30 pm EDT.

On October 9, the acclaimed Horszowski Trio premiered two new works in Baldwin Auditorium: T120 by Duke faculty composer Scott Lindroth, and For Vera by graduate composer Ryan Harrison. 
Lindroth’s work, created in collaboration with Horszowski Trio, was commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation. Harrison’s piece was workshopped by the Trio in Spring 2021 in a virtual residency with students in the Graduate Composition Program. Horszowski Trio rounded out the program with Robert Schumann’s Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 63. View the complete program.

Giving performances that are “lithe, persuasive” (The New York Times), “eloquent and enthralling” (The Boston Globe), and described as “the most compelling American group to come on the scene” (The New Yorker), the Horszowski Trio has quickly become a vital force in the international chamber music world.

More about Scott Lindroth’s T120

More about Horszowski Trio

The Duke Jazz Ensemble with Jason Marsalis, percussionist

This video premiered on Saturday, October 23 at 7:30 pm EDT.

On Friday, October 15, the Duke Jazz Ensemble performed a concert with special guest Jason Marsalis for Duke’s Family Weekend 2021. The Best of Biddle virtual series is pleased to bring you a recording of that concert. John V. Brown is the  Director of the Duke Jazz Ensemble and Evan Roberson is the ensemble’s Associate Director.

View the program online.