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 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.

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.

Introducing Our Faculty: Fall 2021

This video premiered on Friday, October 1 at 7:30 pm EDT.

View the complete program.

Kent Foss joins Duke Music as Instructor of Music: Trumpet following the retirement of longtime trumpet instructor Don Eagle. In this video, Dr. Foss performs works that span centuries, from Purcell’s Sonata in D Major, Z. 850 performed on baroque trumpet to “Song of Hope” by contemporary composer Peter Meechan.

Gabriel Richard will be teaching violin and working with the Chamber Music Program in the Department of Music. He has been the tenured first violin at the Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, violin soloist at the Opéra de Lyon, first violin at the Paris Orchestra, and first violin of the Thymos String Quartet. He tours regularly in Japan, Korea, China, America, and Europe. In this video, he performs works by Biber and Guillemain.

Zachary Hobin has been teaching with the Duke University String School and will now also teach bass as a member of the Duke Music faculty. In this video, he performs “Bariolage” by Shinji Eshima with cellist Madeline Fayette.

Faculty/Student Gala Concert: Fall 2021

This video premiered on Saturday, September 25 at 7:30 PM EDT.

On September 18, Duke Music celebrated the beginning of a new academic year with a Faculty/Student Gala Concert in Baldwin Auditorium featuring the Duke Chorale, Ciompi Quartet, Duke University Saxophone Quartet, and voice faculty members Ted Federle, Elizabeth Linnartz, & Sandra Cotton with pianist Daniel Seyfried. We are excited to share this concert with you as the first release of the Best of Biddle virtual series 2021-2022.

View the complete program.

Ciompi Quartet: “Spiritual Voices”

This video will premiere on Friday, June 18 at 7:30 pm Eastern.

View the complete program, which includes composer and musician bios.

In celebration of Juneteenth 2021, the Ciompi Quartet and Electric Earth Concerts will present a major work of Olly Wilson (1937-2018) pictured at left: “A City Called Heaven” for large ensemble. Also on the program is “Grist for the Mill,” a work by Duke composer Anthony Kelley, who earned his Ph.D. studying with Wilson; Mark Kuss’s arrangement of “7 Spirituals and Work Songs of the United States”; and Ben Johnston’s “Amazing Grace” quartet, which takes the archetypal hymn as the basis for a wild and deeply moving journey. Professor Kelley will introduce the program.

In addition to the Ciompi Quartet (Eric Pritchard, violin; Hsiao-mei Ku, violin; Jonathan Bagg, viola; Caroline Stinson, cello) performers include Benjamin Fingland, clarinet; Laura Gilbert, flute; Michael Williams, percussion; Chris Lennard, percussion; Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano; and Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, conducting “A City Called Heaven.”

 

Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes, Op. 34

Video will premiere on Friday, May 14 at 7:30 pm ET.


Duke Music’s Piano Area premieres a semester-long project as undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and guests collaborate to record the entire cycle of piano works written early in the career of this Soviet master.

D. Shostakovich, 24 Preludes Op. 34

Prelude 1 in C major (2:30):  Larry Todd
Prelude 2 in A minor (3:54):  Aram Lindroth
Prelude 3 in G major (5:15):  Yi Chen
Prelude 4 in E minor (7:33):  Jing Zhang
Prelude 5 in D major (10:56):  Rui Xi
Prelude 6 in B minor (11:43):  Ted Choi
Prelude 7 in A major (13:22):  Hannah Duke
Prelude 8 in F sharp minor (14:53):  Nathaniel Maxwell
Prelude 9 in E major (16:11):  Joanna Chang
Prelude 10 in C sharp minor (16:59):  Danika Dai
Prelude 11 in B major (19:12):  Kevin Xu
Prelude 12 in G sharp minor (20:22):  Florence Liu
Prelude 13 in F sharp major (22:28):  Andrew Moenning
Prelude 14 in E flat minor (23:47):  Catherine McMillan
Prelude 15 in D flat major (26:17):  Devon Valdez
Prelude 16 in B flat minor (27:36):  Debosir Ghosh
Prelude 17 in A flat major (29:05):  Inge Walther
Prelude 18 in F minor (31:10):  Daniel Seyfried
Prelude 19 in E flat major (32:16):  Ieva Jokubaviciute
Prelude 20 in C minor (34:17):  Danika Dai
Prelude 21 in B flat major (35:13):  Joanna Chang
Prelude 22 in G minor (36:10):  Andre Hall
Prelude 23 in F major (38:46):  Davis Wu
Prelude 24 in D minor (40:35):  Aram Lindroth

[dnme]: Duke New Music Ensemble

This video will premiere on Friday, May 7 at 7:30 pm EDT.

Directed by Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, [dnme]’s final concert of the year features multiple premieres performed and/or written by undergraduate performers and composers, graduate composers, Music Department faculty members, guests Alex Sopp, flute and Alissa Roca, soprano, in addition to the Ciompi Quartet, Vice Provost for the Arts John Brown, and community members.

Program:
David Johnston: “Prelude, Intermission, & Rondo” (Caleb Woo, saxophone)

Jason Mulligan: “Easter, 1916” (Alissa Roca, soprano & Jason Mulligan, piano)

Courtney Dantzler: “Woodland Mischief” (Alex Sopp, flute)

Brooks Frederickson: “Carson Yoga” (Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano & Jennifer Curtis, violin; Julie Rooney, videographer and editor; Carson Moody, yogi, writer)

Brittany Green: “Embers” (Mike Kris, trombone)

Steven Bryant: “Dusk” (The [dnme] Ensemble: Courtney Dantzler, voice, Nidhi Dhupati, violin, Happy Yao, cello, Peter Liu, piano, conducted by Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant)

Dayton Kinney: “Falling Between the Worlds” (Sandra Cotton, mezzo soprano & David Heid, piano)

James Budinich: “Fragments Cast in Bronze” (Alex Sopp, flute)

Minato Sakamoto: “Partita Americana” (Hsiao-Mei Ku, violin)

Huijuan Ling: “Two Elastic Canons” (Carla Copeland-Burns, flute & Susan Fancher, saxophone)

Maximiliano Amici: “Solo” (Daniel Seyfried, piano)

Steven Bryant: “The Low Arc of the Sun” (Ciompi Quartet, John Brown, community members)

The majority of the works were edited and recorded by Rick Nelson. Stephen Downing recorded and edited “Dusk” by Steven Bryant.

Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant is the Artistic Director and Project Manager of dnme and this collaborative effort.

Music of Nature and Nation: Jennifer Curtis, violin and Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano

This video premiered on Friday, April 9 at 7:30 pm EDT.

Ieva Jokubaviciute and Jennifer Curtis perform music by George Enescu (1881-1955) and Jean Sibelius (1865-1957).

View the complete program

Sonata No. 3 in A Minor “dans le caractère populaire roumain” for violin and piano, Op. 25, is a chamber-music composition written in 1926 by George Enescu. It is dedicated to Franz Kneisel.

Five Esquisses (Five Sketches), Op. 114 was written in 1929 by Jean Sibelius.