This bimonthly, 90-minute forum focuses on manifestations of Black Music at Duke and ways to integrate practice and conversations about Black music into the broader Duke intellectual landscape. The group will consist of three graduate students and three undergraduate students with a rotating faculty presence.
Graduate Fellows:
Brittany J. Green is a North Carolina-based composer, creative, and educator. Described as “cinematic in the best sense” and “searing” (Chicago Classical Review), Brittany’s music facilitates intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses at the intersection of sound, video, movement, and text. Recent works engage sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems. Her artistic practice includes spoken and electronic performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, experiential projects, and acoustic and electroacoustic chamber and large ensemble works. Her music has been featured at TIME:SPANS, NYC Electronic Music Festival, WoCo Fest, and Experimental Sound Studio. Her music has been commissioned and performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Transient Canvas, Castle of our Skins, Emory University Symphony Orchestra, and Wachovia Winds. Brittany holds awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Foundation, and New Music USA. She is a doctoral candidate at Duke University, pursuing a PhD in music composition as a Dean’s Graduate Fellow.
Ryan Harrison’s artistic output, be it musical or though other mediums, seeks to communicate or evoke sentiments and emotions universal to the human condition: e.g., loss, triumph, dread, hope. He has been incredibly fortunate to work with composers and educators such as Jerry Sieg, Barbara Jazwinski, Edward Dulaney, Rick Snow, Scott Lindroth, John Supko, and Stephen Jaffe. He has collaborated with a wide variety of ensembles and performers, including JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Lorelei Ensemble, Lunar Ensemble, the New Orleans Chamber Orchestra, Jeremy Hue Williams, Paula Fan, Orlando Cela, and members of the Louisiana Philharmonic. The New Orleans native holds degrees in composition from the University of New Orleans (Bachelor of Arts), Tulane University (Master of Fine Arts), Duke University (Master of Arts), and is currently working towards obtaining a Ph.D. in music composition from Duke University.
Annie Koppes is a current PhD student studying Musicology with a certificate in Gender & Feminist Studies at Duke University. Focusing on the economic and social exploitation of musicians of the twentieth century, Annie seeks to advocate for social justice and change through intersectional approaches to music history. In the past, her research has examined the economic and social exploitation of jazz and blues musicians such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Jelly Roll Morton.
Annie has presented her research to the Rocky Mountain American Musicological Society, Rocky Mountain Society of Music Theory, and will soon be presenting at the National Society of Music Theory Conference in New Orleans (2022). In additional to her musicological pursuits, Annie has a keen interest in the non-profit sector of music, having worked on the administrative level with both the International Cello Institute and C’Elle: Empowering Womxn Cellists (a 501(c)3 nonprofit) to name a few.
Outside of the world of academia, you can find Annie beekeeping, playing with her cats (Alfie and Penny Lane), backpacking, or songwriting.
Hannah Krall is a musicologist interested in early music and jazz improvisation, traditional jazz, and music for the viola da gamba. She has a BA in Music from Cornell University (magna cum laude).
Cole Swanson is a pianist, conductor, and Ph.D. candidate in Musicology at Duke University, currently completing a dissertation on film music, sound design, and recording technology. He also studies jazz, opera, and musical politics. Cole has a B.A. in music from St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN) and an M.A. in Historical Musicology from Tufts University (Somerville, MA). He lives in Durham with his partner Kirsten and their cat Isaac, and can be found performing jazz and musical theater around the Triangle.
Undergraduate Fellows:
Courtney Dantzler is a senior from Jacksonville, Florida, majoring in Music and Computer Science. She currently studies organ, jazz piano, and composition, but throughout her time at Duke she has also explored voice, musicology, and music technology. In the spring of 2022, Courtney spent a semester abroad in Vienna, Austria. What excites her about the lab is how the exploration of black musical traditions informs her study of what constitutes the “soul” in music.
Charla Gentry is a current a Sophomore at Duke University from Spartanburg, SC. She plans to major in biology with a minor in music. She is a David M. Rubenstein Scholar, as well as a Watson Brown Scholar. She is also a part of Duke’s Cardea Fellows Program. She has played the violin and electric guitar for over five years and is currently learning to play the piano.
Aaron Spruill is a junior at Duke University from Southeast Washington, D.C. He is studying music and is a producer of Hip-Hop and modern RnB. At Duke, he is a Gates Scholar.
