DU K E P E R F O R MA N CE S
I N D U R H A M , AT D U K E : A C O M P R E H E N S I V E V I E W 2 0 1 5 / 2 0 1 6 | MU SIC, THEATER, DA NCE & M O RE
DUKE PERFORMANCES: AN INTRODUCTION Duke Performances, the professional performing arts presenter at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, presents willfully eclectic, forward-thinking programming at a dozen venues on campus and in town. Through superb performances, outstanding visiting artist residencies, and the commissioning and development of exciting new work, Duke Performances takes a leading role in the cultural life of the nation and encourages meaningful engagement with the Duke campus and Durham community. Duke Performances offers a robust season of 70-80 presentations spanning classical, new music, jazz, American vernacular music, independent rock, international music, theater, and dance. The performing arts have been a Duke staple since 1956, when the university established the Institute for the Arts. The Institute for the Arts and its sister organization the Chamber Arts Society were visionary, presenting such artists as Merce Cunningham and Leontyne Price. Duke Performances was established in 2007.
Over the past five seasons, Duke Performances has served a total audience of 175,000 people across 325 presentations and 400 performances; sold 40,000 tickets to Duke students at the subsidized rate of $10; hosted 250 artist residency events serving over 15,000 Durham students and community members; commissioned twenty-five large-scale projects; and sold more than 7,500 tickets to patrons ages 30 and under at the very affordable price of $15. This viewbook is an introduction to the work of Duke Performances: our organization’s programming, residencies, commissions, and our engagement with artists and the global arts community.
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Duke Performances strives to lead the conversation by programming an array of presentations in a variety of genres. Committed to presenting work that engages Durham’s communities, our performances and community events attract audiences both broad and specific.
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ON CAMPUS: ENHANCING THE CLASSROOM A performance venue that features the Emerson String Quartet one night and Gregory Porter the next is a uniquely democratized space for performers and audiences. Students engage with this wide breadth of perspectives at shows, artist workshops, class visits, and informal meet-and-greets. • Performances and artist visits bring classroom material to life, intersecting with and reinforcing student learning. In 2015, Jody McAuliffe’s Directing students attended the International Contemporary Ensemble’s performance of David Lang’s The Whisper Opera, directed and designed by Duke alumnus Jim Findlay. The performance provided a case study for concepts such as lighting, sound, and staging; the experience was complemented by Findlay’s visit to McAuliffe’s class as a guest lecturer. • The arts create a context for learning, often causing collisions between ideas that can change the trajectory of a class. Zimbabwean choreographer and dancer Nora Chipaumire visited the Arts & Human Rights course—co-taught by Sanford School of Public Policy Professor Catherine Admay and Music Professor Louise Meintjes — during her 2010 residency, challenging students to consider art as a mode of inquiry for their research. Maybe the Seun Kuti example is more to the point? OUR CAMPUS PARTNERS INCLUDE: Center for Documentary Studies, African and African American Studies Department of Theater Studies Dance Program Department of Music Visual Arts, Art, and Art History Sarah P. Duke Gardens Nasher Museum of Art
Duke Divinity School Department of English Forum for Scholars & Publics Department of Romance Studies Department of History Slippage: Performance, Culture, Technology Duke Africa Initiative Franklin Humanities Institute
ON CAMPUS: C U LT I VAT I N G YO U N G A R T I S T S For student musicians, composers, actors, directors, choreographers, and dancers, interaction with the world’s greatest artists provides meaningful exposure. Through hands-on instruction and collaboration, students experience artistic creation and production. Via workshops and masterclasses, students witness how art is made. • Artists share their perspectives and students gain insight into the artistic process. • Visiting professionals talk with prospective artists about potential career paths in the arts. • Artists critique student work, mentoring them and encouraging their growth. Through collaboration, students are involved in the experience of creation. • During Fiasco Theater’s residency at Duke in 2012, the company presented Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and devised a production of Measure for Measure over two weeks of open rehearsals and readings. • Over a two-year residency, yMusic played and workshopped Duke student compositions, performed those works in two concerts at Motorco Music Hall, and created professional-quality recordings of PhD dissertation works. The residency culminated in a collaborative concert with yMusic and Ben Folds performing student compositions at a sold-out concert at Baldwin Auditorium. • Duke student ensembles rehearse and perform with artists — jazz pianist Gerald Clayton was backed by the Duke Jazz Ensemble in 2013; the Duke Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven concertos with violinist Jennifer Koh in 2016.
I N TO W N : A S N A P S H OT O F D U R H A M Durham’s vivid history — in the civil rights movement, the tobacco industry, and higher education — provides a rich cultural context in which to present the arts. We celebrate that legacy, and celebrate Durham’s vibrant communities, by contributing to Durham’s burgeoning performing arts scene. Our programming connects to cultural traditions. • Our Gospel series has included such electrifying acts as John P. Kee and Mighty Clouds of Joy at the Hayti Heritage Center (2012), and Gospel Music Hall of Fame awardee Richard Smallwood and his Vision Choir at the Carolina Theater (2013). • In May 2015, Mexican-American singer Lila Downs closed our season with a Cinco de Mayo concert, engaging the Triangle’s Latino communities. • Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain & The Masters of Percussion (2014) and Persian singer Mohammed-Reza Shajarian (2012) engaged Durham’s growing South Asian and Iranian communities. We link artists and the local community in face-to-face exchange via residencies, workshops, and conversations. • Ron K. Brown, the celebrated founder of Evidence dance company, hosted a liturgical dance workshop (2015) in which community members learned dance technique and choreography. • Composer David Reich and Kronos Quartet founder David Harrington discussed the DP-commissioned premiere of WTC 9/11 at the Pinhook, a bar and community meeting place.
I N TO W N : A ROLE IN DURHAM’S RENAISSANCE In the last fifteen years, Durham has become a cultural hub for the region. Duke Performances partners with local artists to enliven the arts in our city. • We facilitate locally-based collaborations. The album Sounds of the South (2010), inspired by Alan Lomax’s field recordings, was recorded live at the Hayti Heritage Center by Megafaun, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Fight the Big Bull & Sharon Van Etten. • Multidisciplinary projects inhabit the frontiers of new work. Love’s Infrastructure, a DP commission and sold-out world premiere, was a meeting of Durham’s Bombadil and Duke theater professor and puppetry artist Torry Bend. • Commissions highlight artists’ unique strengths. Ari Picker (of Lost in the Trees) composed a song cycle based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Hours for an expanded indie classical ensemble, in the DP commission and world premiere Lion & the Lamb. • DP connects artists to resources. Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s & country singer-guitarist Tift Merritt debuted their new work Night at Duke Performances. They engaged songwriters such as Brad Mehldau and Patty Griffin for this DP commission, which was later released on Sony Classical. LOCAL PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: Hayti Heritage Center Carolina Theatre of Durham Durham Arts Council Art of Cool Festival New Music Raleigh Music Maker Relief Foundation
Sarah P. Duke Gardens Motorco Music Hall The Pinhook Full Frame Documentary Festival American Dance Festival
THE ESSENTIAL CLASSICS Classical repertoire is foundational to Duke Performances. • Our commitment to the classics is historical: the Chamber Arts Series has made its home at Duke for sixty-five years, and the Ciompi Quartet for more than fifty. • DP’s classical offerings have expanded from -?- to 127 presentations in the last five years, including twenty-five concerts in the 2015/2016 season. • Four series offer exposure to classical virtuosos in every genre: Vocal Ensemble, Chamber Arts, Piano Recital, and String Quartet. • We consistently present top-tier artists, including the Emerson String Quartet (2015), Garrick Ohlsson (2011), Anonymous 4 (2012, 2014), the St. Lawrence String Quartet (2014), and Murray Perahia (2016). • Duke Performances’ programming encompasses everything from the familiar canon to contemporary classical groups such as Deviant Septet and Roomful of Teeth; from estimable Euroclassical ensembles such as the Takács Quartet to Asian classical artists such as Carnatic violinist L. Subramaniam and pipa virtuoso Wu Man.
A NETWORK OF VENUES With more than a dozen venues available to us on campus and in town, we match artists to venues, creating the ideal conditions for every show, and providing spaces where the Durham and Duke communities can sit elbow-to-elbow. NELSON MUSIC ROOM I N T I M AT E M U S I C V E N U E
MOTORCO MUSIC HALL
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I N N O VAT I V E A R T I S T C O M M I S S I O N S Duke Performances commissions an average of five large-scale projects each year. We seek forward-leaning, collaborative work across media and genre. • Jazz commissions include The Bad Plus’ On Sacred Ground (2011) and Science Fiction (2015); Jason Moran’s In My Mind (2009); Brian Blade’s The Hallelujah Train (2009); The Campbell Brothers’ A Love Supreme (2014); and Bill Frisell’s The Great Flood (2011) & Disfarmer (2008). • The From the Archives initiative links artists with materials from Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and manuscript library. Violinist, singer, and composer Jenny Scheinman’s Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait (2015) paired an original live score with the films of H. Lee Waters; after its DP world premiere, it will go on to play the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery. Solo guitarist William Tyler’s Corduroy Roads (2014) paired and original live score with the Civil War photographs of George Barnard and Alexander Gardner; after its DP world premiere, it went on to the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville and OZ Arts in Nashville. In 2015, MC Taylor (of Hiss Golden Messenger) will present Heart Like a Levee, an evening of music inspired by the documentary photography of William Gedney. • New works commemorating landmark anniversaries include a new piece for Imani Winds, Frederic Rzewski’s Sometimes, to receive its world premiere in 2015 as part of the University’s year-long celebration of the centenary of Dr. John Hope Franklin. Billy Childs’ Enlightened Souls (2013), featuring jazz singer Dianne Reeves, celebrated the 50th anniversary of black students at Duke University.
N AT I O N A L I M PA C T Duke Performances is at the forefront of university performing arts presenters nationwide, attracting artists of the highest caliber and commissioning, developing, and producing a growing number of forwardthinking new works for the world stage.. Newly renovated campus venues allow DP to draw the world’s best artists, connecting Durham to the international performing arts circuit. • Duke University has announced plans for a 50,000 square foot Arts Center breaking ground in fall 2015. • Our Chamber Arts, Piano Recital, and Vocal Ensemble series have their home in the acoustically pristine Baldwin Auditorium (renovated in 2012) and in the iconic Duke Chapel (renovation to be completed in 2016). • Page Auditorium, which re-opened in September 2015 with 1150 seats, increases our capacity for large-scale shows with an updated sound system and more comfortable seating. Commissioned new works have their start at Duke and a life beyond. • Ben Folds and yMusic began their 2015 tour with a sold-out concert at Baldwin Auditorium. The work they developed during yMusic’s residency at Duke was featured on an international tour that included concerts at the Bonnaroo Festival. • Jason Moran’s In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1959 appeared in such heralded venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and New York’s Town Hall. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called it “a stunning project.” Moran has performed the work more than 100 times all over the world.
• Walking With ‘Trane, an Urban Bush Women premiere inspired by the life of John Coltrane and his jazz suite A Love Supreme, featured live music performed by pianist George Caldwell. The work has since been performed across the United States. • The Bad Plus’ On Sacred Ground (2011), a jazz re-imagining of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, received acclaim everywhere it was performed. The New York Times called it “electrifying,” and The Boston Globe described it as “exhilarating…dramatic, dynamic.” It was released on Sony Masterworks in 2014. • Fiasco Theater’s Measure for Measure, devised at Duke in 2012, premiered at New York’s New Victory Theater in the following year for a month-long run. • Duke Performances commissioned Victoire’s Missy Mazzoli to compose You Know Me From Here for the Kronos Quartet in 2014. It was performed at Duke and on an international tour culminating at Carnegie Hall; it is now part of the ensemble’s repertoire and has been performed by other groups.
WHERE WE’RE HEADED Duke Performances envisions a future that includes: • An increase in commissioning resources, resulting in more groundbreaking new work. • The expansion of From the Archives, resulting in more new projects and deeper engagement with faculty and students. • Longer and more frequent residencies, resulting in increased opportunities for Duke students and Durham community members to get to know the world’s greatest artists. • The formation of a faculty advisory committee, resulting in increased curricular engagement and impact, as well as DP’s deeper involvement in the intellectual life of the institution. • The establishment of a public-facing space accessible to campus and town, which will be DP’s new home for small concerts and conversations.
S TA F F : A A R O N G R E E N WA L D, E X E C U T I V E D I R E C TO R | E R I C O B E R S T E I N , A S S O C I AT E D I R E C TO R A R I E L F I E L D I N G , M A R K E T I N G D I R E C TO R | G R AY W E S T, G R A P H I C D E S I G N E R S U Z A N N E D E S P R E S , P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E R | G LO R I A H U N T, B U S I N E S S M A N A G E R JOIN OUR MAILING LIST AND FIND OUT MORE ON OUR WEBSITE: DUKEPERFORMANCES.DUKE.EDU CONTACT: (919) 660-3356 | PERFORMANCES@DUKE.EDU | 114 S BUCHANAN BLVD | BOX 90757 | DURHAM NC, 27708