The Doric String Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, widely celebrated for its approaches to a wide range of repertoire and, as The Observer has noted, its ‘warmth, finesse and exciting attack.’

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Doric String Quartet

Duke University

11-time Grammy nominated saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman is one of today’s foremost contemporary jazz artists. Raised in a musical home, Redman released his first record in 1993, and now with more than 20 albums as a leader and sideman under his belt, his prolific career shows no signs of slowing down.

Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa where are we Tour

A weekend of jazz from Duke Arts Presents kicks off with none other than Vice Provost for the Arts John V. Brown as he convenes an all-star group of local jazz talent with national credentials. The John Brown Big Band will join forces with Grammy-nominated vocalist and Durham native Nnenna Freelon for this special one-night-only event.

The John Brown Big Band Featuring Nnenna Freelon

Resonance is a musical collision of cultures from around the globe. Together, Senegalese Kora player Ablaye Cissoko, French classical violinist Gabriel Richard and Senegalese songwriter Felwine Sarr juxtapose the sung repertoire of West African classical music, Afrobeat and Baroque European music with electrifying results. Richard and Sarr are both Duke professors: Richard in the Department of Romance Studies and Sarr in French and Francophone Studies.

Resonance

In 2019, Cornell University started “Freedom on the Move,” a database of “runaway ads” from the United States’ early newspapers—names, dates, descriptions, rewards. The database notes that it compiles “thousands of stories of resistance that have never been accessible in one place. Created to control the movement of enslaved people, the ads ultimately preserved the details of individual lives—their personality, appearance, and life story. Taken collectively, the ads constitute a detailed, concise, and rare source of information about the experiences of enslaved people.” (Cornell Department of History’s Edward Baptist, primary investigator for FOTM) These advertisements also provide a testament to their bravery: each of these people in the over 30,000 entries attempted self-emancipation.

Songs In Flight

Hayti Heritage Center

Fauré Quartett has been captivating audiences worldwide for over two decades with their innovative approach to classical music. Having met during their studies in 1995 for the 150th anniversary of their namesake Gabriel Fauré, the Fauré Quartett have established a reputation as leading interpreters of not only the French composer but also of works outside the mainstream repertoire. 

Fauré Piano Quartet

We are thrilled to welcome the highly in-demand British concert pianist Benjamin Grosvenor to Duke Arts this season. His virtuosic performances have made him one of the most important pianists working today, both in recital and concert halls and in the studio.  

Benjamin Grosvenor

Singer-songwriter Gregory Porter has garnered wide acclaim for his rich baritone and fusion of jazz, soul, and gospel. Drawing inspiration from legends like Nat King Cole, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder, Porter emerged in 2010 with his Grammy-nominated debut, Water.

An Evening with Gregory Porter at DPAC

DPAC - Durham Performing Arts Center

Across their fifteen years together, the Marian Consort has amassed an international reputation for their “astounding” performances and ensemble sound. (The Herald) This fall, the youthful choir brings its innovative performance of medieval and renaissance music to Durham for their Duke Arts debut. Under the direction of Scottish conductor, countertenor and musicologist Rory McCleery, the Marian Consort has released fourteen albums and premiered thirty new compositions, receiving praise for the “precision and pellucid texture” of their sound. (The Times)

The Marian Consort

This vibrant movement, sound, and language based-work by dance legend and choreographer Dianne McIntyre explores how dance and music “speak” to each other. With original music by celebrated composer Diedre Murray and poetry by Obie-winning playwright Ntozake Shange, the performance uses dance to explore how language creates worlds of beauty, alienation, harmony, tension or peace. This elegant and captivating work unites a live jazz quartet and a vigorous company of dancers to explore the deep rivers of communication in Black American history and culture.

Dianne McIntyre Group: In The Same Tongue

There are two milestone quintets featured in this program by Mozart and Beethoven respectively, referencing one another both in their scoring and key signatures. After the premiere of his Quintet, Mozart wrote to his father saying ‘I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.’ With extensive sketches in existence for this piece, it was clearly a project Mozart had laboured over – surprising for a composer not usually known for rewriting material. Beethoven takes his lead from Mozart in his youthful Quintet, written in his twenties when he was exploring the sonic possibilities of instruments in a chamber setting. We’re also presented with two trios in this concert, one by the French neoclassical composer Jean Françaix and another lively offering by the German Romantic composer Reinecke.

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble

Having performed in the top concert halls around the globe from a very young age, pianist Zlata Chochieva has a distinctive voice and a tranche of international competition prizes to her name. She makes her Duke Arts debut with a program of works built around the beauty – and darkness – of the natural world.  

Zlata Chochieva

Lost Dog’s show reveals the real story of Romeo and Juliet. It turns out they didn’t die in a tragic misunderstanding, they grew up and lived happily ever after.

Lost Dog: Juliet And Romeo 

Former BBC New Generation Artists, season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and recipients of the Avery Fischer Career Grant, the Escher String Quartet is among the leading chamber ensembles in the United States.

Escher String Quartet

The Viano Quartet is a chamber ensemble that commands attention. Since winning the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2019, the quartet has established a reputation as one of the most exciting and dynamic young groups on the classical music scene today. The Viano Quartet makes their Duke Arts debut this season, bringing together a vibrant range of works for chamber quartet, both established and new additions to the repertoire.  

Viano Quartet

For their fifth performance at Duke, the King’s Singers present a signature holiday program. One of the first vocal ensembles inducted into Gramophone’s “Hall of Fame,” the King’s Singers are famous across the world for their unique blend of the English choral tradition, popular music, modern composition, and a variety of other genres, resulting in a sound that defies easy categorization. Their performances bring matchless technique and endearing engagement with audiences, skills honed across their 55 years as an ensemble.

The King’s Singers

In this uninterrupted, six-hour experimental and performative symposium from choreographer Michael Kliën, audiences come-and-go as 15 invited guests speak together, drawing from disparate fields of knowledge and free associations to create a matrix of collective thought. Visions toward an equitable survival of the species will emerge in the black box von der Heyden Studio Theater. Connotating the qualities of an oracle, and drawing from contrasting areas of study, free associations, and dreams, 15 panelists will collide and enmesh their ideas into one collective. Together, they will unearth strategies, sensibilities, and visions that are equally potent, poetic, and personal. The audience, free to arrive or leave at any time, is invited to listen and observe this unfolding choreographic thought process and contribute as the situation emerges.

11Th Organ I

Since her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 16, Indonesian pianist Janice Carissa has gone on to study at Curtis Institute of Music with a full scholarship. She’s now undertaking her master’s degree at The Juilliard School, while playing at the world’s top concert halls with “the multicolored highlights of a mature pianist.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)  

Janice Carissa

The distinguished Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is headed stateside for a celebration of masterpieces old and new from the flourishing choral tradition of the 20th and 21st centuries. At the heart of the program is the US premiere of a new commission by Héloïse Werner, one of the UK classical music scene’s fastest rising stars. Her Magnificat sits alongside works by other leading contemporary voices from the UK and US. Roderick Williams’s reimagining of Byrd’s Ave verum corpus and James MacMillan’s colorful setting of a Latin text represent the British contingent, while and the swallow by Carolina Shaw, the youngest ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and Eric Whitacre’s bold dreamscape showcase some of the best examples of contemporary American choral writing.
These new works are paired with other similarly short works by the great and the good of 20th-century choral music, with several more religious works: a festival anthem by Finzi, a motet by Howells and a Jewish prayer by Bernstein.

Choir of Clare College

Performed in the round, the second part of the 11th Organ will be an immersive social choreographic situation centered around a group of performers, who temporarily envision themselves inhabiting a shared imaginary space. The metaphysical space will be initially obscure to the spectator–wholly constructed out of thoughts that resonate into the body. Slowly and inexplicably, the invisible vision will expand to absorb the audience, inviting them into a radically different world of possibilities. The core of the work – a matrix of shared imaginations – will produce a mysterious and alien relational realm, a thick wild mind, cultivated by the performers over the period of a year.

11th Organ II

The Jupiter Ensemble is the brainchild of the young lutenist and artistic director Thomas Dunford, who, in 2018, invited musicians and soloists he had met during his many years of touring the world to join him in a new early music ensemble. Together, the Jupiter Ensemble is keeping period practice alive – and every musician in the line-up is a soloist in their own regard.

In Durham, they present a portrait of Vivaldi, a staple composer of the Baroque period and one they spent time with in 2019, when they released a multi-award-winning dedicated Vivaldi recording on Alpha Classics. Lute concertos with Thomas Dunford will form the backbone of their US tour program, accompanied by a cello concerto led by Bruno Philippe, one of France’s most promising young soloists. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the next generation of early music specialists in action.

Jupiter Ensemble

First Presbyterian Church

The dynamic four-piece a cappella group Kings Return is made up of such a rich and powerful blend of vocal timbres that it’s no wonder that in a short time, they have received a Grammy nomination and amassed a large and devoted online following. Drawn to the flexibility of a cappella music , these classically-trained singers build live programs that integrate a wide range of musical styles and genres, from R&B to jazz, gospel, pop and classical. Their arrangements showcase their virtuosic talent and create a myriad of sonic shades and textures out of familiar standards.

Kings Return

America’s National Ballet Company,® returns to North Carolina for the first time in over 50 years with the romantic masterwork Giselle. This engrossing tale of unrequited love, revenge, and forgiveness has been an “enduring classic” (The New York Times) for nearly 200 years because of the exquisite and exacting dancing it requires of its entire ensemble. In the hands of ABT, one of the world’s leading ballet companies, Giselle is transcendent – an unmissable evening of stunning artistry.
ABT was founded in the fall of 1939 with dual aims of developing a repertoire of the best ballets from the past and supporting the creation of new works by gifted young choreographers. 80 years later, ABT is one of the world’s preeminent classical ballet companies, a world-touring ambassador for the art form, a committed choreographic commissioner, and an energetic leader in ballet education and outreach. All of these qualities animate Duke’s historic multi-year institutional collaboration with ABT, which culminates with this run of performances by American Ballet Theatre at DPAC.

American Ballet Theatre: Giselle

Durham Performing Arts Center

Every year, the Chamber Arts Society of Durham reserves one concert for a young and highly promising ensemble. This year that slot is filled by the London-based Castalian String Quartet. Hailed by The Guardian as “a feisty group, with a real personality and strong interpretative ideas,” this effervescent quartet is making its debut performances throughout the USA this season.
They begin their program with Haydn, whose six Opus 20 quartets are often considered the earliest truly mature pieces in the string quartet literature. Opus 20 #4 presents us with a group of warm friends in congenial conversation. The same kind of intimacy envelops Benjamin Britten’s third and final quartet (1976). Britten concentrates on two voices at a time, roaming through all six combinations possible in a group of four. Schubert’s majestic G-Major quartet, his 15th and final one, is marked by massive expansiveness and tortured inquisitiveness.  The strife between modes, voices, melodies, and rhythms is relentless throughout.

Castalian String Quartet

In 2020, pianist Boris Giltburg, whose “originality stems from a convergence of heart and mind…” (Gramophone), launched a project to record and film all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas with a fresh eye, yielding new connections and nuances to each of the works. At Duke, he’ll perform two of the late sonatas, the No. 30 in E Major, known for its intimacy and daring departures from traditional musical forms (the first two movements are played without pause, for example) and the No. 32 in C minor, Beethoven’s final and perhaps finest sonata. At only two movements, the works stands as a testament to the romantic era, with passionate free passages giving way to more structured melodies and themes. The concert and indeed the series closes as Giltburg performs Rachmaninoff’s Preludes, Op. 32, in their majestic entirety.

Boris Giltburg

Be there when pianist Alessio Bax, known for his particularly lyrical style of playing, interprets the single-piano version of Ravel’s La Valse as well as works by Bach, Bartok, Chopin and others. Italian-born and New York City-based, Bax launched his career by winning the prestigious Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan at the tender age of 19. He’s since played with more than 150 orchestras around the world and gone on to win numerous other competitions as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. His program for the Duke Chamber Arts Series in a cornucopia ranging from Albeniz “Tango” from España to Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 and more. Ravel originally composed La Valse as a ballet, but Diaghilev famously rejected the work while acknowledging it as a masterpiece. The blow to Ravel’s pride later nearly resulted in a duel between the two men.

Alessio Bax

Gregory Porter’s powerful baritone shows out on recordings like “Concorde,” the opening track of 2020’s Grammy-nominated All Rise — an album All Music called “buoyantly sophisticated.”
But to truly experience Porter and his talent, his live performances are essential. One review of his recent show at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in the UK described the performance as captivating, and the night as “an hour and a half of magical happiness.”
Astronauts and royalty alike agree: Porter provided a rendition of “America the Beautiful” during the launch of NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover in 2020, as well as a performance for Queen Elizabeth during the Queen’s Jubilee celebration.

An Evening with Gregory Porter

Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts

The Ciompi Quartet, Duke’s resident ensemble, returns to Baldwin Auditorium with a dynamic program. Night Music—Bela Bartók’s term for music that depicts of the sounds and emotions of the night—is the central episode in the arch form of his Quartet #4. Fifty years later, Henri Dutilleux returned to the same nocturnal landscape in his string quartet Ainsi la nuit. The concert brightens after intermission with Fauré’s setting of Paul Verlaine’s love poetry, which floods the stage with glorious daylight. Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, called a ”matchless interpreter of contemporary opera” in Opera News, brings virtuoso musicianship to a collaboration with the Ciompi and Duke colleague, pianist Ieva Jokūbavičiūtė.

The Ciompi Quartet: Night Music

Easily recognized thanks to its trademark warmth and blend, the low-voice ensemble has been referred to as “exquisite” by the Philadelphia Inquirer and “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” by the Washington Post. The Cantus Vocal Ensemble brings a dazzling program built around the concept of being ‘Alone Together.’ With a wide-reaching range of repertoire, Cantus explores the challenges of connecting in our modern age, pairing works by Sibelius and Saint-Saëns with contemporary composers and musicians such as David Lang, Andrea Ramsey, Laura Mvula and even Simon & Garfunkel. What does it mean to be ‘Alone Together’ and how do we find that connection through music?
Committed to the expansion of vocal music repertoire, Cantus actively commissions new music – in this concert, a piece by Libby Larsen – and seeks to unearth rarely performed repertoire for lower voices.

Duke Performances

Apr 26, 2024

Doric String Quartet

Apr 20, 2024

Joshua Redman Group featuring Gabrielle Cavassa where are we Tour

Apr 19, 2024

The John Brown Big Band Featuring Nnenna Freelon

Apr 5, 2024

Resonance

Apr 3, 2024

Songs In Flight

Duke Performances

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