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Duke Arts Presents

20 Years of Three Lobed Recordings

Ahead of the Three Lobed Recordings 21st Anniversary Festival April 14–16, Will Atkinson ’20 spoke with Three Lobed’s founder and manager, Cory Rayborn, about the label’s journey to this point and the impressive lineup of artists who will take up residence at indoor and outdoor venues around campus next month. Single performance tickets for all […]

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Imani Winds Helps Shape Multi-Year Residency Model

For more than two decades, New York City-based and GRAMMY Award-nominated wind quintet Imani Winds has brought diversity, virtuosity, and vision to classical music. Join us on Sunday, March 27 for Imani Winds’ performance of A Woman’s Perspective, a program comprising six contemporary masterworks by women composers. Over the past decade, the visiting artist program developed by […]

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DUKE PERFORMANCES RECEIVES NEA GRANT FOR ‘BUILDING BRIDGES’ SERIES

Duke Performances has been approved for a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the continuation of Building Bridges: Muslims in America in 2022.  This multi-year initiative, launched in 2018, showcases the richness and diversity of Muslim culture in this country by presenting poets, musicians, filmmakers, and […]

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Duke Performances Residency Brings Jazz Pianist Chris Pattishall Home

Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Chris Pattishall returned to Durham, his hometown, as part of a yearlong residency with Duke Performances. His visit culminated in the world premiere of his debut album, Zodiac, an expansive interpretation of jazz legend Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite.

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Live & Essential: Q&A, Samantha Everette

Join us this spring as we continue our season with twenty Live & Essential presentations, including new dance, contemporary theater, and music from established and emerging artists. We are thrilled to invite you to continue to safely experience live performances at Duke and in Durham in 2022. As part of our Live & Essential season, we are […]

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LIVE & ESSENTIAL: Q&A, Stefanie Batten Bland

In 2019 and 2020, dancer-choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland, founder of Company SBB, was in residence in the Rubenstein Arts Center together with dancers and instructors from the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company. These residencies were the creative core of Duke University’s three-year partnership with ABT. Embarqued: Stories of Soil represents the outgrowth and evolution of […]

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A Joyous Reunion: Kayhan Kalhor & Duke’s Iranian-American Community

By M. Mehdi Emamian The early spring of 2020 will live long in our collective memory as the beginning of a historic time that changed the way we interact with each other and within our society. For me, it was also the advent of a profound shift in how Duke University’s Iranian-American community experience art […]

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LIVE & ESSENTIAL: Curated Playlists

These fresh and electic playlists will introduce you to the artists headlining our fall 2021 season.

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WELCOME BACK LIVE: Curated Playlists

These fresh and electic playlists will introduce you to the artists headlining our fall 2021 season.

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Welcome Back Live: Q&A, Bijayini Satpathy

Duke Performances returns to live performance this fall with 16 presentations that welcome audiences back to stages at Duke University and in downtown Durham. Welcome Back Live! Ahead of Bijayini Satpathy’s performances at von der Heyden Studio Theater, Michaela Dwyer “sat down” with the artist to chat about her work. We encourage you to check Duke Performances’ blog to […]

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Welcome Back Live: Q&A, Chris Pattishall

Duke Performances returns to live performance this fall with 16 presentations that welcome audiences back to stages at Duke University and in downtown Durham. Welcome Back Live! Ahead of Chris Pattishall’s performances at von der Heyden Studio Theater, Michaela Dwyer “sat down” with the artist to chat about his work. We encourage you to check […]

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Welcome Back Live: Q&A, Imani Winds

Ahead of Imani Winds’ September 12 performance at Baldwin Auditorium, Michaela Dwyer “sat down” with Monica Ellis to chat about the past year.

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Young Bull

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Rissi Palmer

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Kamara Thomas

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, H.C. McEntire

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Joe Troop

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Shirlette Ammons

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Skylar Gudasz

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Music in Your Gardens: Q&A, Hiss Golden Messenger

This summer, we’re proud to present Music in Your Gardens, a free eight-week online concert series showcasing nationally renowned artists who call Durham and the surrounding area home. The series shifts Duke Performances’ longtime summer series, Music in the Gardens, normally held outdoors at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Duke’s campus, to an online format. This Wednesday, […]

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Livestream Series: Q&A, Daughter of Swords

Duke Performances is partnering with Duke Arts and WXDU on a livestream series hosted by DP on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. This Wednesday, May 27, we’re rounding out the series with Alexandra Sauser-Monnig’s solo project Daughter of Swords. In advance of these performances, we ask participating artists to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted their work, and what they are finding reassuring […]

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Looking back at
Mountain Man’s Cosmic Prom

By Sibyl Kemp This week, Molly Sarlé is taking over our socials for our weekly livestream, and next, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig’s solo project, Daughter of Swords, will wrap up this livestream series that we’ve taken on in partnership with Duke Arts and WXDU. This series has allowed us to dip our toes into the world of […]

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Livestream Series: Q&A, Molly Sarlé

Duke Performances is partnering with Duke Arts and WXDU on a livestream series hosted by DP on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. This Wednesday, May 20, we’re continuing the series with songwriter Molly Sarlé. In advance of these performances, we ask participating artists to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted their work, and what they are finding reassuring through these uncertain times. We […]

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Livestream Series: Q&A, ABT Takeover Artists Stefanie Batten Bland & Skylar Brandt

Duke Performances is partnering with Duke Arts and WXDU on a livestream series hosted by DP on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. This Wednesday, May 13, we’re continuing the series with choreographic artist Stefanie Batten Bland in collaboration with the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company & American Ballet Theatre Soloist Skylar Brandt. In advance of these performances, we ask participating artists to reflect on how the coronavirus […]

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Livestream Series: Q&A, Gerald Clayton

Duke Performances is partnering with Duke Arts and WXDU on a livestream series hosted by DP on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. This Wednesday, May 6, we’re continuing the series with pianist and composer Gerald Clayton. In advance of these performances, we ask participating artists to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted their work, and what they are finding reassuring through these uncertain […]

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Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever : World Premiere & Residency

By Brian Valentyn On average, Duke Performances commissions and premieres five projects each season. These range from new music compositions to evening-length multidisciplinary productions that go on to tour nationally, and sometimes internationally, following their premieres in Durham. In early March, our 2019/2020 season came to an abrupt and unanticipated close, cut short by over […]

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Livestream Series: Q&A, Joan Shelley & Nathan Salsburg

Duke Performances is partnering with Duke Arts and WXDU on a livestream series hosted by DP on Facebook Live and Instagram Live. This Wednesday, April 27, we’re continuing the series with singer Joan Shelley & guitarist Nathan Salsburg. In advance of these performances, we ask participating artists to reflect on how the coronavirus crisis has impacted their work, and what they are finding reassuring through these uncertain […]

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Music Maker 25: Honoring Our Musical Traditions

By Joel Johnson Last December, public historian Kimber Heinz and I were privileged to put together the exhibition Music Maker 25: Honoring Our Musical Traditions (part of Duke Performances’ Music Maker 25, a music festival co-presented in December 2019 with the Music Maker Relief Foundation [MMRF]). The exhibition, staged at The Fruit in downtown Durham, chronicled […]

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Duke University + American Ballet Theatre: A Partnership

By Michaela Dwyer In the world we’d planned for, the American Ballet Theatre Main Company would have, as of today, just completed their run of five performances of the romantic masterwork Giselle at the Durham Performing Arts Center. This would have been the company’s first visit to North Carolina in more than 50 years, and […]

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A Stroll in the Garden: A Brief History of the Rose without Thorns

By Laura Lieber According to Ambrose of Milan, the Church Father who lived in the fourth century (over a millennium before English composer Thomas Tallis), roses first grew in the Garden of Eden, and those first roses were entirely without thorns. Only after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were expelled from the Garden did […]

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Beethoven’s String Quartets

By R. Larry Todd Composed between 1798 and 1826, a span of not quite three decades, Beethoven’s sixteen string quartets have continued to exude their magic over the rich traditions of Western chamber music for now approaching two centuries. When Beethoven arrived in Vienna from Bonn in 1792, to receive, according to his patron Count […]

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The Drum Never Stops Beating: Music as Resistance on Radio Haïti-Inter

By Laura Wagner Breaking the Thermometer to Hide the Fever is a multidisciplinary performance commissioned by Duke Performances, set to new music by Haitian-American singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla. It draws inspiration from the archive of Radio Haïti-Inter, which is held by Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. (The title of McCalla’s performance refers […]

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