News – April 2007

by Dorothy Kitchen, Founder & Director
 

To sing with the violin is to encompass the entire range of human emotion and to communicate it and share it with others. – Dorothy Kitchen

 

The Duke University String School, affectionately known as DUSS, was founded by Dorothy Kitchen and Arlene di Cecco, of the Ciompi Quartet, in January, 1967. It began as a private group, using Duke’s facilities and an old pre-fab building that was replaced by the lovely condos across Markham Avenue from Baldwin Auditorium and the Music Department.
 

DUSS started with 25 students and has grown to over 250. At first it offered only private lessons, but an orchestra was added in the third year, and soon thereafter, chamber music groups sprouted.
 

In 1971, DUSS formally joined the Music Department, and members of the Ciompi Quartet came onto the teaching staff. Six years later, in 1977, a DUSS trio, coached by Claudia Warburg, was accepted by the prestigious Coleman Chamber Music Competition; the group, which included Nicholas Kitchen, now first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet, came in third but earned DUSS its first major recognition outside North Carolina.
 

Among the conductors of the DUSS Youth Symphony have been Paul Bryan, Janet Yarbrough, Fred Raimi, Michael Ching, and its present conductor, Dorothy Kitchen. The Intermediate Orchestra has been conducted by Hjordis Tourian, Robbie Link, and Penka Kouneva.
 

A dozen years ago, Dorothy Fearing and her family provided an endowment for chamber music studies within DUSS, and now there are 10-15 groups every semester. DUSS also has three full orchestras at varying levels of advancement and two or three beginner orchestras, the number depending upon demand. DUSS also offers classes in theory, taught at various times by Susie Greenberg, Matt Stutsman, and Duke graduate students.
 

Among DUSS’ greatest moments was being invited to play for the candlelight tours at the White House in 1999. This trip was engineered by Pat Riley, whose daughters Lila and Leslie are cellists and whose wife, Laura Ames Riley, served as parent coordinator for several years and started the DUSS directory, which enables ongoing contact with present and alumni members. Shelley Livingston, conductor of Intermediate I and assistant conductor of the Youth Symphony, organized a two-year international exchange with the Laredo Institute of Cochabamba, Bolivia; in the first, the Bolivians came to Duke, and then the Dukies traveled to Bolivia. (These tours were sponsored by the North Carolina and Bolivian Partners for the Americas.) DUSS also partnered with the Orange Charter School of Hillsborough when Livingston was in charge of that program, and she was also instrumental in arranging an exchange, workshop, and concert with the Cork School of Music in Cork, Ireland. In addition, DUSS has sponsored the Ecole Ste. Trinite Orchestra from Port-au-Prince Haiti in a Durham concert; Mrs. Kitchen taught there for 15 summers. Closer to home, DUSS has also participated in orchestra festivals at the NCSA and with the Chapel Hill Youth Orchestra.
 

DUSS’ affiliation with Duke facilitated Mrs. Kitchen’s successful efforts in 1990 to secure for the Duke University Library the complete manuscripts of Peruvian composer Armando Guevara y Ocho. This occurred when she taught at the Fourth International Festival in Lima, Peru. (Readers may recall that this was during the time “The Shining Path” in Peru, with many bombings, rampant inflation, and so on. Indeed, during this visit, after Nicholas Kitchen played for the ambassador, the family was escorted home by a car equipped with machine guns!)
 

The Durham City Council named a day after DUSS’ director, Mrs. Kitchen, who also received the Durham Art’s Council Ella Fountain Pratt Lifetime Achievement Award in Music, the NCSA Award for excellence in teaching, and the Durham Symphony Award for Lifetime Service to Music. In 2006, Mrs. Kitchen also received the Maxine Swalin Award from the North Carolina Symphony for inspiring young musicians to make their lives better through music.
 

The DUSS, as a school and under Mrs. Kitchen’s sponsorship, started public school music programs in Dunn and Lillington and in the City of Durham, under a grant from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, which provided scholarship aid for many years. DUSS continues its community outreach with scholarships and many programs for the various Kiwanis, Rotary and other service clubs. DUSS also plays regularly on the musical series at Croaisdaile, Carol Woods, and the Forest at Duke. DUSS also regularly presents programs for the Duke campus club music study group.
 

DUSS currently has a staff of fourteen, are often augmented and assisted by the Ciompi Quartet. The school offers master classes on a regular basis, thanks to the cooperation of groups such as the Miró and the Borromeo Quartets.
 

Over the years. the DUSS, now in its 40th year, has graduated many artists and teachers, including such its own Assistant Director Stephanie Swisher, Nicholas Kitchen, Thomas Kraines, Lee Ann Darling, Andre Brown, Frances Hsieh, Andrew Bonner, Jolie Brooks, Kate Sanford, India Cooke, Ruby, Julius and Camille Prescott, and many, many more. These artists and teachers and the large cadre of students over the years are confident that even greater opportunities lie ahead. For DUSS, it is clear that 40 years is just the beginning.
 

The public may join in DUSS’ anniversary celebrations on April 28 as the Borromeo String Quartet joins the DUSS Youth Orchestra for Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, the second movement of Brahms’ Double Concerto, with violinist Nicholas Kitchen and cellist Yeesun Kim, the second movement of Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, with soloists Will Clark, and the premiere of Bill Robinson’s Concerto for Piano, Timpani and Chamber Orchestra. A reception will follow the 7:00 p.m. performance in Baldwin Auditorium on Duke’s East Campus. Admission is free, but contributions to support DUSS will be gratefully accepted. Details are in CVNC’s Triangle calendar.

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Jordan High School Wins Regional Chorus Trophy

 

Jordansound, the women’s vocal ensemble at Durham’s C.E. Jordan High School, is the winner of the 2007 Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy. The group’s director is Joseph Lupton.
 

Established in 2004, the award is made each spring to a school choir in Wake, Durham, Orange or Chatham county. The purpose is to encourage and promote choral singing in the public schools, and to recognize the achievements of local youth ensembles and music educators. Jordansound is the first all-female recipient of the honor.
 

An Advisory Board of educators, conductors, reviewers, radio program hosts, singers and choral enthusiasts evaluates written material and performances to select the winner. They focus on musical excellence and other accomplishments – such as the choir’s development, and its impact on members, the school and the community.
 

The Trophy, created by a North Carolina artist, is an inventive metal sculpture: choristers on a wood base, with plaques for 30 years of recipients. It was and commissioned by TriangleSings!, the regional choral website. Along with the Trophy, the chorus receives a $750 cash grant, to be used by the director for the choir, its members or the school’s choral music department.
 

Jordansound also will receive a credit for purchase of music from Hinshaw Music Company, and each member will have a commemorative T-shirt. Recording engineer and photographer Mark Manring is donating a professional recording to the choir, which will participate in a Master Class by a distinguished conductor later in the year. In addition, Jordansound will be featured on the 8:00-9:00 a.m. portion of “Great Sacred Music” on WCPE-FM, on a Sunday morning in late April or early May.
 

In 2004, the Durham School of the Arts Chorale, led by Scott Hill, became the first Triangle Youth Chorus Trophy recipient. The Sandpipers of Jesse O. Sanderson High School, Raleigh, directed by Marshall E. Butler Jr., won in 2005. Last year the honor went to Raleigh’s Chamber Choir of Enloe High School, directed by Ann L. Huff.
 

This year’s competition is sponsored by TriangleSings!, Hinshaw Music Company, Walton Mu-sic Corporation, Alice and Lance Buhl Fund of Triangle Community Foundation, Lisa and Tom McIver, Burrage Music Company, and Sally K. Albrecht and Jay Althouse.
 

The Advisory Board members are: Lance Buhl, Buhl & Associates; Beverley Francis, Triangle Community Foundation; Scott Hill, Durham Children’s Choir; Ken Hoover, WCPE “Great Sacred Music”; John Lambert, Classical Voice of North Carolina (on leave spring 2007, with Marshall Butler substituting); Lisa McIver, Brightleaf Music Workshop; Fran Page, Capital City Girls Choir/Meredith College; Carol Robbins, TriangleSings!/Youth Pro Musica Fund; Alfred Sturgis, North Carolina Master Chorale/N.C. State University. As director of the winning chorus in 2006, Ann Huff joined the board for the current year.
 

Part of a choral department that includes three ensembles and 200 singers, Jordansound stud-ies and sings a broad repertoire, including classical compositions and Broadway musicals. Joe Lupton became director in 1995. This year members, along with the other chorus classes, per-formed for the Lighting of the Lucky Strike Water Tower at the American Tobacco Complex, Light Up Durham, the University Mall Sounds of the Season and for students at Parkwood Ele-mentary School. Jordansound received a Superior rating at the Large Choral Festival held at Meredith College last month, with a perfect score of 100 from two judges and 99 from the other.
 

For further information, contact Carol Robbins (919/545-0343 or youthpromusica@aol.com) or Joe Lupton (919/560-3912 or joseph.lupton@dpsnc.net).
 

Note (4/24/07): For photos, click here.
 

(Copy provided by Triangle Sings.)

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TYBB Victorious, x 2!
 

April 15, 2007, Research Triangle Park, NC: The Triangle Youth Brass Band (TYBB) won the Youth Division and the newly formed Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble (TYBE) won the Youth Open Division of the North American Brass Band Association (NABBA) Championships. The competitions were hosted by the North American Brass Band Association on April 14th, 2007, in Louisville, KY. This is the first appearance for the newly formed TYBE and the fifth time the TYBB has received the First Place Banner and Trophy. TYBB also won in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Twenty-eight brass bands from around the country participated in 5 divisions. Each band performed a test piece required for its division along with other pieces to complete a short concert. The bands were judged by three internationally-known brass band musicians. The Triangle Youth Brass Band performed “A Swiss Festival Overture” by Phillip Sparke as its set piece and “Finale from Symphony No. 5” by Dmitri Shostakovich. The Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble performed “Little Suite for Brass” by Malcolm Arnold as its set piece and “The Seasons” by Philip Wilby. The Triangle Youth Brass Band was also represented in the Percussion Ensemble and Youth Solo and Ensemble competitions. The TYBB Percussion Ensemble, made up of Allison Melton, Kuntal Shaw, Logan McNeilly, Lucy Owen, Kyle May, David Freifield, Jonathan Vanderhorst and Emily Walukas won first place in the Youth Percussion contest. Justin Crawford (cornet) won Third place and Terri Williams (cornet) won First Place in the Youth Solo contest. The TYBB Brass Quintet, made up of Justin Crawford and Rachel Rimmer on cornets, Matt Dudley on tenor horn, Ted Oliver on euphonium and Josh Adams on Tuba, placed first in the Youth Ensemble competition.
 

The Triangle Youth Brass Band and Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble’s next concert will be on Saturday May 26 at 8:00 pm at Meymandi Concert Hall…. The concert will feature local rrumpeter Dennis DeJong.
 

The Triangle Youth Brass Band, located in Raleigh, NC, was formed in 1997 as an expansion of the Triangle Brass Band’s educational endeavors. The organization consists of two bands, the Triangle Youth Brass Band and the Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble, and nearly 80 of the Triangle’s most talented young musicians participate. The TYBB’s mission is to provide an opportunity for the finest area high school brass and percussion players to supplement their wind band experience by performing in a British-style brass band and to raise the level of brass playing in the area. As the program has flourished, so has its reputation. The Triangle Youth Brass Band often travels and performs outside the Triangle area of North Carolina. Recent tours have taken the band to the North American Brass Band Association Championships, where the band earned First Place Honors in the Youth Division in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The TYBB were featured performers at the Great American Brass Band Festival in 2003, visited Atlanta to perform with the Georgia Brass Band in 2005, and performed for the City of Greensboro’s Independence Day fireworks celebration in 2006. Tony Granados is in his seventh year as Director of the Youth Band and Paul Pietrowski is in his first year with the Triangle Youth Brass Ensemble.

For more information, call 919/469-2649.
 

(Copy provided by the TYBB.)

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Wesley Arnold Sweeps Brevard College Honors
 

April 18, 2007, Brevard NC: During annual award presentations at Brevard College on April 18, guitarist Wesley Arnold received three major awards in addition to performing on the traditional Honors Rectial. He was recognized for highest grade point average, Outstanding Theory Student, and the
campus-wide Outstanding Music Student. He performed Prelude No. 1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos on an evening concert shared with six other outstanding instrumental students and actors from the Department of Theater Studies. Arnold performed his Junior recital in February with works by de Narveaz, Bach, Sor, Tarrega, Jobim and Villa-Lobos. He will be a senior starting in thr fall term of 2007.
 

Also recognized during the same ceremonies was fellow Brevard College guitarist and Jazz Studies major Jeremy Smith. He received the award for Outstanding Ensemble Instrumentalist.
 

Both Arnold and Smith are students of the studio of Roger Allen Cope.
 

(Copy provided by Flat Rock Guitar.)