This preview has been provided by the Duke University Department of Music, Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts and Sarah P. Duke Gardens.
The Duke University Department of Music, Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts and Sarah P. Duke Gardens are pleased to announce the inauguration of Ciompi Quartet Presents, a three-part summer chamber music series in Duke Gardens curated and presented by members of the Ciompi Quartet.
Concerts will take place on three Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm in Kirby Horton Hall at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Each concert will feature one or more members of the Ciompi Quartet joined by acclaimed guest artists.
“We hope these programs will satisfy a thirst for classical music during the hot days of summer,” says Ciompi violist Jonathan Bagg. “Each concert is strikingly different and features some of the best guest artists you’ll hear all year long, in repertoire ranging from Bach through Beethoven, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, to stunning contemporary works of Toru Takemitsu and John Tavener. We’re very excited to present these special concerts to our community of music lovers in Kirby Horton Hall, an intimate and acoustically fine venue.”
On June 5, violinist Eric Pritchard is joined by fellow Ciompi Quartet member Jonathan Bagg, viola, and North Carolina Symphony principal cellist Bonnie Thron in Bach’s masterwork, the Goldberg Variations, an exciting, famously virtuosic transcription for string trio.
On July 10, Jonathan Bagg presents “Dancing in the Wind,” a program for flute, viola, harp and soprano. John Tavener’ s gorgeous To a Child Dancing in the Wind features soprano Ilana Davidson; Toru Takemitsu’s And Then I Knew T’was Wind and James Patterson’s Embracing the Wind, featuring Laura Gilbert, flute, and Stacey Shames, harp, complete this lovely summer’s eve.
The series concludes on August 14 when Ciompi cellist Fred Raimi is joined by UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members Richard Luby, violin, and Clara Yang, piano, in a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in e-minor, Op. 67, No. 2, Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op. 30, No. 1, and Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 119.
Individual tickets for each performance are $20 and subscription packages to all three concerts for $50. Tickets are currently on sale at the Duke University Box Office, 919-684-4444 or www.tickets.duke.edu. For more information, visit events.duke.edu/ciompipresents.
About the Ciompi Quartet
The Ciompi Quartet was founded at Duke University in 1965 by the renowned Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi. All its members are professors at Duke and play a leading role in the cultural life of the university and community, in addition to traveling widely throughout the year for performances.
In a career that includes many hundreds of concerts and spans five continents, the Ciompi Quartet has developed a reputation for performances of real intelligence and musical sophistication, and for a warm, unified sound that is enhanced by each player’s strong individual voice. With a maturity and insight born of wide experience, the Ciompi Quartet projects the heart and soul of the music, in a repertoire that ranges from well-known masterpieces to works by today’s most communicative composers.
Learn more about the Ciompi on their website, ciompi.org.
