In this special Friday-afternoon conversation at Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center, award-winning choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland and American Ballet Theatre Studio Company Artistic Director Sascha Radetsky will discuss their professional trajectories, ...

Acclaimed dancer and choreographer Camille A. Brown joins Nicole Oxendine (Empower Dance Studio) for a conversation on dance, community development, and Brown’s exploration of African-American identity through movement. Thursday, February ...

Tony Award-winning playwright and singer Stew sits down with Talya Klein (Duke Theater Studies) for a lunchtime conversation spanning his career, influences, and current project, ‘Notes of a Native Song’ ...

In this free lunchtime talk at The Pinhook in downtown Durham, trailblazing pianist, composer, bandleader, and 2010 MacArthur fellow Jason Moran sits down with Durham-based spoken word artist Dasan Ahanu ...

Brooklyn-based rock band Habibi has made a name for itself through an infectious juxtaposition of surf pop and riff-heavy punk. In this free lunchtime conversation at The Pinhook in downtown ...

South African classical guitarist Derek Gripper — known for transcribing the intricate works of Malian kora master Toumani Diabaté for six-string guitar — kicks off Duke Performances’ second annual Black ...

Iconic Muslim-American hip-hop artist Brother Ali sits down with Joseph Winters (Duke Divinity School) for a free public conversation touching on Brother Ali’s music, career, and activism in post-9/11 America. ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

Company members from Camille A. Brown & Dancers — the Bessie Award-winning, New York City-based dance company known for inventive multidisciplinary dance works exploring race, culture, and identity — will offer a beginning-level ...

Company members from Camille A. Brown & Dancers — the Bessie Award-winning, New York City-based dance company known for inventive multidisciplinary dance works exploring race, culture, and identity — will offer an advanced ...

Juel D. Lane, company dancer with Camille A. Brown & Dancers — the Bessie Award-winning, New York City-based dance company known for inventive multidisciplinary dance works exploring race, culture, and identity — will ...

Camille A. Brown & Dancers company members will offer a free and open-to-the-public social dance workshop intended for self-identifying girls and women. Black Girl Spectrum is a Camille A. Brown & Dancers ...

Camille A. Brown & Dancers company members Maleek Washington, Timothy Edwards, and Juel D. Lane will offer a free and open-to-the-public social dance workshop intended for self-identifying boys and men. ...

The members of JACK Quartet lead a master class in Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center, coaching student musicians on classic works for string quartet. Wednesday, February 20, 7 PM Rubenstein Arts Center Lounge, ...

Elizabeth Ferrell, instructor with American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, will offer a master class in advanced ballet technique. All community dancers ages 16 and up who train at an advanced/pre-professional ...

The members of Calidore String Quartet lead a chamber music master class with Duke student ensembles in Baldwin Auditorium at 12 PM on Sunday, December 2. Free and open to ...

Petrusjka Broholm, Ballet Mistress for American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School instructor as well as former soloist with the Royal Danish Ballet, will offer a master ...

Franco De Vita, former Artistic Director for American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, will offer a master class in advanced ballet technique. All community dancers ages 16 and up ...

Scholar, artist, and activist Su’ad Abdul Khabeer (University of Michigan) reflects in this evening talk at the John Hope Franklin Center on how intersecting ideas of Muslimness and Blackness both ...

Professor and Emmy-nominated producer Natalie Bullock Brown moderates this special roundtable discussion featuring four of the headlining artists from Duke Performances’ In the Jazz Tradition series: Jazzmeia Horn, Catherine Russell, ...

Pavithra Reddy of Nrityagram Dance Ensemble (southern India), one of the world’s leading dance companies, is joined by Thaji Dias of Chitrasena Dance Company (Sri Lanka) for a Duke student ...

Due to the potential impacts of severe weather on the region, we have opted to cancel Jason Moran’s Arts & Context conversation on Friday, September 14 at The Pinhook. We ...

In this free lunchtime talk at The Pinhook in downtown Durham, renowned saxophonist, bandleader, and Durham resident Branford Marsalis joins Duke Performances executive director Aaron Greenwald for a conversation about ...

The New York Times recently made the astonishing assertion that countertenor and Durham native Anthony Roth Costanzo “exists to transform opera.” On the afternoon of his performance with the acclaimed ...

Acclaimed rapper and producer Oddisee sits down with Durham videographer Saleem Reshamwala (aka KidEthnic) for a free public conversation touching on Oddisee’s music, career, and how his Sudanese-American heritage has ...

In a special Friday-evening conversation, celebrated classical pianist and seven-time GRAMMY winner Emanuel Ax discusses his remarkable life, career, and collaborations. Moderated by Anthony Kelley (Department of Music). Friday, October ...

Maverick alto saxophonist Steve Coleman joins Mark Anthony Neal (Chair, African and African American Studies) for a wide-ranging discussion touching on his career, influences, and influential approach to creation and ...

Acclaimed dancer and choreographer Camille A. Brown sits down with Duke Performances Community Engagement Coordinator Michaela Dwyer for a conversation about Brown’s visionary trilogy on African American identity, which Duke ...

Pavithra Reddy of Nrityagram Dance Ensemble (southern India), one of the world’s leading dance companies, is joined by Thaji Dias of Chitrasena Dance Company (Sri Lanka) for a workshop on ...

Jason Moran is one of modern music’s most vital forces. Through a series of ambitious projects meant to bring jazz to a wider audience — such as the 2007 Duke ...

The acclaimed Nrityagram Dance Ensemble of southern India is one of the world’s great dance companies. Living communally in a women’s village devoted to dance — the better to meld ...

Will Oldham is not only a writer of great songs; he is a student of them. “When I heard the other kids around the campfire singing ‘Casey Jones,’ ‘Cortez the ...

The Camille A. Brown Trilogy Package, which provides best available reserved seats in Reynolds Industries Theater to Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ trilogy, including presentations of ink, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, and Mr. TOL ...

In little more than a decade, New York’s JACK Quartet has become one of the world’s most important catalysts for and purveyors of new music. Dubbed “master musicians” by The ...

The Camille A. Brown Trilogy Package, which provides best available reserved seats in Reynolds Industries Theater to Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ trilogy, including presentations of ink, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, and Mr. TOL ...

In less than a decade, the bold and talented Chicago collective Manual Cinema has become a theatrical powerhouse with its mesmerizing shadow-puppet spectacles. Blending techniques from animation and film and ...

Nearly forty years passed before the Tony Award-winning playwright and singer Stew realized that James Baldwin had changed his life. As a Los Angeles teenager, Stew loved Baldwin’s Go Tell ...

The Camille A. Brown Trilogy Package, which provides best available reserved seats in Reynolds Industries Theater to Camille A. Brown & Dancers’ trilogy, including presentations of ink, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, and Mr. TOL ...

In less than a decade, the bold and talented Chicago collective Manual Cinema has become a theatrical powerhouse with mesmerizing shadow-puppet spectacles. Blending techniques from animation and film and performing ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

Garage rock delivered in Farsi? That’s what Brooklyn band Habibi plays on Cardamom Garden, its delightful 2018 album. At the start of its finale, singer Rahill Jamalifard launches into a ...

The ‘Black Atlantic’ Package, which provides access to all ‘Black Atlantic’ shows at Motorco and best available reserved seats in Baldwin Auditorium, including performances by Derek Gripper, Fatoumata Diawara, Noura Mint ...

In Durham, two of the world’s most enterprising and important new-music ensembles convene for a rare double-bill. The JACK Quartet, now at the end of a two-year Duke Performances residency, ...

Jason Moran is one of modern music’s most vital forces. Through a series of ambitious projects meant to bring jazz to a wider audience — such as the 2007 Duke ...

In February 2018, Duke Performances unveiled an audacious three-year collaboration with American Ballet Theatre (ABT), one of the world’s leading classical ballet companies. Through its expansive programming, international engagements, and ...

November 27, 2018: Duke Performances regrets to announce that Tal National’s spring North American tour, including their engagement at Duke Performances scheduled for Friday, March 29, 2019 during the Black ...

Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, or the incisive rapper and elegant producer Oddisee, grew up in two worlds. The son of an African-American mother and a Sudanese father, he spent his ...

Will Oldham is one of modern music’s most focused and astute singers. The crevices and knots, peaks and valleys of his voice are deeply suggestive, giving listeners clues that the ...

For twenty-five years, Will Oldham has written rangy rock tunes, hushed folk confessionals, charming country waltzes, and stormy piano ballads, making use of specific guises to suit each tune. He’s ...

From his complicated backstory to his compelling rhymes, Brother Ali is a rapper without a rival. Albino and legally blind, he struggled to find peers in the midwestern states where ...

Amir ElSaffar is one of the United States’ most inventive musicians. With his Two Rivers Ensemble, he plays trumpet, layering Middle Eastern melodies with jazz improvisation in search of tarab, ...

Peter Phillips, celebrated conductor and founder of The Tallis Scholars, coaches the singers of the Duke University Chorale, directed by Rodney Wynkoop, in a choral music master class in Bone ...

Join acclaimed choreographer and Mark Morris alum John Heginbotham (Dance Heginbotham) for a dance class designed to benefit those with Parkinson’s disease. The class is offered in collaboration with American ...

SOLD OUT! Join Maira Kalman and John Heginbotham for an hour of conversation modeled on Maira’s favorite morning ritual: the reading of obituaries over coffee. Coffee and cake provided by ...

In this lunchtime discussion — and official kickoff to Duke Performances’ weeklong Black Atlantic festival — noted musicologists Ned Sublette (Afropop Worldwide) and Michael Veal (Yale) discuss the impact of ...

Durham-based dance instructor Jose Paredes will lead a Bachata dance class, beginning at 7 PM, prior to Joan Soriano’s performance at Motorco Music Hall on Monday, March 26. This event ...

Ned Sublette (Afropop Worldwide) and Laurent Dubois (Duke) co-moderate this discussion on the history of musical and cultural exchange between the two nations of Hispaniola, featuring Black Atlantic festival artists ...

Join celebrated Venezuelan singer Betsayda Machado and her drum-and-vocal ensemble La Parranda El Clavo for an intimate demonstration and conversation about the traditions that have shaped their music. The event ...

Acclaimed classical pianist Shai Wosner leads a piano master class in Baldwin Auditorium with Duke student musicians. Friday, February 23, 5 PM Baldwin Auditorium, Duke East Campus Free and open ...

The members of JACK Quartet lead their second chamber music master class of the 2017/2018 season, coaching Duke student musicians on works by Dvořák and Smetana. Tuesday, February 13, 5 PM ...

Percussionist Rami El-Aasser and other members of Alsarah and The Nubatones join Duke instructor Bradley Simmons and Duke students for a percussion workshop. Free and open to the public. Tuesday, ...

In this evening talk at Beyù Caffè in downtown Durham, Sudanese-born singer Alsarah discusses her artistic process and journey, which began as a double refugee — first from conflict in ...

In this wide-ranging talk at Beyù Caffè in downtown Durham, legendary Los Angeles-based hip-hop artist Murs discusses his career, influences, and record-setting 26-hour rap that landed him in the Guinness ...

The members of JACK Quartet lead a chamber music master class with Duke student ensembles in Baldwin Auditorium at 7 PM on Tuesday, December 5. Tuesday, December 5, 7 PM ...

Moderated by former New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff, MONK@100 artists reflect on the substantial musical legacies of the late Geri Allen (who was slated to appear in MONK@100) and ...

In this wide-ranging talk, acclaimed Queens-based hip-hop artist Pharoahe Monch discusses his career, musical influences, and struggle with depression — a theme whose broader social and political implications he explored on ...

Moderated by former New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff, MONK@100 artists reflect on the substantial musical legacies of the late Geri Allen (who was slated to appear in MONK@100) and ...

Simone Dinnerstein leads a piano master class in Baldwin Auditorium with Duke student musicians at 4 PM on Tuesday, October 3. Tuesday, October 3, 4-5:30 PM Baldwin Auditorium, Duke East ...

Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein and choreographer Pam Tanowitz discuss their careers and collaboration in the week leading up to the world premiere of New Work for Goldberg Variations in Duke’s Reynolds Industries ...

Nationally renowned educational policy experts Helen “Sunny” Ladd and Thomas Nechyba (both of Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Department of Economics) discuss the school choice debate in North ...

A free public conversation with Louis Michot (Lost Bayou Ramblers) and Ronen Givony (Wordless Music) about the Oscar-nominated 2012 film Beasts of the Southern Wild, moderated by filmmaker and Duke ...

As part of Duke Performances’ 10-day celebration of the music and legacy of Thelonious Monk, pianist and co-curator Ethan Iverson will host a pair of late-night jam sessions at Durham ...

The Ciompi Quartet conclude their celebration of fifty years in residence at Duke University by welcoming former students back to campus — and to the stage — for a Duke ...

Durham Cajun dance instructors Elvis Latiolais and Dianne Freund lead a free Cajun dance class for ticketholders an hour prior to Louisiana-based Lost Bayou Ramblers’ performance at the Pinhook in ...

When pianist Simone Dinnerstein and choreographer Pam Tanowitz began discussing an evening-length dance collaboration in 2015, they faced an obvious question: What would they perform? Bach was a clear choice for Dinnerstein, who became a sudden classical star in 2007 with her self-financed interpretation of the “Goldberg” Variations.

Beasts of the Southern Wild — unequal parts fairy tale and adventure drama — is a Cinderella story of the film world.

The Civilians, Duke Performances Artists-in-Residence and practitioners of investigative theater, approach their work as researchers of the national consciousness.

The JACK Quartet has become one of the most enterprising and energized new music powerhouses in the world in just a decade.

On Saturday night, Henry steps onto the stage of Baldwin Auditorium for a fifty-seventh birthday concert, playing every song from his new album, Thrum, as well as other tunes from his expansive songbook.

On Friday evening, Henry gives a talk about the alchemical process of making records, “Is It Rolling, Bob?,” at Durham’s Sound Pure Studios.

Henry begins with a free Thursday evening talk at the Nasher Museum of Art, called “Take Me to The River,” about the ephemeral, mystical nature of artistic predecessors.

In February 2016, a quarter-century after his debut with the pivotal hip-hop duo Organized Konfusion, Queens emcee Pharoahe Monch took a chance, stepping onstage at New York’s Ecstatic Music Festival with Brooklyn’s uproarious PitchBlak Brass Band.

Famously dubbed “the high priests of brass” by Newsweek, the American Brass Quintet has built a world of its own during the last sixty years, sculpting new repertoire and setting artistic standards for modern classical brass ensemble.

Merely programming the four violin sonatas of American original Charles Ives would not have been enough for Jeremy Denk, the inquisitive and exploratory pianist, writer, and musical collaborator. But that is what he and beguiling, intuitive violinist Stefan Jackiw do in the simply titled program Ives Violin Sonatas.

The rapper Murs and the producer 9th Wonder were raised on different coasts: Murs is a product of South Central Los Angeles, a background that’s informed every aspect of his lyrics, from streetwise storytelling to the bits of Spanish he’s long woven into his lines

Alsarah’s circuitous journey toward stardom began as a double refugee — first from conflict in her native Sudan, then from civil war in neighboring Yemen. After arriving in New York in the mid-1990s, Alsarah turned to music as a living link to her homeland, both as an ethnomusicologist and a singer with a velvety voice and socially conscious lyrics.

The members of the JACK Quartet have been called “superheroes of the new music world” (The Boston Globe) and the “next-generation counterpart” to the benchmark Arditti (The Guardian).

The Lost Bayou Ramblers begin Duke Performances’ 2017/18 season with an exclamation mark.

In Conversation: Eric Whitacre Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, Assistant Professor of Music at Duke and Director of the Duke University Wind Symphony, speaks with internationally celebrated choral composer and conductor Eric Whitacre about his ...

LUNCH CONVERSATION WITH MALPASO DANCE COMPANY Jocelyn Olcott, Associate Professor of History at Duke University, speaks with Havana-based Malpaso Dance Company founders Osnel Delgado, Dailedys Carrazana, and Fernando Sáez and dancers about the company’s work and ...

**TWO PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS WITH GROUNDBREAKING HIP-HOP ARTIST TALIB KWELI** TALKING MUSIC: TALIB KWELI & 9TH WONDER GRAMMY-winning producer, DJ, and Duke professor 9th Wonder leads this discussion with groundbreaking Brooklyn-based hip-hop artist ...

A Conversation with Branford Marsalis & Wayne Winborne The evening prior to the start of a two-night stand at Baldwin Auditorium with pianist Joey Calderazzo, jazz saxophonist and educator Branford ...

Exploring Ives’ Sonata: A Conversation With Jeremy Denk The evening before his performance, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk will speak with Philip Rupprecht, Chair of the Music Department at Duke University, ...

**TWO PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS EXPLORING GERALD CLAYTON’S PIEDMONT BLUES** GERALD CLAYTON’S PIEDMONT BLUES: HONORING A DURHAM TRADITION Celebrated jazz musician Gerald Clayton, award-winning theater director Christopher McElroen, and acclaimed vocalist and Piedmont native René Marie discuss the ...

A CONVERSATION WITH SHARA NOVA at Beyù Caffè Shara Nova (formerly Shara Worden), Detroit-based composer and guitarist, is the protean powerhouse behind the band My Brightest Diamond, “moving effortlessly between the worlds of indie rock ...

Piano Master Class The day following his Piano Recital Series performance, Sergei Babayan will lead a piano master class with Duke student musicians in Bone Hall on the lower level ...

ACCUMULATIONS: Exploring the Legacies of Trisha Brown Saturday, October 29, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM Nasher Museum of Art Auditorium, 2001 Campus Drive, Durham Free & open to the public Join ...

Ian Bostridge Book Talk The celebrated English tenor Ian Bostridge will talk about his most recent book, Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (Faber 2014/Knopf 2015). This session will be ...

Chamber Music Master Class The afternoon of their Chamber Arts Series performance, the Belcea Quartet will lead a chamber music master class with Duke student musicians in Baldwin Auditorium. Saturday, October ...

MartyrLoserKing: A Conversation with Saul Williams & Mark Anthony Neal Iconic spoken word artist Saul Williams will speak with Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University, about Williams’ ...

The Dover Quartet shot to prominence after taking first prize at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Chicago Tribune hails their “expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling, ...

Conrad Tao will read new works for piano by Duke graduate composers Eren Gümrükçüoglu and Sid Richardson. Conrad Tao began his musical career as a wunderkind. As a pre-teenager he appeared as ...

Talking Music: A Conversation with Kassé Mady Diabaté Duke Professor Laurent Dubois, a distinguished historian of the Black Atlantic and author of the recently released book The Banjo: America’s African Instrument, ...

Cellist Paul Watkins of the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet will hold a chamber music master class with Duke student musicians. The Emerson String Quartet have been lauded as “the one indispensible quartet” (Newsday). In their forty-year ...

A Conversation with Wu Man & Jennifer Chang A conversation with Wu Man and Jennifer Chang, Chapel Hill-based gu zheng musician and educator, on Wu Man’s career, featuring a pipa demonstration by Wu Man ...

Talking Music: A Conversation with Edgar Meyer Acclaimed bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, praised by The New Yorker as “the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled history of his instrument,” arrives in Durham ...

The Ciompi Quartet conclude their celebration of fifty years in residence at Duke University by welcoming former students back to campus — and to the stage — for a Duke ...

HIP-HOP & THE REVOLUTION: A CONVERSATION ON HIP-HOP & GLOBAL ACTIVISM WITH BLITZ THE AMBASSADOR & ANGEL DOZIER Ghanaian-born, Brooklyn-based rapper Blitz the Ambassador will speak with Angel Dozier, director ...

TALKING DANCE: A CONVERSATION WITH KYLE ABRAHAM AND JODEE NIMERICHTER Kyle Abraham, MacArthur Award winner and artistic director of Abraham.In.Motion, will speak with Jodee Nimerichter, Director of the American Dance ...

Artist-in-Residence Events: Fazıl Say • Fazıl Say: Music & Culture in Turkey • Turkish pianist and composer Fazıl Say speaks with Erdağ Göknar, Director of the Duke Middle East Studies Center, about music ...

Artist-in-Residence Events: Jennifer Koh • Jennifer Koh performs Beethoven Violin Concerto as a featured guest of the Duke Symphony Orchestra •  Wednesday, March 2, 8 PM Baldwin Auditorium Free & open ...

In 2010, seven of New York City’s most sought-after and versatile instrumentalists connected over a shared love for Stravinsky’s magnificent L’Histoire du Soldat, and Deviant Septet was born. Scored for ...

The GRAMMY-winning Parker Quartet brings “pinpoint precision and a spectacular sense of urgency” (Boston Globe) to their broad repertoire and multitude of musical collaborations. Recently appointed Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University’s ...

**TWO PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS WITH GROUNDBREAKING HIP-HOP ARTIST TALIB KWELI** TALKING MUSIC: TALIB KWELI & 9TH WONDER GRAMMY-winning producer, DJ, and Duke professor 9th Wonder leads this discussion with groundbreaking Brooklyn-based hip-hop artist ...

In light of impending inclement weather, Duke Performances has cancelled the presentation of Rez Abbasi Invocation feat. Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa on Friday, January 22. We are planning to reschedule ...

Over the course of twenty years, the Brentano String Quartet have built a broad discography encompassing the central European canon and new music alike, earning a reputation as one of ...