The energy inside Reynolds Industries Theater on October 25 was electric. Before a single note was played, the audience was laughing – drawn in by Morgan Freeman’s unmistakable voice as he recounted playful stories about his career with his friend and business partner Eric Meier, Pratt ’86. Then the lights dimmed, and the music began, ushering in a night that traced American sound from the Mississippi Delta to Durham, North Carolina.
“Returning to Duke University with the Symphonic Blues Experience felt like a homecoming,” Meier said. “There’s something profoundly moving about sharing the Mississippi Delta’s musical legacy at a place that shaped me personally and professionally.”
Eric Meier (’86)
“Returning to Duke University with the Symphonic Blues Experience felt like a homecoming,” Meier said. “There’s something profoundly moving about sharing the Mississippi Delta’s musical legacy at a place that shaped me personally and professionally.”
For Meier, who co-owns the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi with Freeman and Howard Stovall, the connection between the Delta and Duke runs deep. “Collaborating with the local chamber orchestra, together with our blues artists from Ground Zero, created a bridge linking the heart of Mississippi to Durham—a connection that was both musical and personal,” he said.
Earlier that day, Freeman and Meier joined the inaugural Duke Arts Board of Advisors meeting for a conversation with Duke President Vincent Price and Vice Provost for the Arts Deborah Rutter. The group discussed the power of the arts to shape and empower community, and to build opportunities and cultural understanding –themes that echoed throughout the evening’s performance.
Themes of arts and community reverberated into the performance itself. The Mississippi-based blues performers, including Anthony “Big A” Sherrod, Keith Johnson, Adrienne “Lady Adrena” Ervin, and others, shared the stage with a chamber orchestra assembled by Duke’s John Brown, Director of the Jazz Program and former Vice Provost for the Arts. Every member of the orchestra was North Carolina-based. “These are all North Carolina-anchored musicians,” Brown said. “The talent we needed was right here.”
The orchestra was conducted by Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, Chair of Duke’s Department of Music and a tireless champion of community-driven performance initiatives. “What fascinated me most,” she said, “was that we didn’t just merge the music—we merged the people.”
“What fascinated me most,” she said, “was that we didn’t just merge the music—we merged the people.”
Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, Duke Department of Music chair
The ensemble rehearsed in sections—strings in the morning, winds in the afternoon, the blues band in the evening. “Each group approached rehearsal differently, shaped by their traditions,” she explained. “But when we brought everyone together on Saturday, those boundaries melted away—it felt like we truly became one: the Symphonic Blues Experience.”
Mösenbichler-Bryant credits the blues musicians for anchoring that unity. “Mark Yacovone on keys and Lee Williams on drums joined us for every rehearsal,” she said. “They set the pulse, and that was the heartbeat the orchestra could lock into.” By the performance day, she said, “you could feel the groove connecting everyone.”
There was one moment she’ll never forget: “In one of the film sequences, Morgan Freeman sings. The first time I heard it and guided the orchestra through it—that was a true goosebump moment.”
The program led audiences through a sweeping tour of blues history, from Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was the Night to Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home to Me, and hinted at its bright future with two original works by Big A Sherrod, a riveting performer who was raised in Mississippi’s blues traditions. Behind the musicians, a film projected archival footage, scenes from the Delta, and new vignettes that traced how the blues continues to evolve over time.
Freeman’s voice wove it all together. “The blues is more than a sound—it’s proof of survival,” he narrates in the program. “It’s the story of people who turned hardship into something powerful… the heartbeat of a culture that refused to be forgotten”
For Mösenbichler-Bryant, that heartbeat resonates beyond the theater. As artistic director and conductor of the Durham Medical Orchestra, she’s long viewed music as a form of community care. “I think of the concert hall as a safe space for emotions—a place to feel, to process, and to heal through music,” she said. “Projects like Symphonic Blues invite reflection, dialogue, and connection. That’s what makes music so powerful.”
“I think of the concert hall as a safe space for emotions—a place to feel, to process, and to heal through music. Projects like Symphonic Blues invite reflection, dialogue, and connection. That’s what makes music so powerful.”
Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant, Duke Department of Music chair
For Meier, too, the night encapsulated what Duke taught him: that creativity often happens in the spaces between disciplines. “My engineering education laid the foundation for a creative, problem-solving approach,” he said. “Music creation and production, like engineering, draw on teamwork, innovation, and a drive to build something from the ground up.”
At the Board of Advisors meeting, he and Freeman reflected on how that ethos continues to shape Duke. “It reaffirmed the importance of championing the arts as a force for social impact and inclusion,” Meier said. Duke has an opportunity to “blend the lines between artistic disciplines and foster meaningful collaborations—not just within campus, but across regional and cultural boundaries.”
“Duke has an opportunity to blend the lines between artistic disciplines and foster meaningful collaborations—not just within campus, but across regional and cultural boundaries.”
Eric Meier (’86)
At the end of the performance, the crowd rose to its feet, applauding and dancing as musicians weaved their way through the aisles.
“What stood out most,” Meier said, “was the genuine sense of unity. The audience, musicians, and university all came together across backgrounds and generations, drawn by the power and story of the blues.”
That story, born in the Delta and carried by voices like Freeman’s, now echoes through Durham as a reminder that art, in all its forms, connects us to one another.
