Duke Gardens: Summer Concerts

Duke Performances Summer Series Highlights Local and World-Class Chamber Music

and Indie-Rock

The best of chamber music and North Carolina raised independent rock-n-roll will be presented this summer in Duke Performances’ 2009 summer series, Music in the Gardens: Listening Locally. With performances staged at Duke Gardens, the summer series is becoming a popular summer tradition with concerts that focus on the best forward-thinking art from the state. The season begins Wednesday, May 20, and runs every Wednesday from May 20 through July 29. Concerts begin at 7 p.m.

North Carolina’s rich tradition of exceptional independent rock is represented this summer with a mix of music scene perennials and up-and-coming artists making waves with the national press.

Three solo artists—two appearing with back-up bands—are featured this summer. The essential Eric Bachmann takes the stage with just his guitar to deliver songs, according to No Depression, sounding like “a troubadour telling tales of isolation and loneliness by a campfire.”

Eric Bachmann

Thad Cockrell, a musician in the old-school country tradition, leads his band through songs that map the uneasy territory between belief and seduction.

Thad Cockrell

Alina Simone, whose latest album of songs by Russian punk-folk singer Yanka Dyagileva NPR calls “utterly haunting,” presents an evening of her spare and compelling melodies.

Alina Simone

The Dex Romweber Duo—led by the front-man for the late, great surf-rockabilly band Flat Duo Jets—will bring his “psycho-surf-rockabilly-garage-punk” to the Gardens. In his new band, Romweber is joined by his sister Sara on drums to create tunes that spark and kick with full-throated rock-n-roll attitude.

Dex Romweber Duo

Duke Performances also features several up-and-coming local bands that are already receiving national attention: Megafaun is a Raleigh-based trio whose sprawling mix of folk, pop, and electronics spreads out like wisteria in the springtime, while The Love Language makes tunes about heartbreak that rattle with youthful abandon.

Megafaun

The Love Language

Raleigh’s The Rosebuds present a modern-take on catchy, pop-edged rock that, according to Pitchfork, exudes quality. The pioneering godfathers of jangle-pop—Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple—will close out the summer series with work from their latest project.

Holsapple & Stamey

The Rosebuds

Also this summer, Duke’s own Ciompi Quartet, performing twice during the series, will be joined for an evening by Emory University’s resident quartet the Vega String Quartet in the Nelson Music Room. The Vega Quartet is one of the U.S.’s best young chamber ensembles. The New York Times calls the quartet an “excellent ensemble" with "crisp, clear precision.” Together, the Ciompi and Vega quartets will perform a program of work by Haydn and Mendelssohn and present the world premiere of a new work by composer John Anthony Lennon.

The Vega String Quartet

Durham based and nationally praised, the Mallarme Chamber Players join up with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra to present an evening of music that includes Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E major.

Brussels Chamber Orchestra

The concerts begin May 20, end July 29, and run on Wednesdays in between. General admission is $10, Duke employee tickets are $5, and Duke students and children 12 and under get in for free. Each venue is handicap accessible. Parking at Duke Gardens is free after 5 p.m. Food and drink will be permitted at the outdoor venues.

Beverages, including beer and wine, will be available for purchase at the concerts. Performances will take place rain or shine. Outdoor concerts are held on the lawn behind the Doris Duke Center at Duke Gardens.

Support for Music in the Gardens is provided by Duke Summer Session, Duke Continuing Studies, and Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Full schedule below:

May 20 - Ciompi Quartet with soprano Sandra Cotton – Kirby Horton Hall, Duke Gardens

May 27 - Ciompi Quartet with Vega String Quartet and oboeist Joe Robinson – Nelson Music Room, East Building, East Campus

June 3 - Thad Cockrell – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

June 10 - The Rosebuds – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

June 17 - Megafaun – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

June 24 - Alina Simone – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

July 1 - Dex Romweber Duo – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

July 8 - Mallarme Chamber Players with Brussels Chamber Orchestra – Kirby Horton Hall, Duke Gardens

July 15 - The Love Language – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

July 22 - Eric Bachmann – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

July 29 - Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey – Outdoors at Duke Gardens

FOR TICKETS: visit dukeperformances.org or call 919-684-4444.