Sufjan Stevens, Moses Sumney Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham Thursday, April 7, 2015 “Can I tell you a secret?” Moses Sumney cooed near the middle of an all-too-brief opening set on Thursday night in Durham. “My wings are made of plastic.” Accompanying himself with finger-snaps and guitar strums, it was a disclosure that stood for […]
William Robin
Bio: William Robin is a freelance writer and graduate student in musicology at UNC-Chapel Hill. He lives in Carrboro.Twitter: http://twitter.com/seatedovation
Posted inMusic
Live: At Duke, a day of sacred and secular new music
For those local classical music fans who prefer to listen to music by the still-living rather than the long-dead, April is not so cruel. Of late, we’ve had Brooklyn Rider deliver vivid new work by composers Evan Ziporyn and Colin Jacobsen; an enlightening residency from Alexander Goehr, the elder statesman of British modernism; and an […]
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A festival explores ancient music played on ancient instruments, plus new possibilities
N.C. HIP Music Festival Jan. 22–Feb. 7 Durham and Chapel Hill mallarmemusic.org It begins with a farewell, William Cornysh’s stark 15th-century goodbye “Adieu mes amours,” and ends with a prayerchoral vespers, from 17th-century Rome. It sprawls across 14 days, skipping through churches and concert halls across Durham and Chapel Hill. And it spans 800 years, […]
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Musicians>audience members: Polyorchard’s first anniversary concert
Polyorchard, Baby Copperhead, Tegucigalpan Nightlight Thursday, Dec. 19 “There’s more of us than you,” announced bassist David Menestres. His band began to play. Performances by the improvisation collective Polyorchard typically have a bit more balance between audience members and musicians; at any of their Nightlight shows during the past year, there’ve been maybe four musicians […]
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In yMusic, indie rock meets classical, with satisfying results
yMusic Casbah, presented by Duke Performances Tuesday, Nov. 5, 8 p.m. $10–$15 A techno-utopia surrounds classical music today: The composers are tweeting! The orchestras are flash mobbing! Presumably, if we all use the Internet enough, the future of the form is assured. So when the ensemble yMusic launched a stylish Kickstarter campaign for its debut […]
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Caroline Shaw, a North Carolina native not looking to be called a composer, wins music’s Pulitzer
In 2010, musician Caroline Shaw tossed off a tease of a new idea she was exploring. “As for Bach solo violin partitas in particular,” she wrote on her blog, “I’m working on a couple of ideas with these myself, over the summer. They’re pretty dorky, but fun little side projects. To be continued.” Continued, indeed: […]