After a quiet year, Duke Performances is bringing live performances back. Beginning September 12 with a performance from wind ensemble Imani Winds, the lineup will include 16 presentations that will take place on both Duke’s campus and in downtown Durham. Included in the mix are two world premieres and one original commission. 

Tickets will go on sale on August 31. 

A notable addition to the usual Duke Performances lineup: A partnership with the American Tobacco Campus, which will allow for a free series of four early-fall concerts in ATC’s open-air theater. If you missed the annual, dreamy Music in the Garden series, which in normal years has taken place in Duke Gardens, this free lineup of performances by local artists offers, as the Duke Performances press release states, a “varied and emotional invitation to experience music back in community.”

The series will begin with a performance from The Veldt on September 15, followed in sequence by Rissi Palmer and Skylar Gudasz on September 22 and September 29, and closing out with a performance by The Dead Tongues on October 1. The INDY has covered all four artists extensively: You can read about The Veldt’s shoegaze-soul here, Rissi Palmer’s trailblazing, red-hot country music here, Skylar Gudasz’s lilting cinematic tunes here, and the smoldering folk-rock of The Dead Tongues here. 

The series will also bring back the Chamber Art Series, a longstanding Duke Performances tradition that will feature eight presentations at Baldwin Auditorium. Kicking off the Chamber series is the Belcea Quartet on October 23, followed by performances from the Calidore String Quartet, the Schumann Quartet, Quatuor Danel, twin sister pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton, and clarinet trio Frautschi/Manasse/Nakamatsu Trio. 

Keep an eye out, too, for performances by The Gories at Motorco, Cimafunk at the Rubenstein, a two-night homage by Durham pianist Chris Pattishall to jazz superstar Mary Lou Williams, a free program by Ciompi Quartet, and the world premiere of dancer Bijayini Satpathy’s “ABHIPSAA—a seeking,” which is co-commissioned by Duke Performances and New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center and will take place at the Rubenstein.

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Sarah Edwards is culture editor of the INDY, covering cultural institutions and the arts in the Triangle. She joined the staff in 2019 and assumed her current role in 2020.