Duke University Musical Instrument Collections

Enjoy about 25 online performances by Duke’s talented student and employee musicians through the Duke Music Department's “Best of Biddle” virtual concert series.

Performances from the past academic year include R. Larry Todd, pictured below, the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Music, playing Beethoven; Duke Opera Theater’s “A Night of Italian Opera” and Robert Parkins, Duke University organist, performing on Duke University Chapel's Aeolian organ.

Find the performances, along with news of upcoming shows during the fall semester, here: https://sites.duke.edu/bestofbiddle/.

Duke Flags Lowered: Sam Hammond, Beloved University Carillonneur for 53 Years, Dies J. Samuel Hammond, who for more than five decades ended the academic day filling West Campus with music from the Duke Chapel carillon, died Thursday. To honor Hammond, the carillon recital Thursday was dedicated to him and will feature selections of some of his favorite pieces. (You can watch the li...

Interested in the Collegium Musicum, Duke's ensemble for early music? Get your questions answered at our online information session tomorrow, Aug. 12, from 5-5:30 pm. Register at

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Collegium Musicum. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Info session for Duke's early music ensemble

An Original Organ Transcription Features Theme of 'Twilight' | Duke University Chapel Published in 1950 after his death, the German composer Richard Strauss's composition Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) is scored for soprano and orchestra. By 2017, University Organist Dr. Robert Parkins had transcribed for organ the fourth of the four pieces—"Im Abendrot" ("In the Twilight"). ...

On February 18, 2020, the Rare Music Series (sponsored by Duke University Musical Instrument Collections) presented members of the early music chamber group Sonnambula in a concert titled "La Paix du Parnasse: French and Italian masterworks of the Baroque" in the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke. Italian and French musical fashions wrestled for dominance in Europe throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sonnambula violinist Jude Ziliak and gambist Amy Domingues, joined by guest harpsichordist Gabriel Benton, presented a rich sampling of each nation's most characteristic offerings, from the fiery and idiosyncratic works of the little-known Nicola Matteis to the sublime pathos of Couperin's chamber music for Louis XIV. Praised as "remarkable" and "superb" by the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically-informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. Sonnambula held the position of Ensemble in Residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2018-2019, where they designed a site-specific series at The Cloisters Museum; the group is the first historically-informed ensemble to hold this position, typically given to a string quartet.

👏

Students: Want to be paid to work with historical instruments this summer? There’s still time to apply for Story+!

Story+ Student Application Portal is now open. Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis until all teams are filled. https://fhi.duke.edu/story-application-2020

Story+ is a paid humanities research program which runs May 13 - June 26, 2020. One of the projects you can apply for is Curating and Integrating New Visual and Sonic Experiences in the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections!

Students: Want to be paid to work with historical instruments this summer? There’s still time to apply for Story+!

Story+ Student Application Portal is now open. Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis until all teams are filled. https://fhi.duke.edu/story-application-2020

Story+ is a paid humanities research program which runs May 13 - June 26, 2020. One of the projects you can apply for is Curating and Integrating New Visual and Sonic Experiences in the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections!