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I have to say that, although it gives me joy to have performed and toured with the Quartet in many countries around the world, living among my students as a Faculty-in-Residence for the past ten years has been a most extraordinary experience that I would not have had anywhere else. During my time, Pegram dorm has fostered…

The Ciompi Quartet played two concerts at the Fougeres Music Festival in Brittany, France, in May of 2014. It was a lovely trip, made so by the two essential elements: good music and good people. Our program was American: works by Samuel Barber and Phillip Glass, a newly commissioned quartet by Melinda Wagner, and the…

The Quartet visited four cities in China in December, 2013. Each time the we travel there (this was our fourth), new and interesting developments are evident in the musical scene. Our trip included a stop at Duke’s new campus at Kunshan, near Shanghai, with a concert in the new hall in the center of the…

Quartet in D-major, D. 94 by Franz Schubert Quartet in F-major, Op. 22 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky It would be hard to imagine two more dissimilar works than these within the realm of classical music’s period of common practice.  The Schubert is simple, perhaps somewhat naïve, while the Tchaikovsky is emotionally wrought.  It’s the difference, I suppose,…

I went on an errand this afternoon.  I needed to get my endpin sharpened. An endpin (called a spike in England) is the rod that protrudes from the bottom of a cello to stick in the floor so the cello doesn’t slide.  It’s a fairly recent innovation; prior to the 20th century, cellists generally didn’t use…