GMC News

Robert McDuffie, World Renowned Violinist – February 20

Georgia Military College Steinway Society Concert Series presents, Robert McDuffie, World Renowned Violinist, on Friday, February 20, 2009, 7:00 p.m., in the Goldstein Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will be followed by a wine and cheese reception with the artist. General Admission – $10, students will ID – no charge. For more information, contact GMC Office of Advancement, 478-445-2692.

Robert McDuffie has appeared as soloist with most of the major orchestras of the world, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Utah, St. Louis, Montreal, and Toronto Symphonies, the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minnesota Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, and all of the major orchestras of Australia.

Recent appearances abroad have been at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, in France with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquetaine, at the Philharmonie in Cologne with the Bochum Symphoniker, in Seoul with the KBS Symphony, in Taipei with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, in Hamburg with the Hamburg Symphony followed by a 22 city US tour, and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He returns to Rome each June as the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Rome Chamber Music Festival (www. romechamberfestival.org). The Mayor of Rome has recently awarded Robert McDuffie the prestigious Premio Simpatia in honor of his contribution to the cultural life of that city.

Besides the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Robert McDuffie returns to the Aspen Music Festival and he will take part in the Brevard Music Festival, the Amelia Island Festival, play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony in Encore Park and perform with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria in Mexico City.

His 2008-2009 season is highlighted by performances of Miklos Rozsa’s Concerto and Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade with the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel and on a 16 city US tour. Future engagements include the premiere of The American Four Seasons, a new work by Philip Glass written for Mr. McDuffie – the North American premiere with the Toronto Symphony, the European premiere with the London Philharmonic, and the festival premiere in Aspen. He will tour Europe, North America, and Asia with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, pairing it with the Vivaldi Four Seasons. He will record both works for Telarc.

McDuffie is a Grammy nominated artist whose acclaimed Telarc recordings include the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber, and Rozsa, and Viennese favorites. He plays a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu violin, known as the “Ladenburg.” He has been profiledon NBC’s “Today,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” PBS’s “Charlie Rose,” A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts,” and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Robert McDuffie is a Distinguished University Professor of Music at Mercer University in his hometown of Macon, Georgia. The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University had its official opening at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year (www.mercer.edu/ mcduffie). He lives in New York with his wife and two children.