DUKE PERFORMANCES 2015/2016 SEASON | MUSIC, THEATER, DANCE & MORE. IN DURHAM, AT DUKE, ART MADE BOLDLY. DUKE PERFORMANCES HELLO & WELCOME At Duke Performances, we offer an expansive array of expertly chosen shows. We’ve traveled the globe to vet and select the artists that appear here. Starting in mid-September and running through April, we’ll present over seventy performances at a collection of venues both on campus and in town. Durham is rapidly becoming the cultural hub of the region; it’s Duke Performances’ duty to spur that development further by programming art made boldly all over the city. At Duke Performances, Durham and Duke come together — with audiences sitting elbow to elbow — to make community. A great community deserves art of the highest quality, featuring work that reflects the interests and backgrounds of its members. Thanks to stalwart financial support from private donors and the University, we’re able to bring in diverse work and price tickets as competitively as possible so that a broad portion of our community can afford to see our shows. At Duke Performances, we’re cultivating a curious and discerning audience. We encourage patrons to check out shows with which they’re not familiar, or genres that they’d not normally frequent. Beyond performances, we offer more than fifty artist-in-residence activities per season — master classes, public conversations, screenings, and lectures — and these engagements provide patrons a chance to further their knowledge and deepen their experience. I look forward to seeing you this season at Duke Performances. AARON GREENWALD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DUKE PERFORMANCES COVER IMAGE: BRIAN NEWBY OF RENNIE HARRIS PUREMOVEMENT, PHOTO BY BRIAN MENGINI. MAHMOUD AHMED O O O THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 | 8 PM REYNOLDS INDUSTRIES THEATER Tickets: $34 • $28 • $15 Ages 30 & Under • $10 Duke Students In the early 1970s, Ethiopia experienced In the late ’90s, dozens of Ahmed’s a golden age of popular music with the recordings were reissued on the popular rise of “Ethio-jazz” — a mesmerizing Éthiopiques compilations — four volumes blend of zigzagging modal melodies and featured Ahmed exclusively — and he diminished harmonies played against a became his country’s foremost musical funky six-beat groove. At the center of the ambassador. In concert, his enigmatic scene was vocalist Mahmoud Ahmed, multi-octave voice “seizes on a note, who has been hailed as “one of the brief or sustained, and makes its pitch most exhilarating singers of the past half tremble as if its urgency could barely be century” (The New Yorker). Ahmed’s 1975 contained” (The New York Times). Count album Erè Mèla Mèla is a classic from on Ahmed and his ace ten-piece band the golden age of Ethiopian music and to open Duke Performances’ 2015/16 was the first East African release to be season on an exultant note. embraced by a broad Western audience. 2015 | 2016 DUKE PERFORMANCES LULA PENA L. SUBRAMANIAM BETTYE LAVETTE O O O O O O O O O THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 | 8 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 | 8 PM SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 | 8 PM NELSON MUSIC ROOM BALDWIN AUDITORIUM BALDWIN AUDITORIUM Tickets: $22 • $15 Ages 30 & Under Tickets: $34 • $28 • $15 Ages 30 & Under Tickets: $42 • $36 • $15 Ages 30 & Under $10 Duke Students | General Admission $10 Duke Students $10 Duke Students Portuguese singer-songwriter Lula A master of the violin in the In 1962, at the age of sixteen, Pena’s longing lyrics and wandering Carnatic classical music tradition, Bettye LaVette was invited to guitar lines descend from the fado L. Subramaniam has spent a record her first single at Johnnie tradition, which originated two lifetime exploring the versatility Mae Matthews’ legendary Detroit hundred years ago in Lisbon and of his instrument. His work as a studio. “My Man, He’s a Loving has since provided fertile ground for prolific composer, performer, and Man” hit number seven on the musical reinvention. Pena calls her collaborator has brought global R&B charts, and a career was born. unique take on fado a palimpsest, with attention to the sound of the violin National tours with Otis Redding its layers of languages and musical in the music of South Asia, with and James Brown followed, along influences; singing in Portuguese, its distinctive slides, drones, and with recordings made in Memphis Spanish, English, and French, she controlled oscillations between two and Muscle Shoals. Though her draws on Latin American nueva notes. Subramaniam’s acclaimed fame never caught up with her canción, Portuguese folk music of the scores for films by Mira Nair and talent, LaVette worked steadily 1960s, and French chanson. Bernardo Bertolucci furthered his on the fringes of the music world, reputation as one of India’s most buoyed by a cult following. She NPR describes Pena’s music as “the accomplished and multifaceted artists. carries the grit of these lean years as perfect soundtrack for a dark, seaside a soul music survivor in her fierce club.” Her haunting second record, “Simply the best … the and singular alto. Troubador, came after a twelve-year hiatus from touring and recording greatest classical Indian “This is soul singing at its rawest and was accompanied by an violinist of our time.” and most persuasive,” proclaims acclaimed appearance at WOMEX (The Times of India) The New York Times. At last, LaVette 2014, bringing her music to a broader is getting her due, with a creative European audience. Pena’s lovely In the acoustically pristine Baldwin resurgence that began ten years ago hushed tunes are reminiscent of Auditorium, two other Carnatic when she teamed up with producer the intricate compositions of Karen musicians join Subramaniam: his and songwriter Joe Henry for her Dalton and the quiet mystery of son Ambi Subramaniam, also on album I’ve Got My Own Hell To Connie Converse; Pena will perform violin, and Mahesh Krishnamurthy, Raise. LaVette’s 2015 follow-up them for an intimate audience in-the- on mridangam — a traditional barrel- effort with Henry, Worthy, features round at the Nelson Music Room. shaped Carnatic drum. Renowned tunes by Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, violinist Yehudi Menuhin once said, and Mickey Newberry, a repertoire “I find nothing more inspiring than she brings to Baldwin Auditorium the music-making of my very great alongside favorites collected from colleague Subramaniam. Each time her five decades in R&B. I listen to him, I am carried away in wonderment.” 25% PICK-FOUR OR MORE DISCOUNT Take 25% off your total price when you buy tickets to four or more shows from Duke Performances’ 2015/16 season. 2015 | 2016 DUKE PERFORMANCES GREGORY PORTER RHIANNON GIDDENS O O O O O O THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 | 8 PM FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 | 8 PM PAGE AUDITORIUM PAGE AUDITORIUM Tickets: $55 • $45 • $40 • $15 Ages 30 & Under Tickets: $55 • $45 • $40 • $15 Ages 30 & Under $10 Duke Students $10 Duke Students Brooklyn-based Gregory Porter compares North Carolinian Rhiannon Giddens sharing music with audiences to sharing first came to Duke Performances in 2007 food with friends: both endeavors are with the GRAMMY-winning string band communal, fortifying, and joyous. Each of the Carolina Chocolate Drops at Music in his three studio albums, filled with original the Gardens. In the intervening years, she material, has earned him an enthusiastic has returned to Duke Performances on fandom and garnered more and more multiple occasions and established herself critical acclaim. Porter continues to write as an international star. After Giddens songs that deftly blend gospel, rhythm sang on the soundtrack for the Coen and blues, jazz, and soul. Porter makes Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis, producer his grand return to Durham at the newly T Bone Burnett invited the singer to join renovated Page Auditorium, following an his New Basement Tapes project alongside unforgettable sold-out concert at Duke Elvis Costello, Jim James, and Marcus Performances in the spring of 2014. Mumford. Her voice is an endless marvel, and with it she embodies “the fervor of a “Possessed of massive vocal power, his spiritual, the yips of a folk holler, and the interpretations flit between jazz and soul, sultry insinuation of the blues” (The New with the finesse of the former and the York Times). strength of the latter in equal measure” (Mojo). Porter’s latest album, Liquid Spirit In February 2015, Giddens released her — released on Blue Note — earned him debut solo album Tomorrow is My Turn a GRAMMY Award for Best Jazz Vocal on Nonesuch Records to widespread Album. On stage and on record, Porter critical acclaim. Produced by Burnett, is “a jazz singer of thrilling presence the record includes tunes made famous and a booming baritone with a gift for by Patsy Cline, Odetta, Dolly Parton, and earthy refinement and soaring uplift” Nina Simone. Giddens brings this music (Wall Street Journal). to Page Auditorium, backed by a band that features the current iteration of the Chocolate Drops. PAGE AUDITORIUM RENOVATED & REOPENED Page Auditorium, a 1,200-seat venue at Duke University, opened in the early 1930s as part of Duke’s original West Campus. The University has just completed a yearlong five million dollar renovation of the venue funded by a gift from the Duke Endowment. The space reopens for use during the 2015/16 season with seven special Duke Performances presentations: Gregory Porter; Rhiannon Giddens; Chucho Valdés & Irakere 40; Rosanne Cash; Patty Griffin, Sara Watkins & Anaïs Mitchell; Savion Glover & Jack DeJohnette; and Boban & Marko Markovic´ Orkestar + Fanfare Cioca˘rlia. 2015 | 2016 DUKE PERFORMANCES