Part two of our series examining 20 years of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings as it makes a splash in Macon that ripples around the world

Story by Michael W. Pannell

In the last few of its 20 years, students coming to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University may have known that, with their studies, they would be part of the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra (MMSO), playing alongside world-renowned Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians under the direction of some of the world’s leading conductors.

They may have known they might take part in chamber music concerts with celebrated chamber musicians at Fabian Concert Series performances.

Certainly, they knew they would be taught by some of the world’s most accomplished violinists and stringed-instrument virtuosos.

But few arriving would know that their undergraduate experience in Macon would also offer opportunities to perform — and even tour — with the likes of R.E.M. bassist-songwriter Mike Mills or Rolling Stones keyboardist and musical director Chuck Leavell; to play Carnegie Hall; and even to travel internationally to be featured at the annual Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy.

These remarkable prospects have not only become standard fare for students, but have also become opportunities for Central Georgia audiences to hear the greatest music ever written performed by some of the finest musicians active today.

The MMSO and Fabian Experience

“It’s always exciting and relaxing at the same time,” said Macon businessman and arts supporter Tony Long, Sr., who attends MMSO concerts but admittedly is not a classical music aficionado. “I like music, but I’m not a music person. But I still love the symphony. I love that they’re reaching out to a wider audience than just the symphony crowd, that it’s free for young people and affordable for everyone. And I love that you don’t have to go to Atlanta or New York to enjoy it.”

The MMSO is a hybrid orchestra made up of McDuffie students and principal players of the Atlanta Symphony that performs four grand concerts at The Piedmont Grand Opera House during a September-to-April season. Fabian Concerts are smaller, more intimate chamber music performances that bring the world’s leading chamber musicians to Macon and include select McDuffie students. Season tickets for the MMSO start at just under $100 — less than the cost of dinner and parking in Atlanta or other large cities these days. Tickets for Fabian Concert Series, previously led by violinist and former Center director Amy Schwartz Moretti, are $230 for a single concert and often sell out.

Julia Morrison is executive director of The Grand and has a wider view of both the MMSO and Fabian Concerts — and of the success and impact they have. Morrison says the MMSO has increased subscribers every year for the first five seasons.

“What’s been amazing about the MMSO is that we have upended the symphony business model to great success,” Morrison said. “If you told most people in the classical music world that you were starting a brand-new orchestra in 2021 in Macon, Georgia to play on Monday nights, you would certainly get some looks. Not only have we done it, but the tickets are in high demand, with over half of the audience as committed subscribers, and an audience that feels like it more authentically represents Macon than ever. This is a testament to Robert McDuffie’s big vision — that so many people in Central Georgia are on board.”

Unexpected Experiences

The international fame of violin virtuoso and Macon native Robert McDuffie not only led to his founding the McDuffie Center as a training ground for talented young musicians, but also to the immediate respect it generated among world-class musicians who serve as visiting faculty and others eager to participate in its musical projects.

It also led to other, sometimes unexpected, opportunities.

As founder of the Rome Chamber Music Festival, it was natural that McDuffie students began to participate. It was McDuffie who opened the door for collaborations with Mills and Leavell, who, along with McDuffie, created “A Night of Georgia Music” — a tour, an Emmy-winning television program taped at The Grand, and, most recently, a Carnegie Hall performance. The program features the three performing classic Georgia-based songs and Mills’ “Concerto for Violin, Rock Band, and String Orchestra” with a group of rock musicians and McDuffie string students.

Entering the next 20 years, expect the unexpected as relationships and partnerships continue to grow.

New and Familiar Faces

With an eye on what’s happening at the McDuffie Center, it’s clear that much remains the same in its mission to provide a superior, intensive-style experience for training young and talented string musicians through unique opportunities such as the MMSO, Fabian Concert Series, and other experiences. But much is also changing on the threshold of a new 20 years.

For example, attend the Sept. 21 MMSO season-opening concert, and you’ll be introduced to new McDuffie Center faculty member and distinguished artist, violinist Stefan Jackiw. Jackiw was praised by The Boston Globe for playing of “uncommon musical substance.” He’ll be joined by McDuffie Center faculty cellist Brannon Cho, first-prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition, performing Brahms’ Double Concerto.

Directing will be Case Scaglione, former associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic, who makes his Macon debut — extending the number of outstanding conductors being introduced to Macon.

Behind the scenes, preparing students for MMSO performances, is the Center’s new director of orchestral training, Yaniv Segal.

This year’s Fabian Concerts also reflect a change: they will now be curated by violist Lawrence Dutton, who takes on the role of artistic director. Dutton has taught viola at the McDuffie Center since its earliest days and has an enviable résumé by any standard, including being a nine-time Grammy Award winner with the world’s foremost string quartet — now disbanded — the Emerson String Quartet, founded at The Juilliard School in 1976. A documentary on the quartet, “Four Rational People,” will take place as a special screening at Macon Film Festival on August 23, with appearances by Dutton and McDuffie.

As a longtime observer and participant at the McDuffie Center — and an educator at other institutions such as Stony Brook University in New York — Lawrence Dutton has a unique perspective on the Center’s past and future.

“I’ve been with the McDuffie Center pretty much since the beginning,” he said. “I’ve seen it change over time, and of course changes are happening now. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that since the beginning, the level has grown and gotten better every year. It all has to do with how Bobby [Robert] set up the school and the people he brings in as faculty. As a result, you see how students finish their bachelor’s program in Macon, then transfer to some of the best graduate programs in the world, such as at The Juilliard School, and many now have very successful professional careers. That’s fun to see.”

Dutton also spoke about taking over the Fabian series.

“The Fabian chamber music series has been such a wonderful thing season after season — Amy has done an incredible job with it, programming extraordinary music and performers,” he said. “I’m thrilled to come in and, without breaking anything or reinventing the wheel, add to the Fabian experience. I’m excited to add the music I love and the people I love playing it with, and I trust people will continue to find it very enjoyable. It’s all part of a new phase at the Center.”

Dutton said he plans to include in the Fabian series music that’s not often heard, as well as bring a wide variety of musicians, including former colleagues and an Italian string quartet he mentored that he said is becoming one of the world’s top ensembles.

Of course, he said, students will be involved, along with McDuffie distinguished artists old and new, such as new violinist instructor Jessica Lee, who will help lead the Center’s violin instruction along with Jackiw, and double bassist Hal Robinson.

And, he added, he’s looking forward to working and performing with “a terrific violist,” Emily Brandenburg, the newly appointed director of the McDuffie Center for Strings.

From Student to Director

Robert McDuffie said this: “Just like when we started the McDuffie Center, I had only one person in mind to become its director, Amy Schwartz Moretti. As we enter this new season, I had only one person in mind to become its new director, Emily Brandenburg.”

Brandenburg is a 2016 graduate of the McDuffie Center, giving her a knowledgeable perspective on its operations. Add to that her service in an administrative capacity as executive assistant at the Center from 2018–2020.

She also holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University, has served as an artist-in-residence at the University of Evansville, and has performed as a member of the Cassatt Quartet as well as with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Portland Symphony, and many others. She taught viola in New York before she and her family’s move to Macon.

“It certainly is a full-circle moment for me, and I’m incredibly excited,” Brandenburg said. “I first heard of the McDuffie Center when Bobby [Robert McDuffie] came to Rhode Island, where I lived, and I attended a masterclass he did in connection with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. He told me about the school — I didn’t know anything about it at the time — but he told me about the Labor Day Festival, when potential students come to the Center to experience it and perform a concert. I came, and I loved it. I loved everything I experienced during those two or three days. Every school I went to afterward I compared to the McDuffie Center. It was the benchmark.”

You might note that Brandenburg entered the Center as a violinist but became a violist.

“There was a shortage of violists at the time,” she said. “I was asked early on to play viola for a chamber music performance and, along with my violin and other studies, had to learn viola and play in two weeks. Larry Dutton coached me, and the whole time I was thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?’ I locked myself in my room to practice, and a couple of weeks later I performed as a violist — and I loved it. I was told I had a strong voice as a violist, but I already knew in my heart it’s what I wanted to play.”

Despite the challenge, Brandenburg said she learned that McDuffie, Moretti, Dutton and others at the Center wanted her to succeed and were there to help shape that success. She said the individual attention offered at the Center — not just from one instructor but from many — is priceless. She said that’s what she wants to be part of for students now and in the years ahead.

Likely, it was seeing this attitude in Brandenburg — her character, her fortitude under pressure, her knowledge of the Center’s workings, and her skill on not one but two stringed instruments — that helped McDuffie know she was needed as the school’s new director.

“For the future, I’m as committed as anyone to seeing it continue as a place of excellence, preparing young musicians not only as musicians but to be successful in the business of being a musician,” Brandenburg said. “It’s innovative that the Center has taken that approach, and I want to see that the word gets out more and more about the McDuffie Center and that every year we are welcoming wonderfully talented young people.”

“And,” she added, as living proof, “there’s something about Macon that just keeps drawing you back.”

Make sure to see “Four Rational People” at Macon Film Festival on August 23 before heading to Dutton’s first Fabian Concert Series show on October 6 at Fickling Hall.