North Carolina, Day 3

[kenjari]

September 25, 2006

I just got back from my meeting with John Mayrose, one of the graduate students in the composition program at Duke. I'd met him at the Oregon Bach Festival last year. So when I decided to visit Duke, I e-mailed him to see if he'd bew willing to meet with me.
We met in the music building and then went out to a very nice Italian bistro for lunch. The food was yummy and I got the low-down on Duke's program. It sounds like a really good place where I would probably do very well. John had no complaints about the composition professors, and said he was very happy here. The funding is excellent, too - I would not need to have a part-time job during the school year and would thus be able to concentrate entirely on music and classes. The teaching opportunities are also very good. The only downside is the lack of a truly strong performance program and the lack of opportunities for orchestra readings.
John also gave me a tour of the facilities. Duke has a gorgeous new electronic music setup, with a large main classroom, plus a couple of smaller studios - all Mac based and shiny. It's in a recently bought former tobacco warehouse nearer downtown Durham. The main music building is fairly nice, but not that different from the buildings I've seen at other schools. Duke does provide small offices to graduate students once they start teaching.
After my meeting with John, I met back up with Other Kenjari, and we went back over to west campus to see if we could get a look at the chapel. It was indeed open, even though there was a small class meeting there at the time. The chapel is gorgeous - built in English gothic style, with huge stained glass windows and three organs. The size and scale combined with the architectural style reminded me a bit of WEstminster Abbey. However, there were only three tombs, tucked away in a side chapel. And, of course, it's all relatively new. I did especially like the way the windows were designed to look medieval. Best of all, because of the small music class meeting there, the organist was playing some Bach chorales on the main organ. The instrument not only has a lovely facade, but it sounds wonderful, too.
Unfortunately, we won't get to see ashears this eveing - we'll see her again tomorrow night. So we are spending the evening relaxing at our hotel. It's actually a good thing, since I'm feeling somewhat tired.