Tagged: Classical

The acclaimed classical composer and Durham resident Robert Ward has died. He was 95 years old.

Ward was known and honored for his contributions to the world of classical music and was chancellor of the UNC School of the Arts (then called N.C. School of the Arts) from 1967 to 1974 before joining Duke University as a music professor.  He composed many symphonies and operas over his lifetime, including an operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962.

UNC-Chapel Hill music professor Richard Luby died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday. Luby was known among his colleagues and students as a charismatic teacher and a passionate musician. He joined UNC-Chapel Hill in 1979, when he was hired as a professor of violin and chamber music.

Alex Kotch is a student of classical composition in graduate school at Duke University, but he also has a love of techno beats. Kotch combined his music education with his passion for electronica in a dance-party dissertation at the Duke Coffeehouse in April.

When Stephen Jaffe was a child, his parents forbade him and his siblings from pursuing a career in music. Now all three are professional musicians, and Jaffe is being inducted in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.