ABOUT THE ORCHESTRA
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." - Franz Schubert
The Duke Symphony Orchestra (DSO) consistently recruits between 80 and 100 members each year, composed of musicians from the Duke student body (primarily undergraduates) and the broader university community. Under the direction of conductor Harry Davidson, the DSO seeks to create a dynamic and enlivening environment for concertgoers and performers alike.
Members of the DSO Executive Committee, a small group of elected students, endeavor to foster a greater sense of community among orchestra members and their peers who share a passion for music. The Executive Committee seeks to diversify Duke's musical community by promoting the orchestra's public performances and assisting with logistical work for each concert, as well as by hosting orchestra-related social activities outside of rehearsals and concerts.
The DSO's repertoire ranges from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries and includes well-known masterpieces as well as works that are heard less often. The DSO rehearses twice a week and hosts four regular-season concerts in Baldwin Auditorium on East Campus annually, with each concert drawing an audience of over 100 attendees on average. The DSO additionally performs at other university events, such as the Family Weekend Concert, and it also features the student winner of the Duke University Concerto Competition each spring. In previous seasons, the DSO has performed a semi-staged opera biannually.
For the past ten years, the DSO has started each concert season with a fully student-organized Pops concert on East Campus Quad, which has become a Labor Day weekend tradition in Durham. This lighthearted event is performed after only one extensive Saturday rehearsal. As the DSO's first event of the year, the Pops concert provides an intimate setting for introducing new members to the orchestra. By being held on East Campus, the Pops concert especially serves as a way for the DSO to welcome first-year students to campus life.
Each spring, the DSO travels to Beaufort, South Carolina to perform a benefit concert. Between 2004 and 2017, this event has raised more than $250,000 for Beaufort Memorial Hospital's Keyserling Cancer Center. Now, the Duke Symphony Orchestra performs this benefit concert in partnership with the Foundation for Leadership Education to promote programs that support leadership education and community in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
All photos courtesy of Melanie Park.
