MACON –Grammy nominated violinist Robert McDuffie returned to his hometown of Macon to perform a special concert benefiting violin students at Mercer University at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 5, at the Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building.
"Mercer is committed to giving its students a solid foundation to reach their highest aspirations – just as Robert McDuffie has fulfilled," said Mercer University President R. Kirby Godsey. "This performance is an opportunity for us to support future violinists here at Mercer."
The concert which included works by Beethoven, Copland, and Dvořák, formally recognized the Robert McDuffie Endowed Scholarship in Violin established by Mercer Board of Trustees member and chairman of the Executive Committee, Benjy Griffith, CLA ’77, and his wife, Teresa McEachern Griffith, CLA ’77. Proceeds from Saturday’s concert were also placed in the scholarship fund which was set up to attract gifted violin students to study at Mercer.
McDuffie has appeared as soloist with many of the major orchestras of the world, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; the Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto symphonies; the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome and all of the major orchestras of Australia.
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Violinist Robert McDuffie to Perform at Mercer p.2
McDuffie’s recital and symphony performances have garnered tremendous praise throughout the world. A commentator for NPR’s Performance Today, he has been profiled on NBC’s Today, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS’s Charlie Rose, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, and in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Play the world-famous 1735 Guarneri del Gesù violin, the Ladenburg, McDuffie performed with pianist Albert Tiu, who has performed as soloist with the St. Petersburg, Calgary, Louisiana, Johannesburg and Philippine philharmonics, and the Hamburg, Finnish Radio, Guangzhou, Singapore and Juilliard symphonies.
Founded in 1833, Mercer is a 7,300-student, comprehensive, Baptist-affiliated university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees through the College of Liberal Arts, the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, the Tift College of Education, the School of Engineering, the Walter F. George School of Law, the School of Medicine, the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, the Southern School of Pharmacy, the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology and the College of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Mercer University has campuses in Macon and Atlanta and education centers in Douglas County, Covington, Griffin and Eastman. The University also operates the Mercer Engineering Research Center in Warner Robins and the Mercer University Press in Macon. For the past 13 years, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Mercer among the leading universities in the South.