The Ciompi Quartet

Duke University

World Premiere

Portfolio Project at the Nelson Music Room

Ciompi has commissioned current Duke graduate composers to write short string quartet movements. This premiere performance provides a chance to meet the next generation of composers and experience music on the cutting edge. There is a reception to follow the concert for supporters to have the opportunity to meet these young composers and discuss their work.

Graduate Student Composers Whose Work Is Featured
Mozhgan Chahian Boroojeni
Tyler Jordan
Monthati Masebe
Sidney Boquiren: Premiere of A New Work (Duke Alumnus)

The Portfolio Project
The Ciompi Quartet Portfolio Project began in the summer of 2020 as a way for the Quartet to engage with composers in Duke Music’s graduate program during the COVID-19 pandemic, when live performances were curtailed and composers and performers needed creative outlets for their music. The success of the initial project inspired the Ciompi Quartet to continue the Projec and it now enters its fifth year.
Learn More About The Portfolio Project

An American in Shanghai: Forgotten Stories

Featuring Min Xiao-fen, pipa and voice

When cultures mix, music is usually where they find common ground. 1930’s Shanghai put American jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton in contact with Chinese songwriter Li Jin-Hui, resulting in music that blended American jazz with Chinese popular song. The Ciompi Quartet and pipa virtuoso Xiao-Fen Min have commissioned two new works for pipa and string quartet by composers Alan Chan and Andrew Waggoner that explore the sonic possibilities of these disparate musical worlds. Chan’s work re-imagines 30s era songs through a jazz lens, while Waggoner creates a dramatic dialogue between the Min’s virtuoso Pipa and the string quartet. The program includes a quartet by Jewish refugee Wolfgang Fraenkel, who escaped to Shanghai in 1939 and became an influential teacher and musical figure in the life of the city.

  • Andrew Waggoner: Forgotten Stories for String Quartet and Pipa (2024) WORLD PREMIERE – Ciompi Commission
  • Alan Chan: “Catch Me at the Canidrome” for String Quartet and Pipa (2024) WORLD PREMIERE – Ciompi Commission
  • Wolfgang Fraenkel: Music for String Quartet (1949)

This concert is FREE

Watch The Live Stream Here