New director to lead Mercer center for strings, symphony orchestra concert fast approaching

The Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra, or MMSO, is preparing this weekend for its Monday concert, while the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University has announced a new director who will begin in the fall semester.

The MMSO is a hybrid symphony orchestra composed of students from the McDuffie Center for Strings, with principal players from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra rounding out the non-string sections. This will be the MMSO’s third concert in its annual four-concert series.

Here is information from Mercer about Monday’s concert and the center’s new director, along with comments from a conversation with Robert McDuffie.

A new director at the McDuffie Center for Strings

The center’s new director beginning this fall is Emily Brandenburg, 35, a violist and violinist who is an alumna of the center’s Class of 2013.

In January, the McDuffie Center’s founding director, Amy Schwartz Moretti, announced on social media that after almost 20 years at the center, she would be leaving to step into a new chapter “with deep gratitude for everyone who made this journey so meaningful.” She called it “an extraordinary privilege” to “create this program from the ground up into one of the world’s premier string programs.”

Moretti said that in leaving the center, she will “continue embracing and fully sharing my greatest passion: the gift of music through performance.”

McDuffie told me he was “very grateful to Amy for what she did in coming to Macon to help begin the program.”

“We’re incredibly proud of her, and grateful and will always sing her praises,” he said.

As for Brandenburg, in addition to being a McDuffie Center alumna, she holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University, served as artist-in-residence at the University of Evansville and has performed as a member of the Cassatt Quartet and with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Portland Symphony and others.

“As a graduate of this extraordinary program, I am deeply honored and genuinely thrilled to step into the role of director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings,” Brandenburg said in a release. “The center played a transformative role in my development as both a musician and a person, and it is profoundly meaningful to return in this capacity. Robert McDuffie’s passion and vision in creating this truly unique training ground for young artists continue to define the spirit and excellence of the center. 

“I am especially grateful to Amy Schwartz Moretti for her remarkable mentorship and leadership — her dedication shaped my experience as a student, elevated the center into the world-class institution it is today and has made a lasting impact on the musical community at large. I am excited to work alongside an extraordinary roster of world-class artists as we guide and inspire the next generation of musicians.”

McDuffie said Brandenburg is currently based in New York, where she maintains a private violin and viola studio and serves on the faculty at Riverdale Country School.

He said she, her husband and their two children are in the process of relocating to Macon. Coincidentally, Brandenburg and her husband were married in The Bell House, now home to the McDuffie Center.

Brandenburg is known as a passionate advocate for contemporary music and an active collaborator with living composers. Recent projects include work with Joan Tower, Victoria Bond, Mari Kimura, Will Rowe, Wang Jie and Vineet Shende. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Rome Chamber Music Festival and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

“Emily came to us when she was 17 for our Labor Day Festival that year, so she found out early on what the center was all about,” McDuffie said. “I’d played in Providence, where she was in high school, and I invited her to the festival. She came, auditioned and got in as a violinist. She was a perfectly beautiful violinist but became a major violist and was sought after by all the graduate schools after finishing here. 

“She became very interested in arts administration after hearing so much about it here, along with learning that a 21st-century musician must be a hybrid — a musician-businessperson-entrepreneur.”

McDuffie said that while previously at the center, Brandenburg even spent time serving as an administrator, giving her a unique perspective.

“When Amy expressed her desire to go a different direction, Emily was who automatically popped up,” McDuffie said. “I mean, I don’t see any downside to her at all. She was such a great student and now sees the school through the eyes of a student and an administrator. 

“She knows how it works, and she’s coming in at just the right time, inheriting a very high-level center filled with talented students taught by great musicians, whereas years ago Amy and I had to create it out of thin air. We’re going to see things go to the next highest levels.”

MMSO Monday: Mahler and local songwriters

Mei Ann Chen will be guest conductor Monday for the MMSO’s third concert of the season, featuring Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and songwriters-performers from the Otis Redding Center for the Arts.

“I can’t wait to hear this myself,” McDuffie told me. “It’s the right Mahler piece to present to Macon and the right time to have our students bring his genius to the Middle Georgia community. 

“Mei Ann is perfect to conduct it with its energetic, gripping and even heroic final movement. I know members of the Atlanta Symphony are excited to take part because of their longtime association working with Mei Ann.”

As usual, the MMSO evening will also contain a local aspect.

“It’s also very special to present the Otis Redding Center for the Arts songwriters,” McDuffie said. “This is what we’re all about as artists in Macon: we support each other and have each other’s back. These kids are so talented, it’s an honor for us to present their music with a symphonic treatment. Our long association with the Otis Redding Foundation and with Karla Redding-Andrews has been a good one.”

McDuffie said the evening will include additional percussion, an extra piano and even a synthesizer as selections range from blues to hip-hop.

The concert is at 7:30 p.m. at the Piedmont Grand Opera House. Tickets and more information are available at The Grand and at thegrandmacon.com. Students are admitted free with ID.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.