On a campus in love with sampled beats and mash-up booty-jams, a classically-trained pianist will perform this weekend with a country-folk singer-songwriter. This Friday and Saturday, songwriter Tift Merritt and pianist Simone Dinnerstein will perform the world premiere of their collaborative work Night.
“The show is going to be about how two very accomplished artists find common ground in work where their sensibilities intersect,” said Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald.
A Raleigh native and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill grad, Merritt debuted with her critically acclaimed Bramble Rose in 2002 and has since released five more albums. On her current tour, she will support Iron and Wine and Josh Ritter.
Dinnerstein first performed at Duke three years ago. A graduate of Juilliard, she debuted in 2005 at Carnegie Hall with a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. She has since performed with the Dresden Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony. In 2007, she released her first album, topping classical music charts.
“[Dinnerstein is] a great pianist and a beautiful player, and she’s got an idiosyncratic sensibility,” Greenwald said. “She’s very precise and she brings a really fresh sensibility to her interpretation of work.”
The pair met when Merritt was asked to interview Dinnerstein for Gramophone magazine. Responding well to each others’ musical tastes, they resolved to do a work together.
“We started thinking it’d be really interesting to do a collaboration, but we couldn’t figure out what that would be,” Dinnerstein said. “[We wanted to] use our musicianship to create something meaningful to ourselves.”
And then Duke Performances stepped in, sponsoring the cross-genre project.
“Aaron Greenwald really made it happen,” Merritt said. “He’s just such an amazing programmer… and he was absolutely instrumental.”
In addition to three original pieces commissioned by Duke Performances, the repertoire—centered on the theme of “night”—includes such eclectic pieces as a Cat Stevens cover, interpretations of Franz Schubert and solo pieces.
“In one way the collaboration’s very simple and very straightforward, and it’s also complicated, cause you have to know when to get out of the way,” Dinnerstein said. “To [Merritt], the space between the notes, and the silence between the notes, is very important. I can feel like I’m doing something so incredibly simple, but she’ll say that’s perfect and that’s how it should be.
Merritt agreed about the complexity of the project.
“Simone is not used to improvising, and I’m not very well-versed on music on the page,” she said.
Even such, both artists enjoyed working with each other.
“Lucky for me, [Dinnerstein is] a really wonderful person to collaborate with,” Merritt said. “She’s someone who challenges herself and anyone she’s working with. [She has] a real integrity in wanting things to be as great as they can be.”
The purpose of Duke Performances is well-represented in the collaboration, Greenwald said.
“We work with artists whose work we value; we like them to be pushing boundaries,” he said. “Working on subsidy, it’s our privilege and responsibility to advance forward-thinking work.”
In addition to performing on Friday and Saturday night, Merritt will be giving a lecture today at 4:30 p.m. in the Nelson Music Room, and Dinnerstein will be holding a master class tonight in Baldwin Auditorium at 5 p.m.
And ultimately, the project is building an explorative relationship.
“There’s a lot of new ground and new daring on both our parts,” said Merritt. “We have a lot of faith in each other.”
Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein will be performing Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. at the Reynolds Industries Theater. Tickets are $38 and $32 general admission, and $5 for Duke students. Tickets are available at the Duke University Box Office or online at www.tickets.duke.edu.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.