Jonathan E Bagg
| Title: | Professor of the Practice of Music (viola), Director of Chamber Music, and Member of Ciompi Quartet |
| Office Location: | 083 Mary Duke Biddle |
| Office Phone: | (919) 660-3331, (919) 660-3300 |
| Email Address: | jbagg@acpub.duke.edu |
- Office Hours:
- Afternoons by appointment.
Education
- MM; Academic Honors, Distinction in Performance, New England Conservatory of Music, 1984
- BA; Cum Laude in Music, Yale University, 1982
Research Interests
Jonathan Bagg is Professor of the Practice, a member of the Ciompi String Quartet, and Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival, located in New Hampshire. His career with the Ciompi spans 23 years and includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and abroad, in Europe, China, Israel, and South America, as well as over a dozen recordings. Musicians he has performed with include pianists Bella Davidovich, Menahem Pressler and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, The Tokyo Quartet, clarinetist David Shifrin, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. His work outside the Ciompi Quartet as a solo violist and chamber musician is distinguished by his interest in bringing new and unfamiliar works to life, including many pieces written for him. In reviews of his solo playing, The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity,” while American Record Guide hailed him as “an excellent violist who approaches the music with intelligence, passion, and clarity.”
Solo concerts have brought him to places such as the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Manchester, New Hamphsire’s Currier Gallery. Concerto appearances include the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Massachusetts, the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Monadnock Music Festival Orchestra. He has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, and the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals. Bagg’s two solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann and by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), on the Centaur label. Contemporary solo works by Malcolm Peyton, Donald Wheelock and Arthur Levering are on Centaur and Gasparo, and Bridge Records. Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke University, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. Before moving to Duke he performed with many of New England’s most prominent musical organizations, appearing often with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and serving as principal viola for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (BA) and the New England Conservatory (MM), where he was a student of Walter Trampler.
Typical Courses Taught:
- Music 106, Chamber music
- Music 179, Adv st mus performance
- Music 81, Strings
- Music 91, Strings
Selected Professional Work:
(More...)Recordings
- Ciompi Quartet. String Quartets of Paul Schoenfield. Winter, 2008 . [abs]
- J.E. Bagg. Music of Robert and Clara Schumann. Centaur (CRC 2581), 2002 . (R. Schumann: Märchenbilder, op 113, Fantasiesücke op. 73, Adagio and Allegro op. 70, Fairy Tales; C. Schumann: Three Romances, op. 22. Liner notes by Jonathan Bagg)
Commissions:
- Ciompi Quartet: "Mountain Music" by marc faris, Page Auditorium, Duke Universtiy, November 18, 2006
With Branford Marsalis, premiere of quintet for saxophone and quartet
Solo Performances:
- Solo Performances, January 01, 2008 - December 31, 2008
January 20, 2008 Recital with joseph Robinson, Oboe, jane Hawkins, piano
- Soloist with Duke Symphnoy Orchestra, Duke University, Baldwin Auditorium, December 08, 2006
Performance of Mozart Sinfonie Concertante with Eric Pritchard, violin soloist - Guest Recital, UNC Greensboro School of Music, November 06, 2006
With Donald Berman, Piano, Premiere of Jaffe Sonata - "Mallarme" Ensemble, Duke University, Nelson Music Room, November 04, 2006
With Pianist Donald Berman - Bluthner Series (house concert), Winston-Salem, NC, November 03, 2006
With Donald Berman, Piano, Premiere of Jaffe Sonata - "Encounters" series, Department of Music, Duke University, October 21, 2006
Peformance of John Bower "Echo Over the Voice" for Solo Viola and Ensemble - Recital/Lecture with Viginia Eskin, Piano, Monadnock Music Festival, Peterborough, NH, August 10, 2006
Peformance of solo works by Robert and Clara Schumann - Recital with Donald Berman, Northampton, MA Community Music School, March 17, 2006
- Solo Recital with Donald Berman, piano, Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester NH, February 19, 2006
- Solo Recital, Nelson Music Room, Duke University, January 15, 2006
Master Classes:
- Master Classes, 2008/12/08
December 5, 2008: Master class for viola students at the Boston Conservatory
June 24, 2008: Master classes at North Carolina School of the Arts for chamber music students.
- Master Classes, Peabody Conservatory Preparatory Division, Baltimore, MD, February, 2007