Robert McDuffie is the quintessential American violinist, despite having performed with most major European and American orchestras and founding the Rome Chamber Music Festival. His love affair with American repertoire began with Samuel Barber and is currently manifest in a new piece commissioned from Philip Glass: his second violin concerto, The American Four Seasons. McDuffie and the Venice Baroque Orchestra pair the work with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, making a stop at the Herbst Theatre on Nov. 2 on their world premiere tour. A while ago, McDuffie spoke to Classical Voice, in his soft, southern accent, about his life and work.
Tell us about growing up in Macon, Georgia.
Macon has a great history of music. I grew up in the ’70s there, with the southern indigenous rock ’n’ roll of Otis Redding, Little Richard, and the Allman Brothers in my inner ear. That, combined with two other influences: my mother’s church music (she was an organist at the Presbyterian church) and my Hungarian quasi-gypsy violin teacher. I had a typical Deep South adolescence, on the basketball team, playing golf, and had a lot of good friends, until I went to New York at age 16 to find out if violin was the right thing for me.
Who were your colleagues at the Juilliard School of Music, and what was that like?
I spent the last two years of high school at the Juilliard precollege division, and became an undergraduate at 18. I was privileged to study with the great Dorothy Delay, and even more so to be part of a group that was coined the “Juilliard Brat Pack”: Nigel Kennedy, Shlomo Mintz, Cho-Liang Lin, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and myself. We kind of grew up together there and at the Aspen Music Festival and all ended up having careers, although I signed with management a little later than they did. I was concertmaster for four years there, very cocky and obnoxious and ambitious. It was easy to be that way within the walls of that environment. We were terribly immature, but practiced hard and got pretty good.
What drew you to American music?
Playing the Samuel Barber violin concerto for Mr. Barber changed my life. I only learned it because it was a competition piece, and I heard it ended fast and I wanted applause. But something happened to me while I was learning it: I realized how truly beautiful and poignant it was, and how very American. It felt like I was playing a piece for my country. After I won the competition, a friend took me to Barber’s home, and playing it for him was one of those five great moments in my life. I then realized what my role as a soloist was — not necessarily more subservient, but certainly being a messenger of great art, a conduit for its creator.
What launched your career in Europe?
Word of mouth. I went out and paid my dues in my 20s, playing in every small town in America, learning how to be on stage, be on tour, learning how to speak from the stage. Then in my late 20s I made a recording of Bernstein’s Serenade and the Schumann Concerto, which caught the attention of conductors, and I began playing with bigger orchestras. My management decided to have me solo with European orchestras on their American tours, playing very standard repertoire like Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bruch, and Mendelssohn. It balanced my portfolio with my love for American music.
Can you speak any other languages?
I’m happy to say I do speak Italian. I started working there in the ’90s. I got invited as a guest to the American Academy in Rome, even though I had no business being there since it was a residency for composers. But I begged and begged, and they finally gave in. My whole family and I lived there for six months in the center. I loved it so much I started my own festival so I could go back, and now the Rome Chamber Music Festival is entering its eighth season.
How do you divide your time between teaching [at Mercer College] and touring?
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It was hard, at the beginning, when the school and the Rome Festival were startups, but now those institutions have real traction and I don’t have to micromanage. I’m very involved, but the staff has a good idea of what needs to be done and we’ve hit our stride. I’m in Macon three days a month and Rome several weeks out of the year. This year the touring is more extensive because of the Four Seasons project. But we get it done. I just spent six weeks playing golf in Florida with my son, and my wife and daughter were there at times, at well.
Tell us about the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.
I was asked by Mercer College, a highly respected liberal arts school in my hometown of Macon, how we could put them on the map as a music school in our lifetimes. So I came up with this wacky idea that has taken off. Four years ago, we formed a conservatory, combined with a specific liberal arts education, on the same campus. Musically, it is taught by adjuncts that are all leaders of major American symphonies, on a revolving-door basis. Academically, it’s geared towards business, finance, and public speaking so that graduates can come away reading a contract, negotiating, and raising money. We have a great director and a like-minded dean.
Let’s talk about the Four Seasons project. Did you meet Philip Glass in New York?
In the late ’90s I was preparing a recording of Glass’ first violin concerto, so I went to his home to play it for him, as a professional courtesy. There I introduced the idea of him writing a second concerto, after the Vivaldi Four Seasons. I told him, “You are America’s Vivaldi and Vivaldi was Italy’s Philip Glass.” He loved the idea. We discussed some elements together, like using a synthesizer instead of a harpsichord, returning to the Philip Glass Ensemble texture that David Byrne and David Bowie fell in love with, using the four large movements; and he added a solo part to introduce each season. He also wrote a kick-ass ending, as I asked him to do. It is an achingly beautiful work. We disagreed on what was summer and winter, which is why we leave it up to the audience to name the seasons. It’s a more abstract work than the programmatic Vivaldi, and that gives us all the chance to paint our own experience.
Are you looking forward to performing it in San Francisco?
I love that city, but I’m a little worried about the Giants and the Braves playoffs. I’m a huge Atlanta fan. I’m going to be really upset if the Giants win.