Macon Magazine

Make sure to see "Four Rational People" at Macon Film Festival on August 23 before heading to Dutton's first Fabian Concert Series show on October 6 at Fickling Hall. best graduate programs in the world, such as at The Juilliard School, and many now have very successful professional careers. That's fun to see." Dutton also spoke about taking over the Fabian series. "The Fabian chamber music series has been such a wonderful thing season after season — Amy has done an incredible job with it, programming extraordinary music and performers," he said. "I'm thrilled to come in and, without breaking anything or reinventing the wheel, add to the Fabian experience. I'm excited to add the music I love and the people I love playing it with, and I trust people will continue to find it very enjoyable. It's all part of a new phase at the Center." Dutton said he plans to include in the Fabian series music that's not often heard, as well as bring a wide variety of musicians, including former colleagues and an Italian string quartet he mentored that he said is becoming one of the world's top ensembles. Of course, he said, students will be involved, along with McDuffie distinguished artists old and new, such as new violinist instructor Jessica Lee, who will help lead the Center's violin instruction along with Jackiw, and double bassist Hal Robinson. And, he added, he's looking forward to working and performing with "a terrific violist," Emily Brandenburg, the newly appointed director of the McDuffie Center for Strings. F R O M S T U D E N T T O D I R E C T O R Robert McDuffie said this: "Just like when we started the McDuffie Center, I had only one person in mind to become its director, Amy Schwartz Moretti. As we enter this new season, I had only one person in mind to become its new director, Emily Brandenburg." Brandenburg is a 2016 graduate of the McDuffie Center, giving her a knowledgeable perspective on its operations. Add to that her service in an administrative capacity as executive assistant at the Center from 2018–2020. She also holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale University, has served as an artist-in-residence at the University of Evansville, and has performed as a member of the Cassatt Quartet as well as with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Portland Symphony, and many others. She taught viola in New York before she and her family's move to Macon. "It certainly is a full-circle moment for me, and I'm incredibly excited," Brandenburg said. "I first heard of the McDuffie Center when [Robert McDuffie] came to Rhode Island, where I lived, and I attended a masterclass he did in connection with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. He told me about the school — I didn't know anything about it at the time — but he told me about the Labor Day Festival, when potential students come to the Center to experience it and perform a concert. I came, and I loved it. I loved everything I experienced during those two or three days. Every school I went to afterward I compared to the McDuffie Center. It was the benchmark." You might note that Brandenburg entered the Center as a violinist but became a violist. "There was a shortage of violists at the time," she said. "I was asked early on to play viola for a chamber music performance and, along with my violin and other studies, had to learn viola and play in two weeks. Larry Dutton coached me, and the whole time I was thinking, 'Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?' I locked myself in my room to practice, and a couple of weeks later I performed as a violist — and I loved it. I was told I had a strong voice as a violist, but I already knew in my heart it's what I wanted to play." Despite the challenge, Brandenburg said she learned that McDuffie, Moretti, Dutton and others at the Center wanted her to succeed and were there to help shape that success. She said the individual attention offered at the Center — not just from one instructor but from many — is priceless. She said that's what she wants to be part of for students now and in the years ahead. Likely, it was seeing this attitude in Brandenburg — her character, her fortitude under pressure, her knowledge of the Center's workings, and her skill on not one but two stringed instruments — that helped McDuffie know she was needed as the school's new director. "For the future, I'm as committed as anyone to seeing it continue as a place of excellence, preparing young musicians not only as musicians but to be successful in the business of being a musician," Brandenburg said. "It's innovative that the Center has taken that approach, and I want to see that the word gets out more and more about the McDuffie Center and that every year we are welcoming wonderfully talented young people." "And," she added, as living proof, "there's something about Macon that just keeps drawing you back." "I came, and I loved it. I loved everything I experienced during those two or three days. Every school I went to afterward I compared to the McDuffie Center. It was the benchmark." August/September 2026| maconmagazine.com 111

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