Wayne State's Concert Chorale, conducted by Dr. Norah Duncan IV, will perform at the 4th Annual Michigan Music Conference on Thursday, January 22, 7:30pm, at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, MI. The program will include Lux Aurumque (Eric Whitacre), Ave Maria (Tomás Luis de Victoria), The Wheel (David Brunner), A Poet to His Beloved (Thomas Kuras), In Dat Great Giddin' up Mo'nin (arr. by Rosephanye Powell), and Ain't Misbehavin' (Thomas "Fats" Waller).
Admission to the performance is included in conference registration fees. For those who are not registered, admission is $10. Tickets are available at michiganmusciconference.org.
Other Wayne State events include "Meet the Authors: Current Research in Music Education" chaired by Terese Volk Touhey (WSU), and "Chamber Music Rehearsal Techniques" presented by Kypros Markou (WSU). The Department of Music will also host an an information booth (#307) during the conference. For more information, please visit music.wayne.edu.
Norah Duncan IV, is Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Music at Wayne State University. Duncan also acts as Area Coordinator for Organ Performance, directs the Concert Chorale, and coordinates many of the choral concerts presented by the Department of Music.
A multi-faceted musician, Duncan has performed extensively in both the United States and Europe as an organist. In 2008, he presented organ recitals in Germany, Poland, Australia, and throughout Michigan and Ohio. As a liturgical musician, Duncan was music director and principal organist for the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament for over 26 years. Among his greatest achievements during those years was as director of music for the Detroit visit of Pope John Paul
II in 1987. With the Benedictine Monastery in Solesmes, France, Duncan established the Gregorian Institute of Detroit for the study of Gregorian chant. Additionally, Duncan has presented papers on liturgical music at international congresses, clinics and workshops in Rome, Dublin, and for the Diocese of Enugu and the Archdiocese of Abuja, in Nigeria.
As a choral director, Duncan has presented major concerts under the Cathedral Cultural Series with the Archdiocesan Chorus, and has collaborated in concerts with many Detroit area choral ensembles. Duncan has prepared choruses for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra and the Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra. In 2004 and 2005, he directed the Michigan Youth Choral Ensemble in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Norah Duncan is the recipient of the Award for Excellence for Musical Direction from the American College Theater Festival (Washington DC), the Sr. Thea Bowman Award of the Archdiocese of Detroit, the Spirit of Detroit Award, and the Mother Teresa Duchemin Award for exemplary community service. In 2006, he became the first recipient of the "Changing Lives
Through Music" Award presented to him by the president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, Dr. Duncan received the Wayne State University Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award for his contributions to academic excellence and scholarship.
Duncan received his BA from the University of Detroit, a Master of Music degree from Wayne State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan.
Founded in 1918, Wayne State University's Department of Music has earned a reputation for excellence in the US and abroad. Many members of the music faculty, including musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and some of the area's finest jazz and vocal artists, have toured throughout the world as performers, clinicians, conductors and composers. Likewise, students in the department's ensembles have won international competitions, toured Europe and Asia, and enjoyed repeated invitations to perform at major festivals and conferences. The department also is known for its preparation of music educators.
Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.