Known as the Capitol Duo, the couple serves as the resident piano-violin ensemble at the University at Albany in New York state’s capitol city.

Maine native and Bates graduate Duncan Cumming was born in Presque Isle and grew up in Wiscasset. While still in high school and attending a summer festival at Bates College, he began his study with renowned concert pianist Frank Glazer, a collaboration that continued after Cumming entered Bates.

Following his graduation with highest honors, he studied at the European Mozart Academy in Prague then returned to study with the late Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory, where he received his Master of Music degree in 1996. Later, he received his Doctor of Music degree from Boston University. Now in his seventh year on the faculty of the University at Albany, he has been honored with the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and received great acclaim for his solo recitals and ensemble programs. In 2008, he published “The Fountain of Youth: The Artistry of Frank Glazer,” a portrait of his mentor.

In addition to performing in cities across Europe and in the United States, he has given master classes, offered special concerts for children, and served on juries at competitions.

Violinist Hilary Walther Cumming, also a member of the faculty at the University at Albany, has been performing with Duncan Cumming since they met 20 years ago while teaching at Phillips Academy. She received her undergraduate training at Northwestern University and completed her master’s degree in violin performance at Indiana University in Bloomington, where her teachers were Franco Gulli and Stanley Ritchie.

Awarded a Fulbright grant, she then studied at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen and in Paris. She has developed a repertoire of classical, baroque, and Irish traditional music, and has performed as a soloist and in ensembles from South America to Eastern Europe, as well as across the Northeastern U.S. This spring, the Capital Duo returns to Europe for performances in Denmark and France.

Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for seniors, and children and college students are admitted free. Tickets may be purchased at 207-689-2000, www.francocenter.org, or the box office, Cedar St., between noon and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.


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