Classical meets rock when ‘Concerto’ is performed

They met as 12-year-olds at Macon’s First Presbyterian Church, spending time listening to records and trading Hardy Boys’ books. Years later, both went on to become world-famous musicians.

Now, lifelong friends Robert McDuffie and Mike Mills will return to their roots with a concert that combines their classical and rock backgrounds.

The two are touring to perform “Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and String Orchestra” and will be at the City Auditorium on Thursday night. The Macon show is being presented by Bragg Jam.

“I’ve been playing the violin a long time and played a lot of the dead, white, European male composers and I’ve loved it,” McDuffie said. “But I had an experience about five or six years ago with (composer) Philip Glass … that experience stayed with me and I’ve kind of wanted to go even farther outside of my wheelhouse.”

McDuffie said he proposed the idea of a concerto to Mills, who is a composer but is best known as a founding member of rock band R.E.M.

“I wanted to play a piece by a composer whose music I loved and I also didn’t just want to play it once and put it on the shelf,” McDuffie said. “I knew that his profile would help secure performances and he certainly helped the cause by writing an amazing piece.”

The result is a 13-track album, which was released Oct. 14. The album features Mill’s six-track concerto as well as four movements by Philip Glass and three by composer John Adams.

“Every show is the album,” McDuffie said.

Adams’ and Glass’ pieces will take the first half and the second half will be Mills’ concerto, which features McDuffie on violin and Mills on bass and keyboard.

They are joined by the Fifth House Ensemble chamber orchestra for the tour, but Mercer University’s McDuffie Center for Strings ensemble played for the album.

“That was really cool to have that Mercer connection on the recording and they just played their hearts out,” McDuffie said.

Music was the reason McDuffie and Mills first met. McDuffie’s mom was the organist and choir director at First Presbyterian Church, where Mills’ parents were both talented singers.

“Back then in the early 1970s, it was church all day at that place,” McDuffie said. “We’d have the morning service and then we’d have handbell choir and youth choir and then the Sunday evening service.”

He said the families became good friends and the Mills’ family was often over at the McDuffie home.

“The parents would libate heavily and the kids would just do regular kid stuff,” he said.

“We both loved the fact that the Allman Brothers were living in Macon and recording in Macon at the time. That was a source of pride for us. We also were in the music club together that our parents helped run. So music was definitely the common denominator there.”

He said the two have remained friends over the years and would occasionally catch each other’s shows if they were in the same city. Mills also became an investor in McDuffie’s violin — a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu that cost $3.5 million.

“We had to form a limited partnership to acquire this violin, actually sold shares,” McDuffie said. “(Mills) was one of the early investors.”

He said this latest collaboration has been challenging for both of them, but rewarding.

“We’re really in the thick of it right now and I’m happy with the way it’s turned out,” McDuffie said.

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Classical meets rock when ‘Concerto’ is performed."