Adrianne Duncan has been making music since she was six. The daughter of renowned classical guitarist Charles Duncan (author of The Art of Classical Guitar Playing), she honed her classical piano skills through private study, master classes with such luminaries as Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax, and Ruth Laredo, and summers spent at such institutions as Tanglewood and Brevard Music Centers. Now based in Los Angeles, the talented pianist, singer, songwriter, and composer has performed globally and recorded with some of LA’s finest musicians, including the Grammy-nominated Lado B Brazilian Project, with whom she toured Brazil on keyboards and vocals. We had the pleasure to speak to Adrianne about her successful career and her latest album ‘Gemini’.
Hi Adrianne. Congratulations on your career to date. It’s a pleasure to have you join us for an interview. You’re the daughter of renowned classical guitarist and educator Charles Duncan. Growing up, this must-have shaped your musical influences but can you share what drew you to keyboard instruments?
Thank you so much for having me! I did grow up in a musical household; in addition to my dad’s guitar being a constant presence, my mom played the piano, and she introduced me to it when I was about 2. I don’t have a strong memory of what drew me to the instrument since I started so young, but apparently, I got into it right away and after my first lesson announced that I didn’t need it anymore, since now I knew how to play! Atlanta, where I grew up, is a cultural city and my parents took me to concerts all the time; the Metropolitan Opera used to come into town once a year and we would go, and we were regulars at the Atlanta Symphony and jazz concerts.
We had two friends, Cy Timmons and Paul Mitchell, who were fantastic Atlanta jazz musicians my parents would take me to go see; I felt very grown-up as a little kid hanging out at these jazz venues. I also remember wearing out different jazz albums like The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett and You Must Believe In Spring by Bill Evans; the sounds they got out of the instrument were so evocative and addictive for me. And classically, I had a particularly strong love of Impressionist composers as well as Bach, which I still do. I was lucky enough to play in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra for four years under the wonderful conductor Jere Flint, which was an amazing experience; they treated us exactly like the actual symphony, from blind auditions to performing at Symphony Hall.
Having early exposure, education, and early experiences of the music business, were there aspects of the industry that provided steep, difficult, or surprising learning curves?
Yes! Such a good question. Since I was steeped in classical music from a young age and got on the competition track around age 8, that was a very familiar world to me. I had extensive professional and pre-professional classical performing experience: in addition to playing with the Atlanta Youth Symphony, I performed solo, in smaller and chamber groups, and concertized with my dad. However, when I moved out to Los Angeles and got back into music from acting, I decided I wanted to study jazz, which I had been a voracious listener of since I was a child but never realized was a teachable form. I had a hard time switching my brain from a classical, notation-based one to learning chart reading, along with new scales and chords, including rootless voicings, and it was very frustrating for me. Through that process, though, I started composing, and that’s when things really started to move along. Also, classical music is a much more linear field, professionally speaking, so it’s also been a bit of a learning curve in terms of learning how various music platforms work and promoting myself in the age of streaming.
You studied theater, earning a degree from Northwestern University, which in addition to full-time professional acting work, also led directly to singing. Please share with us your experiences at the university and, to what extent, did they shape your skillsets as a songwriter?
I was a very sheltered and one-sided classical kid, so I think I intuitively knew I needed to branch out for my overall development. I was behind socially (that happens when you’re in a room by yourself practicing an instrument for multiple hours a day!) and I was interested in other kinds of music and other art forms, especially literature and theatre. My dad is an English professor in addition to guitar and my mom is an editor, so I grew up in a literary as well as a musical household.
I think theatre exposed me to human interaction and feelings I wasn’t aware of, both because I was still immature but also because I didn’t have a typical childhood or school experience since I was so involved with piano. I think that my exposure to acting and theatrical literature enabled me to write about other people and experiences I might not have been able to otherwise, and reading dramatic writing gave me insight into the economy of words and expression needed for lyrics. Acting also helped me performance-wise as a vocalist, because when you sing, you’re essentially acting the lyric.
You have performed and recorded with many celebrated musicians, including working on the Grammy-nominated Lado B Brazilian Project, and with legendary multireedist Bennie Maupin. Of your many performances and collaborations, what are the most memorable, and why?
I’ve loved all the collaborative projects I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with, but I think the most memorable was the 2017 tour of Brazil I did with Lado B. I had never been to Brazil or the southern hemisphere before, and that was quite an experience – no one told me the moon looks different there and I was shocked when I saw it! I was so blown away by all the people I met – it’s such a lovely and warm culture, and music is everywhere.
I was one of three musicians that came from the US and it was so amazing and inspirational to play with the phenomenal Brazilian musicians that joined us: Bruno Mangueira on guitar, Felipe Silveira on keyboards, Marcos Souza on bass, Celso de Almeida on drums, and Patricia Marchiori on background vocals. The Lado B music and arrangements by Otmaro Ruiz and Catina DeLuna are incredible, and it was wonderful performing in the music’s country of origin. Otmaro’s arrangement of “The Girl from Ipanema” on the Lado B album was nominated for a Grammy the previous year, so it was fun to be part of a project that had that kind of excitement associated with it.
Your latest album Gemini features a versatile and very talented array of artists. Dan Lutz on acoustic and electric bass, Jimmy Branly on drums, vibraphonist Nick Mancini, John Tegmeyer on clarinet, and Katisse Buckingham on flute and saxophone. Please share more on the formation of the band and the origins of this project.
Since I had moved to LA from Chicago for acting and had no contacts in music here, my involvement in the Los Angeles creative jazz scene started when I decided to switch back to music and met Otmaro Ruiz. I was singing in a showcase and he was in the house band, which included bassist Ric Fierabracci. I also met drummer Aaron Serfaty that night, so I met three amazing musicians in one evening and realized the caliber of players here. I met Jimmy Branly through Otmaro, and I started writing when I met Nick Mancini – I had no idea I could write before I was encouraged by him, so he really is the catalyst for my becoming a songwriter and composer. I think I either met everyone else through Nick or the other way around – when I was planning the album, I knew that they would be a perfect fit for the material and I really didn’t consider using anyone else. They’re all very in demand, so it was tricky getting everyone in a room together at the same time, but it worked out and I’m so thrilled with the result!
Your prolific and impressive resume includes being musical director of the show Twins, and founder/ producer of the LA Modern Jazz Series, which showcased world-class creative jazz musicians. How important is it for you to be a facilitator of the arts as well as a practicing artist?
Extremely important! The arts are always threatened by venues closing and resources drying up, and never more so than now. The only way to keep it moving forward is by artists creating opportunities for themselves and others. I love producing live shows, even though it can be stressful – I’ve also produced house concerts, and I love the intimacy and warmth of bringing music into a home setting.
I really love it when people that haven’t experienced a house concert before doing it for the first time because they tend to be really special. I’d love to restart my jazz series – I was financing that myself on credit cards and keeping my fingers crossed that I would break even with ticket sales, so I stopped for that reason, but I’m more familiar with grants and arts funding now and have been mulling over ways to make that happen. The reason I started that series in the first place was that I wanted to create a concert space for world-class musicians that don’t necessarily have the cachet or team behind them to book a major concert hall but are just as deserving of that kind of concentrated listening experience to present their music.
What projects are you currently working on?
I’m promoting my new album Gemini, and I’m preparing for album release shows, but I’m also getting lists together of material for new recordings. I would love to record a solo piano album of both classical and original material, and I have so many vocal tunes I’ve written I’d love to record as well. One of my favorite guitarists is Bruno Mangueira, who I played with in Brazil, and we’ve been talking about doing some remote recording.
I also have a client in his 80s whose first jazz album I produced in 2019; we were working on material for a second when the pandemic started so that obviously got put on hold, but during lockdown, we started writing songs together remotely. We have about six original tunes that are finished that I can’t wait to record with him – they sound like standards but with a bit of a modern twist. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz from the 1920s to-1950s, which is not my main area, so he’s fantastic to work with and learn from. His name is Larry Wolf; he’s a veteran character actor and appears in numerous films by Robert Downey Sr., so he’s had an amazing life and career and I’m thrilled to be part of his musical journey.
Where can we follow your activities?
Please feel free to follow or subscribe to me at the platforms below – I’m most active on Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube. Since social media is so important for independent musicians, I’m always grateful for the support!
- Website: AdrianneDuncan.com
- Instagram: @adrianneduncan
- Spotify: Adrianne Duncan
- Apple Music: Adrianne-Duncan
- YouTube: Adrianne Duncan youtube.
- Facebook: LA Modern Jazz Series
Adrianne Duncan photos by Joe Rubinstein (main) and Joseph Viles
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