Staff Alumni Spotlights Alumni by State Alumni Groups Tiger Troops Spirit Alumni Benefits Around Auburn Auburn Traditions

ALUM Spotlight Brenda Neece, M.M. '93

With a Master of Music degree from Auburn, a PhD from Oxford, and years of learning from her current position as Curator of historical instruments at Duke University, Brenda Neece has not only honed her expertise for the cello, but also broadened her musical scope with a diverse range of instruments. Certainly others would class Brenda as a renowned expert in her field, still she insists, "It’s not about being an expert; it’s about passion for learning and life." Her passion for learning about and playing the cello led her to a world of musical instruments as well as the sport of fencing. As a doctoral student, her cello teacher encouraged her to choose fencing for its compatibility with cello playing. Currently, she is an assistant coach for Duke's fencing team and trained this summer at the U.S. Fencing Association's Coaching College at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.

Q. Please tell us about your career at Duke.

A. I have just completed my fifth year working for Duke University as the Curator of the historic musical instruments. The original collection is the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection of Musical Instruments, but now Duke has obtained many more instruments, including a collection from Oudenaarde, Belgium: the Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments. The umbrella name for all of the collections is now the: Duke University Musical Instrument Collections, or DUMIC. I hope to find a patron or major donor for the museum and have it renamed after that person.

As the first curator of the collections, my job has been to build a working museum from a room full of pianos and 14 crates of other musical instruments. My five years have been spent creating displays and building the collections. A major part of my job is teaching about musical instruments. This includes community outreach programs for elementary school students, lectures at retirement homes, and seminar courses for Duke students. I also teach Duke students one-on-one, along the lines of the tutorial system at Oxford. In addition, each year I take lessons on different types of musical instruments. So far I have done some work on the piano, the trumpet, the flute, the clarinet, and this last year – the highland bagpipes. The goal with these studies is not to become a virtuoso, but rather to gain firsthand experience of how the instruments function, difficulties of playing them, and reasons for changes in musical instrument technology. This coming academic year I plan to study the one-key flute in the fall and the oboe in the spring.

I have just completed my second year as an assistant coach for the Fencing team. This is one of my favorite roles. The fencers are very dedicated; fencing is not a scholarship sport, and yet they train hard and fence well. It is a great privilege to work with Maestro Alex Beguinet, the head coach. He is one of the greatest teachers/coaches I have ever met. He and his wife Elizabeth also run the United States Fencing Association (USFA) Coaches College at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) every summer, working to promote the sport of fencing in the United States by raising the standard of coaching.

Another role I have is Faculty-in-Residence (FIR), which means that I live on campus in a first-year dormitory. I love living in the dorm! When I was given the job, I was told that my official duties involved providing an intellectual influence on the first-year residential experience. What I’ve found is that the students and I learn from each other. Sometimes people ask what it is like to live in a dorm in my mid-thirties. Admittedly, dorm life is not for everyone, but I think it keeps me young. I live in my own apartment (on the boys’ hall!) with my two cats, one of whom thinks he is a dog. This covers the bases for having surrogate pets for my residents. My dorm, Epworth, is a special place for me; my mother lived in the suite below my apartment when she was a first-year doctoral student at Duke in the 1960s. She and my Dad (then her fiancé) remember cooking dinner in the communal kitchen the year before they were married.

Q. What have you been up to this summer?

A. This summer has been extremely busy for me. After graduation in May, I left for a few weeks in Britain and a week in Belgium. In Oxford, I worked with one of my doctoral supervisors, Mr. Jeremy Montagu, in his private collection of 2500+ musical instruments and many thousands of books. Jeremy helped me learn more about Duke’s de Hen-Bijl Collection, which consists of musical instruments from around the world. I was able to examine and photograph many instruments and find many helpful books and articles related to Duke’s holdings. While in Britain I also gathered materials for an upcoming exhibit on bagpipes. One of my best sources was The National Piping Centre in Glasgow. I also picked up my new 5-string cello from a maker in Abingdon, just south of Oxford. I commissioned this instrument before I left Britain in 2001 and workedclosely with the maker on its design. In Belgium I stayed in Oudenaarde where I worked with the collector of the de Hen-Bijl Collection, Professor Ferdinand J. de Hen. He gave me background information on the instruments, additional photographs of his time collecting them in places such as Afghanistan, and many of his field recordings.

When I got home from Europe, I discovered that my grandmother was ill and made a last-minute trip to Arkansas to visit her for her 85th birthday. I was able to see her in the hospital for a few days and visit some of my other relatives.

Q. How was your experience of studying and living in England?

A. If it can be said that one "finds" oneself, then that is what I did in England. Oxford is a life-changing place that seems to magically make the world smaller, allowing one to meet world leaders (political and academic) among the dreaming spires that have inspired centuries of scholars. There I became a musician under the instruction of Mr. William Pleeth in London. I became a scholar under the tutelage of Mr. Jeremy Montagu and Dr. Hélène La Rue.  I became a fencer and coach under the coaching of Maestro Tomek Walicki. I met the maker of my cellos, Mr. David Collins. I was offered a job at Duke before being granted my doctorate. I read. I played the cello. I became a Roman Catholic. I had adventures doing my research by bicycle and train, visiting museums and historic sites by day and camping by night. I had many defining moments while at Oxford.

Q. What do you miss the most about Auburn?

A. The people. I came to Auburn to study with Ms. Martha Gerschefski, the cello professor in the music department. She has an extraordinary ability to teach technique and technical concepts. I miss Professor Stephenson and his extraordinary abilities as a pianist (and his amazing hair), Professor Howard Goldstein and his quick wit, Donna in the main office who kept everything going, Dr. Wayne Moore whose dedication to the field of musicology still inspires me, Mrs. Julia Morgan the wonderful and kind pianist, and my classmate and fellow musician Robin Pettey. And now, due to cutbacks in the University, I miss the very program that provided me with a springboard for my training at Oxford, and ultimately the career I have today. I know that times are hard and cuts must be made, but sometimes I fear that choices are made to cut the very things from universities that make our lives worth living – such as music. Why would I want to live an extended lifespan, thanks to modern medicine, if there were no music?