The annual Labor Day Festival brings 8 exceptionally talented high school seniors to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. For three days, participants take part in master classes, coachings and rehearsals with Center faculty as they prepare for the festival’s closing concert, when they will perform string quartets as well as play with the Center String Ensemble.

Robert McDuffie and the Aspen Music Festival orchestra, performing Bernstein's Serenade, had to delay the start of a concert when a storm rolled in over the Benedict Music Tent. Conductor Michael Stern left the stage to check on the weather report, leaving his baton with McDuffie.

Selected photos from the annual festival in Rome

At the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, built between 1876 and 1884, and now home to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Robert McDuffie plays with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for the January 18 concert: “In some ways, the addition of McDuffie might have been the night's biggest delight because the extent of his playing was unexpected.... Whether duetting with Leavell on the latter's 'Southscape' or soloing with the ASO, McDuffie mesmerized." – Atlanta Journal Constitution

With Mike Mills (R.E.M.) on piano, and students from the McDuffie Center for Strings

Hosted by Robert McDuffie at the Grand Opera House in Macon, Georgia

In and around the Center for Strings and related events in Macon, Georgia

The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings celebrated its new home, the Bell House, in a spectacular weekend.

Benefit concert in New York City for the Rome Chamber Music Festival, featuring the McDuffie Center for Strings Ensemble

Performances with students from the McDuffie Center for Strings