Ross W. Duffin

Ross W. Duffin is a Canadian-born scholar, educator, and choral conductor, specializing in historical performance practice of early music.

He is known for his work in early English play songs (including William Shakespeare) and in historical tuning systems.

As host of the weekly syndicated radio program, Micrologus: Exploring the World of Early Music, he established a national audience.

Duffin held the Fynette H. Kulas Chair in Music at Case Western Reserve University, where he taught for 4 decades and was named Distinguished University Professor.

He earned a BMus in Music History from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) in 1973, studying with Gordon K. Greene, Philip G. Downs, and Timothy Aarset.

He received a scholarship from the Charles H. Ivey Foundation and was Valedictorian for the Faculty of Music.

As a Canada Council Doctoral Fellow, Duffin enrolled at Stanford University to earn an MA and DMA in Performance Practice of Early Music (1974 and 1977, respectively), working primarily with William P. Mahrt and George Houle.

In 1976, Duffin married Beverly Simmons (1950–), whom he met in their graduate program.

As director of the Historical Performance Practice program (1978–2018), he taught graduate and undergraduate courses; directed the CWRU Collegium Musicum, and the Early Music Singers, and founded the Baroque Orchestra; from 1985 to 2010, was artistic director for the concert series, Chapel, Court, & Countryside.

In addition to giving talks on historical tuning throughout England and Scotland, Duffin coached the choral scholars at King's College, Cambridge and St. John's College, Cambridge.

He was the first guest director of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge in an Evensong service, recounted in his article, "Cracking a Centuries-Old Tradition," in Early Music America's EMAg.

They have two children, Caltech physicist David Simmons-Duffin (1984–) and NPR correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin (1986–).

His sister, Jacalyn Duffin, is a medical historian and hematologist.

In 1995, when the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians) reached the World Series, he wrote "Come All Ye Baseball Fans" to the tune of Henry Purcell's "Come Ye Sons of Art," which was noted in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Sports Illustrated, and nominated for a Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement.

When his daughter, Selena Simmons-Duffin, joined the staff of All Things Considered at National Public Radio, he wrote and produced historically based theme music ("trixies") for the program.

In addition to books, Duffin has made historically informed editions of Medieval and Renaissance music, including most of the music performed by Quire Cleveland, a professional choir of which he was founding artistic director (2008–2018).

He produced several CDs and hundreds of videos with the ensemble.

Highlights among his published editions include Forty-five Dufay Chansons from Canonici 213 which won the Noah Greenberg Award, A Josquin Anthology: 12 Motets, Richard Davy: St. Matthew Passion, and Gude & Godlie Ballatis.

He designed historic music fonts for this purpose, which have been used by Early Music (journal) and other publications.

His scholarly articles have been published in North America and Europe.

Several have been covered in the press, including "Calixa Lavallée and the Construction of a National Anthem," proposing that "O Canada" was assembled from a handful of pre-existing works; it was featured on the front page of Toronto's Globe and Mail.

Another article, "Leonardo's Lira," identifying a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in an early sixteenth-century engraving at the Cleveland Museum of Art, was covered in Live Science, NBC News, and Huffington Post.

Duffin also earned notice for his parody compositions.

He has published books, music editions, and scholarly articles on music from the 13th century to the 19th, and has won awards for his scholarship and editions.

Duffin was born in London, Ontario.