18 October 2012
Birthday, with Swing!
A very happy birthday to trumpet virtuoso, jazz-man extraordinaire, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis. This triple-threat friend and neighbor will again regale our audiences when the Philharmonic and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra team up in May to reprise his Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) — which they performed in its U.S. premiere for the Free Dress Rehearsal (above) and Opening Night Gala in September 2010.
30 July 2012
Swingin’ through the Ages
47 years ago today jazz legend Duke Ellington made his New York Philharmonic conducting debut, as part of the Orchestra’s French-American Festival. For this special occasion, he led several of his own works, including New World a’Coming and Golden Broom, and narrated Copland’s Preamble for a Solemn Occasion.
Jazz still plays a significant role at the Philharmonic. Next May Ellington’s heir, the eminent Wynton Marsalis, reprises his Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Philharmonic, and Alan Gilbert — the forces that gave its U.S. Premiere in September 2010.
16 February 2011
On this edition of On the Music, Podcast host Elliott Forrest and Philharmonic Artistic Administrator John Mangum discuss the comical adventures portrayed in R. Strauss’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, a suite of tongue-in-cheek incidental music based on Molière’s 17th-century theatrical masterpiece. Come hear this and a variety of works conducted by Andrey Boreyko on a program that also features guest soloist Branford Marsalis on alto saxophone, February 16–19.
Listen to more of the Philharmonic’s award-winning podcast series here.
