Boston Pops Celebrate Mardi Gras in May with New Orleans' Own Dukes of Dixieland, the Oldest Still-performing Dixieland Band

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The Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart celebrate Mardi Gras in May on Tuesday, May 17, and Wednesday, May 18, with the inimitable Dukes of Dixieland, the world’s oldest continuing Dixieland jazz band. In this lively themed concert, audiences will be treated to music from the Mardi Gras extravaganzas in New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro. Dvořák’s “Carnival Overture” and other light classical pieces open the concert, and in the first set Harvard senior Charlie Albright, a 22-year-old pianist, will make his Boston Pops debut with Gottschalk’s Grand Tarantelle. The intoxicating bossa-nova and Samba rhythms from Brazil take a prominent role during the second set, with tunes such as "Girl from Ipanema” and “Brazil,” and the Dukes of Dixieland bring the concert to an energetic finale when they fuse their authentic New Orleans sound with the orchestra for performances of “What a Wonderful World,” “Honky Tonk Train Blues,” and, of course, “When the Saints Come Marching In.”

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