Interchanging Idioms

Featuring Trumpeter and Vocalist Byron Stripling The Boston Pops invites three distinguished conductors to the podium during the sixth week of concerts to lead the orchestra in tributes to American Icons, the great American Songbook, and the yearly favorite Gospel Night at Pops. Recently appointed the BSO’s Youth and Family Concert Conductor, Thomas Wilkins takes the spotlight first, June 14 and 15, leading the Boston Pops and trumpet virtuoso Byron Stripling in a tribute to jazz great Louis Armstrong, featuring “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Saint James Infirmary”. The performance opens with a distinctively American medley of George M. Cohan tunes including “Give My Regards to Broadway,” You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” and Thomas Martin, Principal Clarinet of the Boston Pops Orchestra, will also take center stage to perform a Benny Goodman tribute featuring the big band touchstone “Sing, Sing, Sing”. Tickets for the American Icons, American Songbook, and Gosp...

Available April 5, 2011 Since signing with SONY MASTERWORKS at the age of 17, the young pianist Eldar has worked tirelessly on the road and in the studio to deepen his exploration of the traditions of jazz—bebop, post-bop and beyond. With the April 5th release of Three Stories , his first solo recording on MASTERWORKS Jazz, Eldar pays homage to his classical roots by combining his musical passions, jazz and classical. "The title has a double meaning," he explains. "First, it is the name of a three-movement composition which consists of three musical 'narratives,' each telling a distinct story. Second, the album consists of my interpretations and arrangements of predominantly three musical facets: standards, originals, and classical." The new disc confirms Eldar's membership in that rarefied group of musicians who are masters of both the jazz and classical traditions—greats like Keith Jarrett, Andre Previn, and Wynton Marsalis. At the same time...

Every day is a "Good Day" when you can hear Dianne Reeves While there are no concerts at Boettcher Hall until 12/29, the Colorado Symphony can still be a part of your Christmas Eve. Catch a re-broadcast of our Marvin Hamlisch conducted, 12/14 performance, A Jazz Christmas with Dianne Reeves, on Denver's KUVO, Jazz 89.3FM at 7:00 p.m.

O'Connor To Join Kennedy Center's Grappelli and Reinhardt Tribute Jan. 16 Composer and virtuoso violinist Mark O'Connor has announced the live return of his critically acclaimed band Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing -- O'Connor's tribute to friend and mentor Stephane Grappelli -- with a January tour. On January 16, Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing will perform as part of the Kennedy Center's 102nd anniversary of the birth of violinist Stephane Grappelli. The concert will close with a rousing finale featuring O'Connor's Hot Swing with his powerhouse duo of guitarists Frank Vignola and Julian Lage, along with French guitarist Dorado Schmitt of the Django Reinhardt Festival. Together, the groups will recreate the 1930's heyday of Reinhardt and Grappelli's Quintet of the Hot Club of France. The group will then tape a live session of Mountain Stage in Morgantown, WV on January 17. The Chicago Sun-Times raved that Hot Swing brings "this in...

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and American Composers Orchestra announce a new collaborative project: the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI). With generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, this program will provide instruction to jazz composers in working with the symphony orchestra, an area that many jazz composers wish to engage, but for which access to educational and performance opportunities are few. JCOI will take place in two stages: the Intensive and the Readings. From July 20 to 24, 2010, up to 35 participants, selected from a national pool of applicants, will take part in the JCOI Intensive on the Columbia University campus, where they will work with prominent composers, performers, conductors, and music industry leaders in seminars, workshops and performance labs in orchestration, instrumentation, contemporary techniques, score preparation and ideas for incorporating improvisation within an orchestral framework. Professional de...

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra with Guest Conductor Victor Vanacore will take you back to the days of the big band era with hits from Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, and Glenn Miller. TICKETS: $75-$20 – tickets on sale now Tickets may be purchased online at www.slso.org , or by phone at 314-534-1700, or in person at the Powell Hall Box Office, 718 N. Grand Blvd.

Honoring the Award-Winning Composer, Conductor and Pianist with a Glittering Showcase of Songs In honor of André Previn ’s 80th birthday last week, Sony Masterworks is proud to announce the release of the recording, André Previn: An 80th Birthday Celebration . This compilation includes the full breadth of his career as a pianist, composer and conductor joined by many of his greatest and most enduring collaborators, in everything from jazz to the classical orchestral repertoire. Carnegie Hall is also saluting Mr. Previn with a concert series. A chamber music program on April 22nd includes violinist (and ex-wife) Anne-Sophie Mutter and cellist Lynn Harrell , playing piano trios by Mozart and Mendelssohn as well as Mr. Previn's own newly commissioned Piano Trio. On April 26 Carnegie Hall's celebration concludes with Previn conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Ms. Mutter, soprano Renée Fleming and violist Yuri Bashmet . The program features his Violin Concerto ...

Kurt Elling , one of the most versatile vocalists in jazz today, will be preforming at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall on Thursday, 15 January, when the Chicago singer makes his Scottish debut, along with his regular musical partner, pianist Laurence Hobgood, in the company of the Norrbotten Big Band, led by US trumpeter and bandleader Tim Hagans. Kurt's poised, mellifluous baritone and athletic scat singing have seen him top numerous polls for best jazz singer and attracted a clutch of Grammy nominations. Sometimes described as "an instrumental singer", he has set and sung lyrics to such gems as bassist Charlie Hayden's solo based on Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade and Wayne Shorter's sax line in the Joe Zawinul classic A Remark You Made . Kurt, 41, doesn't balk at setting his poetically and spiritually infused lyrics to the greats. His current album, Nightmoves (Concord) matches his words, adapted from those of the 13th-century Sufi poet Rumi, t...