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Toledo Symphony Performs All-Jazz Concert Featuring Music
from Duke Ellington and World Premiere
Special to The Truth
On April 20 & 21 at 8 p.m.
at the Toledo Museum of Art’s Peristyle Theater, Sara Jobin
will conduct the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) for two
ProMedica Classics Series performances of Classical
Ellington, exploring the orchestral world of Duke Ellington
and works inspired by jazz.
The city of Toledo is
known for its rich and flourishing jazz scene. Some of the
greatest jazz artists began their journey in Toledo, such as
Art Tatum, Jon Hendricks and Ramona Collins, and have left a
legacy that will forever be part of its history.
Classical Ellington
showcases several works written by the jazz king himself,
Duke Ellington, a jazz-inspired work that was commissioned
for the TSO 35 years ago, and a work that will make history
as a world premiere on Friday and Saturday evening. Duke
Ellington has a unique connection to the Toledo Symphony, as
he was the first non-classical artist to perform on the
Peristyle stage on January 9, 1956.
The program will open with
Ellington’s version of The Nutcracker and close with his own
tone poem, Harlem, a piece that illustrates the complex
diversity of Harlem, New York in 1950. Russian-born American
pianist Natasha Paremski will join the TSO on stage to
perform Four Parables by Toledo composer Paul Schoenfield, a
work for piano and orchestra that was commissioned for the
TSO 35 years ago on May 13, 1983 for the 1982-1983
performance season.
Inspired by real-life
situations, each movement in Four Parables musically depicts
different environments and states of mind. “Four Parables is
a beautiful and complex work whose fundamental tonal
language is the blues, but you will also hear echoes of
Mozart, Bolcolm, Messiaen, and burlesque!” said Jobin,
resident conductor of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
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Duke Ellington
Sara Jobin |
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The TSO will make history
with the world premiere of Latin Jazz Suite by Alice Gomez,
a work inspired by the Cubop jazz movement of the 1940s and
1950s, when many artists incorporated elements of Cuban
popular music into their jazz compositions, altering the
course of American musical history forever. This piece
features the TSO’s very own Principal Trumpet, Lauraine
Carpenter.
“Jazz is America’s
greatest export, and Ellington is one of America’s great
composers. It is my honor to conduct this concert which
explores three different ‘flavors’ of jazz in the concert
hall - big band, Latin, and Schoenfeld’s amalgam which is
influenced by Mozart and Messiaen. I’m sad it’s one of the
last concerts of my tenure, but happy to be conducting this
fabulous music!” said Jobin.
Classical Ellington
concludes the Toledo Symphony’s North Star Festival, which
celebrates the musical contribution of black Americans
throughout history from the 1850s to 1960s. Two performances
of Classical Ellington will take place Friday, April 20 and
Saturday, April 21 at 8 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art’s
Peristyle Theater. Tickets are available at
toledosymphony.com or by calling the Toledo Symphony Box
Office at 419-246-8000.
For more information,
please contact Felecia Kanney, director of Marketing for the
Toledo Symphony at fkanney@toledosymphony.com. ###
The Toledo Symphony is a
community-supported organization of professional musicians
and teachers who deliver quality performance and music
education for all. Formed in 1943 as The Friends of Music
and incorporated in 1951 as the Toledo Orchestra
Association, Inc., the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has
grown from a core group of twenty-two part-time musicians to
a regional orchestra that employs sixty-five professional
musicians who consider the Toledo Symphony their primary
employer, as well as numerous extra players annually as
repertoire demands. |
