Wynton Marsalis and orchestra to visit UNCG

UNCG Now

Wynton Marsalis, renowned trumpet player, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading figure in the promotion of jazz music throughout the world, will visit UNCG next week. He will perform with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in one of the biggest University Performing Arts Series events of the year.
“You are going to hear the most artistically complete large jazz ensemble in the world, led by the 21st century equivalent of Duke Ellington,” said Chad Eby, interim director of UNCG’s Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program.
The concert will be at Lawndale Baptist Church on April 20 at 8 p.m. Earlier in the day, Marsalis will appear in “Wynton Marsalis Speaks,” a public conversation with Eby, at 3 p.m. in Taylor Theatre.
Marsalis grew up in New Orleans, in one of the most recognizable families in recent American music history. His father, Ellis Marsalis, is a famed jazz piano player and piano teacher, who gave his sons excellent training in music and also passed on a deep appreciation for jazz and culture.
After playing in the New Orleans Philharmonic and other New Orleans ensembles, Wynton Marsalis attended Juilliard in New York City. In 1981, he began touring with his own band. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammy awards in the same year. And he did it again the next year, in both categories, and also won Grammy awards in the three subsequent years, becoming the only five-year consecutive Grammy winner.
Marsalis is also the musical and artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a distinguished American music institution. He founded the orchestra in 1987, and in 1995 it officially joined Lincoln Center, also home to the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra produces a variety of events worldwide, including children’s and educational ...

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