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Beyond Category: The Concert Music of Duke Ellington

April 16, 2024

The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater


You’ve never heard Duke Ellington like this! With a career that spanned 50 years, DC’s very own American icon, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, is known around the world for such jazz standards as Mood Indigo, Solitude, Take the “A” Train. But as Guest Curator, Dr. John E. Hasse, renowned Curator Emeritus of Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, will explain, Ellington sought to break out of stereotyped boxes and explore broader creative horizons. His masterworks include scores for ballet, opera, motion pictures, and Broadway musicals as well as for symphony orchestras. This spring we are joined by local up-and-coming jazz composer and pianist Ellington Carthan, to journey through the music of Duke Ellington’s extraordinary yet little-known concert pieces, including his magnificent Black, Brown, and Beige, the suite from the ballet The River, and the debut of Scott Silbert’s orchestration of Caravan featuring guest conguero Felix Contreras.

What people are saying

So many thanks for that most inspiring, capacious evening. With PCE’s usual ability to surprise and delight… that symphony was astonishing…

Kate

Your leadership and dramatic shaping of the Symphony last night was truly masterful - and so inspiring. I know I’ll never forget this experience. Thank you, Maestro!

Chris

I loved the intimacy of the ensemble and the aching beauty of the melody repeating and recurring and turning up where I did not expect it .  And I found the quality of the sound thrilling.

That was my take on the concert --that and the tears that it brought to my eyes, simply to be there, to be present at the creation of something so beautiful..

Michaele

What a perfect PCE evening, wonderful concert and lovely gathering

Liz

Angel, You are so musical! I've played the 4th twice, it was the first Mahler I heard as a kid, and I'm invariably disappointed that conductors don't let it breathe.  U nailed it.

David

Congratulations again to you and your superb ensemble on a wonderful and provocative performance in the Terrace Theater last evening.  As always, we learned something from this concert and it was fun, too.

Alec

Everything about it was sheer delight, including the lively and interesting talk at the end…

Catherine

"Wildly Ambitious"
Anne Midgette

"Invigorating"
Alex Ross

"One of the country's most innovative musical groups"
Phillip Kennicott

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Beyond Category: The Concert Music of Duke Ellington
April 16, 2024

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