Conductor

This tribute concert honors the life and legacy of the great jazz innovator, composer, bandleader, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter who passed away in March 2023. These performances feature five longtime Shorter collaborators in their BSO debuts, including the Grammy Award-winning bassist and vocalist esperanza spalding. spalding wrote the libretto for Shorter’s 2022 opera …(Iphigenia), which was premiered in Boston in 2021 and is based on the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides.

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Celebrating the Symphonic Legacy of Wayne Shorter

Boston Symphony Hall

To celebrate Christmas, the OPRL (Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège) puts the spotlight on the hits of Duke Ellington (1899-1974), one of the great names in the history of jazz. A pianist and a creative genius, he composed standards characterized by the spirit of the blues, the "jungle" style (with its expressive brass effects), and the use of original African rhythms. A champion for "black beauty" and the emancipation of black culture, Ellington also created enchanting orchestral suites. His interpretation of "The Nutcracker" transforms Tchaikovsky's music with its vibrant sounds and rhythms that invite celebration.

Duke Ellington’s Christmas

Salle Philharmonique de Liège

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 Greek myth and opera are re-imagined through a classical and jazz-infused score and deeply poetic libretto. Two of the most visionary and daring musical voices of our time embark on a staged intervention into myth-making. spalding leads a company of nineteen vocalists and chamber orchestra, with Shorter's venerated jazz trio at its center.

(Iphigenia)

The Broad Stage

A living legend of jazz collaborates with one of the brightest lights of the younger generation in the West Coast premiere of a Cal Performances co-commission that reimagines what opera can be, and asks us to reexamine the stories we have inherited and the choices we make as a society.Wayne Shorter, 11-time Grammy-winning composer and saxophonist, has written the music, and esperanza spalding, 2022 Grammy nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album, four-time Grammy-winning bassist, composer, and vocalist, is the librettist and plays the title role in Iphigenia, a radical new take on Euripides’ ancient Greek play Iphigenia in Aulis. Classical and jazz forms collide in an expansive score that features Shorter’s groundbreaking method of symphonic improvisation, lifting up Spalding’s artfully poetic and fractured libretto.The fully staged work is performed by a 28-piece chamber ensemble; the rhythm section of Shorter’s venerated quartet (Shorter himself does not perform); a cast of nine vocalists; and a chorus of 10 singers; with set design by icon Frank Gehry and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. As spalding explains, “Our Iphigenia has at its core a sense of autonomy—in this adventure of life, you have freedom of choice. The overarching sentiment is one of humanistic love, of wanting to re-awaken the dreams of youth free of the pressures of adulthood.”

Clark Rundell

Conductor

Events

21 - 23 Mar, 2024

Celebrating the Symphonic Legacy of Wayne Shorter · Boston Symphony Orchestra

15 - 17 Dec, 2023

Duke Ellington’s Christmas · Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

12 - 19 Feb, 2022

(Iphigenia) ·

Feb 12, 2022

Jazz: WAYNE SHORTER & ESPERANZA SPALDING’S …(Iphigenia) · Cal Performances

About

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