Pianist Mary Lou Williams composed her masterpiece at the intersection of jazz and classical music, taking inspiration from the signs of the Zodiac. Modern jazz master Aaron Diehl performs alongside his trio and vocalist Mikaela Bennett, breathing new life into the work with a new orchestral edition. Making her BSO debut, conductor Karen Kamensek steeps the audience in the glorious colors of Respighi’s tribute to Roman fountains and Debussy’s frothy depictions of the sea.

EPSG:4326

Fountains of Rome & La Mer

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

Ilan Volkov and friends celebrate milestones from the past 100 years of American jazz, starting with a sequence honouring the ‘Duke’. Mary Lou Williams’s Zodiac Suite from 1945 romps between boogie-woogie and dissonance in its response to astrological signs. The evening culminates in the work of a boundary-crossing visionary very much still with us. From the south side of Chicago, multi-instrumentalist and self-styled ‘trans-idiomatic composer’ Anthony Braxton has established himself as a musician whose imagination recognises no bounds.

Prom 35: Ellington, Braxton and Mary Lou Williams

Royal Albert Hall

We return to jazz’s American home for a program featuring Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The Aaron Diehl trio makes its debut in Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite. John Alden Carpenter was an early classical composer to incorporate jazz in his ballet Krazy Kat, while Paul Turok channels a past St. Louis resident in A Joplin Overture. 

Rhapsody in Blue

Touhill Performing Arts Center

Ellington & Dvořák: New Worlds

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

State Theatre New Jersey

New Jersey Symphony: Ellington & Dvorak: New Worlds

Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra was already iconic with its epic introduction of earth-shattering chords and bone-shaking timpani hits, but in 1968 it truly launched into popular culture when it was used for the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s Academy Award–winning film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The work became synonymous with space exploration and excitement through a myriad of well-known titles from The Simpsons to Zoolander to Toy Story 2. Now, you can hear it live in an out-of-this-world performance by Your Philadelphia Orchestra! 

Keeping in theme with the stars, composer and jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams’s Zodiac Suite—12 movements inspired by musicians born under each of the astrological signs—dazzles audiences thanks to the tremendous talent of pianist Aaron Diehl and the Aaron Diehl Trio. Conductor Cristian Măcelaru leads the Orchestra in this musical voyage to the outer realms of the galaxy.

Aaron Diehl Trio

2 - 3 Nov, 2024

Fountains of Rome & La Mer

Aug 15, 2024

Prom 35: Ellington, Braxton and Mary Lou Williams

Aaron Diehl Trio