Centenary Stage Company to Host January THAW Music Festival at Lackland Center

Centenary Stage Company hits the ground running in the New Year with an array of musical guests primed to heat up the Lackland Center for the January THAW Music Festival. The festival launches on Saturday, January 16 at 2pm with The Duke Ellington Center Big Band under the direction of Mercedes Ellington and their exciting, hand-clapping, finger-snapping, dynamic musical journey from the Jazz clubs of Harlem and the Apollo Theater, to the downtown night clubs and Broadway stages, with "Duke Ellington: Composer Beyond Category" .

This all-Ellington program features legendary jazz/blues singers such as Antoinette Montague and a host of incredible international, NY, Broadway, Jazz, Blues and "Beyond Category" dancers and musicians. With Special Guest Star Andre De Shields, dance stars from the Broadway stage and championship ballroom competitions, and tap dance virtuosos all performing to a classic Duke Ellington score presented with a modern theatrical flair.

Directed by dancer/choreographer/producer, Mercedes Ellington, Duke Ellington's granddaughter, this exciting musical production -- described by Ms. Ellington as "a cross between a Broadway theatrical musical revue and a jazz concert" -- brings back fond memories and ignites new ones. This is an entertaining, rip-roaring musical performance for Duke Ellington fans everywhere, and demonstrates why Ellington is ranked as America's most prolific 20th century composer and was hailed worldwide during his lifetime as "the Global Ambassador of Jazz and Peace!" - truly an artist and human being - 'beyond category.'

Tickets for The Duke Ellington Center Big Band under the direction of Mercedes Ellington are $35.00 for orchestra seating and $30.00 for balcony seating. As with all concerts, jazz and special events all ticket orders increase $5.00 on the day of the performance. All ticket sales are final.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 - 0900. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 - 5pm and two hours prior to every performance. The box office is located in the Lackland Center at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ 07840.

The 2015-16 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Premier Season Sponsor Heath Village Retirement Community, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), The Holiday Inn in Budd Lake, and Fulton Bank of New Jersey, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

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