Duke Ellington News

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for June 8-14, featuring Kurt Elling, Rolando Morales-Matos Sextet, Barbara Carroll, and more!

Arete Productions, the performance arm of Santa Barbara School of Performing Arts (SB SOPA), will present the Broadway hit musical 13,a grown-up story about growing up, at the Marjorie Luke Theater this weekend, May 30 and 31, with a preview and showcase on May 29, featuring local artists, SOPA star alumni and the Inner Light Community Gospel Choir. Proceeds from the showcase will benefit Santa Barbara School of Performing Arts scholarship students.

One of America's most versatile and prolific living composers, Andre Previn, joins Pacific Symphony as the honored guest and focus of the 15th American Composers Festival (ACF). Previn, who has been called one of America's least easily categorized musicians, began his remarkable career as a Hollywood "wunderkind" and a best-selling jazz pianist. Now 86, Previn has received four Academy Awards for his work in film, 10 Grammy Awards for his recordings (plus one more for his Lifetime Achievement), and he is also an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He's held a series of major conducting posts, including the L.A. Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, but now exclusively composes. The concert is led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, whose great admiration for the legend shaped this year's ACF to reveal the scope of Previn's prowess as a composer. 

A theatre-tastic take on a rock classic!

Michael Feinstein and the Pasadena POPS open their one of a kind, popular outdoor summer concert series with vocalists Marilyn Maye and Michael Andrew in BIG BAND SWING on Saturday June 20th in a show sure to get all ages dancing in the aisles at the Los Angeles Arboretum.

The Colony Hotel, which is widely recognized as the Palm Beach Home of the Great American Songbook, is promising guests and fans “Intimate Evenings” on Saturdays from 7 to 10:30 pm. 

Arete Productions, the performance arm of Santa Barbara School of Performing Arts (SB SOPA), will present the Broadway hit musical 13,a grown-up story about growing up, at the Marjorie Luke Theater on May 30 and 31, with a preview and showcase on May 29, featuring local artists, SOPA star alumni and the Inner Light Community Gospel Choir. Proceeds from the showcase will benefit Santa Barbara School of Performing Arts scholarship students.

CAT SINGS ELLA!, a musical theatre experience of pure pleasure that promises to stir 'Body and Soul', will play a season at the Rosebank Theatre in Cape Town this May and June, prior to a run at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in July.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for June 1 - June 7, featuring Maria Schneider Orchestra, Lindsay Mendez, Barbara Carroll, and more!

While performing her triumphant musical tour of the United States, European Cabaret artist Adrienne Haan followed up her recent critically acclaimed engagements at The Actors Temple and The Cutting Room in New York by dazzling audiences with her performances at the prestigious Embassy Series in Washington DC and sold out show at the Neue Galerie's Cafe Sabarsky in New York City.

The Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), celebrating 25 years of creating community through American tap and contemporary percussive arts in world-class, innovative performance, education and outreach programs, presents the 25th annual Rhythm World. The oldest and most comprehensive festival of American tap and contemporary percussive arts in the world takes place July 6-August 2 at CHRP's American Rhythm Center in Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Jazz Showcase. Rhythm World is presented in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

(WASHINGTON)-Washington National Opera (WNO) celebrates its seventh season of free opera simulcasts at Nationals Park with title sponsor Mars Chocolate North America for the M&M'S® Opera in the Outfield performance of Rossini's charming romantic comedy Cinderella today, May 16, 2015. This dazzling production has been acclaimed worldwide for its witty characterizations, rainbow-bright sets and costumes, and easy-to-follow English translation, making it a perfect opera for the entire family. Gates open at 5 p.m. for "pre-ball" activities, and the opera will be broadcast live from the Kennedy Center Opera House to the high-definition NatsHD scoreboard at the ballpark at 7 p.m. Free seating will be available in the stands, while access to the outfield grass will be limited on a first-come, first-served basis when gates open at 5 p.m. More information, including a chance to RSVP to win prizes, is available at OperaintheOutfield.org.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced its schedule for May 25-31, featuring BossaBrasil, Steve Ross, Sean Harkness Duo, and more!

Seven outstanding vocalists, songwriters, and musicians born in 1915 will be honored at Weill Recital Hall on Tuesday, June 9th, at 7:30 p.m., when The Mabel Mercer Foundation presents the annual concert, "It Was A Very Good Year." Cohosted by the Foundation's artistic director KT Sullivan and the distinguished critic Rex Reed, the one-night-only event celebrates the centennial birthdays of (alphabetically) Alice Faye, Billie Holiday, Bart Howard, Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, Billy Strayhorn, and Cy Walter.

On May 13, top athletes, entertainers and business leaders will be inducted into Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) Alumni Hall of Fame.

International touring and recording artist Clairdee joins forces with the Capital Jazz Orchestra, Clayton 'Skip' Poole, Music Director, for a very special 100th birthday tribute to the great “Lady Day”, Billie Holiday, tonight, May 15, at 7:30pm. Based in San Francisco, Clairdee will be performing such Billie classics as “Travelin' Light,” “Any Old Time,” and “God Bless the Child,” along with many other selections featuring both the big band and the more intimate CJO combo.

Jack Kleinsinger's Highlights In Jazz, New York's longest running jazz concert series, concludes its 43rd season on Thursday June 11, 2015 at 8:00 PM in the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at Borough of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers Street, NY, 10007 with Jazz Past & Present, a multigenerational double bill featuring the incomparable duo of, pianist Randy Weston and tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, performing a program including selections from their critically acclaimed album The Roots of the Blues. 

On Friday, June 12 from 7 to 10 p.m., The Jost Project will perform at Chris' Jazz Cafe and salute a legend in Philadelphia -- Composer Evan Solot.

Enjoy an afternoon of big band jazz, featuring The Billy Strayhorn Orchestra under the direction of Michael Hashim, Sunday, June 14, 2015 at 2:30. Tickets are $20-25.