Duke Ellington News

Birdland Jazz Club is thrilled to announce their outstanding line-up of amazing talent for the month of April 2014. Birdland will kick-off their exciting month of programming with the following acts:

Birdland Jazz Club has announcde their line-up of talent for March 24-30, including Cheyenne Jackson, Donna McKechnie and more!

Grammy Award-winners Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds met the press yesterday as they prepare for their two-week engagement in Broadway's After Midnight. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand to meet the new stars at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Check out what they had to say about their new gig below!

Grammy Award-winners Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edwards met the press yesterday as they prepare for their two-week engagement in Broadway's After Midnight. BroadwayWorld was there for the special event and you can check out photos below!

The world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis arrives at Segerstrom Center for the Arts tonight, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Segerstrom Hall.

For DIRECTOR'S CHOICE, the fourth program of Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2013-2014 season, Artistic Director Peter Boal selects from his roster of acquisitions and increases them by one: The captivating mixed-bill program will feature a much-anticipated world premiere by Alejandro Cerrudo, resident choreographer of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. The program also reprises audience favorites TAKE FIVE...More or Less, Broadway-darling Susan Stroman's sunny slice of jazz-infused Dave Brubeck fun; and Susan Marshall's distinctive aerial duet, Kiss. Rounding out the lineup is Molissa Fenley's State of Darkness, a tour-de-force solo performance set to Stravinsky's riot-inducing The Rite of Spring. DIRECTOR'S CHOICE runs for seven performances only, today, March 14 through 23 at Seattle Center's Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

Society for the Performing Arts welcomes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater back to Houston for three performances in Jones Hall, tonight, March 14 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 15 at 2 p.m.; and Today, March 15 at 8 p.m. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek below!

Grammy Award-winning artist k.d. lang, who made her Broadway debut in the new musical 'After Midnight', shared that the experience has been 'a dream come true'

World-renowned composer and pianist Geri Allen presents 'A Conversation with Mary Lou: Geri Allen Celebrates Mary Lou Williams' a new music and spoken-word tribute to the legacy of jazz groundbreaker Mary Lou Williams. Featuring vocalist/actress Carmen Lundy, bassist Kenny Davis, drummer Kassa Overall. Directed by award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson ('Law & Order').

REG E. CATHEY (House of Cards, The Wire) joins the cast of EXODUS: DREAMS OF THE PROMISED LAND IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA, playing multiple roles including Solomon Northrup (Twelve Years a Slave) and the Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The cast also includes ROSALYN COLEMAN WILLIAMS (The Mountaintop, Seven Guitars, The Piano Lesson) in multiple roles including Elizabeth Keckley (familiar to audiences from the movie Lincoln), JENNIFER RAU as Abolitionist Angelina Grimke, and the noted vocal ensemble THE WESTERN WIND. Conceived by Salon/Sanctuary's Founding Artistic Director Jessica Gould to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, EXODUS was originally presented last year in a sold-out performance staged at the historic Fraunces Tavern, the oldest structure in Manhattan.

World-renowned composer and pianist Geri Allen presents 'A Conversation with Mary Lou: Geri Allen Celebrates Mary Lou Williams' a new music and spoken-word tribute to the legacy of jazz groundbreaker Mary Lou Williams. Featuring vocalist/actress Carmen Lundy, bassist Kenny Davis, drummer Kassa Overall. Directed by award-winning actress S. Epatha Merkerson ('Law & Order').

Over the weekend, Four-time Grammy Award-winner k.d. lang, who just concluded her engagement as "Special Guest Star" in Broadway's After Midnight, offered the audience a live, rare performance of her legendary rendition of the Leonard Cohen classic, 'Hallelujah' (which she famously performed at the 2010 Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies). She gave the special encore to raise money for The Actors Fund, and was joined on stage by the Tony Award-winning chairman of the organization, Brian Stokes Mitchell.

The cast of After Midnight would like to remind New Yorkers to 'spring forward' after midnight tonight. Check out k.d. lang and company's friendly reminder below!

Yoouuuuu can taaaake the A-Train, yooooou can take it all the way to Haaarlem.

Liz Kennedy (www.lizkennedymusic.com) had been composing wordless songs on the piano since she was 12, always wondering who was going to come along and finish them for her. By her late '40s, she finally gave up waiting and began adding the lyrics herself. Performing for the first time in her early '50s, she knew she was taking a bold risk. Divorced and remarried, facing the kind of fears that come with the pain of loss, never playing for anyone but her young children asleep on the floor below, she was protecting a budding need for self-expression. She worried that one sharp critique could destroy her deep connection to something that had always been her greatest passion.

Birdland Jazz Club has announced their excellent line-up of talent for March 17-23, including Steve Ross in 'Ridin' High: Cole Porter on Broadway,' 'Now This' with Gary Peacock, Marc Copland & Joey Baron, The Puppeteers, Jim Caruso's Cast Party, and more.

Backstage at the Lincoln, the Lincoln Theatre's intimate, new concert series, has scheduled three concerts for 2014. These concerts offer patrons the extraordinary opportunity to be seated on stage with the featured local artist, providing concert goers an up-close-and-personal performance set against the hand-painted grandeur of the Lincoln's rare Egyptian Revival-style motif.

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts presents Exodus: Dreams of the Promised Land in Antebellum America featuring The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble with guest actors Rosalyn Coleman Williams and Jennifer Rau. The Script and Stage Direction is by Erica Gould and Jessica Gould did the program concept and dramaturgy.

Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announce the Orchestra's 2014-2015 season, its eighth under the direction of Maestra Alsop. The full schedule and details about each production follow.