New York City High School Singers to Join Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, 3/23

Rehearsals are now underway as high school singers from five New York City public schools and a community youth choir join together with young instrumentalists from the recently launched Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra (JLCYO) to prepare for an exciting March 2014 concert at Carnegie Hall. The performance is the culmination of a year-long creative learning project spotlighting Duke Ellington's legendary sacred music.

Created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute (WMI), in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center, this first-ever jazz-focused creative learning project at Carnegie Hall includes rehearsals with student singers and instrumentalists over the next few months, a daylong exploration of jazz vocal technique and improvisation, and creative workshops with composers and songwriters throughout the city inspired by the aspirational messages of Ellington's music. The project culminates on Sunday, March 23 at 3:00 p.m with a performance of selections from Ellington's Sacred Concerts in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Conducted by jazz composer, arranger and recognized authority on the music of Duke Ellington and the Swing era David Berger, the performance also features special guest soloists tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath, soprano Nicole Cabell, trumpeter and composer Sean Jones, trombonist and JLYCO Director Vincent Gardner, and tap dancer Jared Grimes.

"Duke Ellington is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th Century and his artistic vision of affirmation is exactly the kind of message that resonates with young people in New York City," said Sarah Johnson, Director of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. "We are thrilled to bring together talented young musicians from all corners of our great city and to work closely with Jazz at Lincoln Center in celebration of Duke Ellington's legacy."

The New York City choirs participating in the performance of Ellington's Sacred Music include the community youth choir Songs of Solomon, and choirs from Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, Forest Hills High School, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Talent Unlimited High School, and Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts. Ellington's Sacred Music kicked off at the beginning of the school year with workshops at each school led by well-known gospel singer and pianist Damien Sneed, who serves as choral preparer on the project. The student singers will join the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra for the first time at a rehearsal on Tuesday, December 3 at the Steven Wise Synagogue on the Upper West Side, followed by joint workshops and rehearsals throughout January and February leading up to the Carnegie Hall performance.

At the same time, teaching artists from WMI have begin work with young composers from three of the participating high schools as well as young people engaged in activities at sites connected with Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections, a program that provides free musical events ranging from concerts to songwriting and composition workshops for people in need across New York City. These creative sessions will be focused on the theme of "affirmation," which is central to Ellington's sacred music. Also, WMI's online community for young musicians, Musical Exchange, will host Arranging Ellington, a project that encourages young composers to create new arrangements of recordings and scores from Ellington's sacred repertoire. Select compositions from all six composition projects will be performed at a Carnegie Hall concert on Sunday, March 30, in Zankel Hall.

For journalists interested in observing upcoming workshops or rehearsals, please contact Samantha Nemeth at snemeth@carnegiehall.org / 212-903-9753 for a full schedule.

Tying together elements of jazz, blues, choral, and classical music with African-American spirituals and gospel, Duke Ellington's sacred music crossed the lines dividing secular and religious musical genres, while punctuating the ever-expanding role of jazz in America and throughout the world. Ellington composed three programs of sacred music, and, in his lifetime, each was performed once-the first at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in 1965; the second at St. John the Divine, here in New York City, in 1968; and the last at Westminster Abbey in London in 1973. Following these historic concerts, Ellington called the performances, "the most important thing I have ever done." The March 2014 culminating performance of this Ellington creative learning project will include a collection of pieces drawn from those three concerts.

In recent seasons, Carnegie Hall has offered large-scale creative learning projects in which New York City high school students explore great musical works, preparing for a culminating concert in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, while working with a professional orchestra, professional soloists, and a well-known conductor. These intensive projects are designed to nurture and showcase exemplary student work through multiple months of rehearsal and preparation, elevating student performance to a professional level, and creating transformational experiences for all involved. Past projects have included The Rite of Spring Project (November 2007), The Bernstein Mass Project (December 2008), Too Hot to Handel (November 2010), The Carmina Burana Choral Project (February 2012), and La Pasión según San Marcos (March 2013).

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