JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA WITH WYNTON MARSALIS is Coming to The Hobby Center

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Jazz Houston will present Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis for a one-night-only engagement November 16, 2025 at the Hobby Center.

JLCO is comprised of world-class improvisers, arrangers, and composers who alongside Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis have redefined big band music. The evening will showcase the talents of Houston’s own and longtime JLCO orchestra member Vincent Gardner – the Founding Artistic Director of Jazz Houston.

From timeless classics to bold new compositions, this world-renowned group of virtuoso musicians delivers a night of music that’s both deeply rooted and freshly inspired. Whether a longtime jazz lover or new to the genre, this concert promises to move, thrill, and inspire.

Founded in 1988, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis tours the world performing a vast repertoire of music, from beloved standards to historic and rare compositions to commissioned works. A veritable treasure trove of jazz then, jazz now, and jazz to be, the group’s compositions and arrangements include works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, and Charles Mingus, as well as new music from the group’s unrivalled collection of world-renowned composers and arrangers.

Jazz Houston Youth Orchestra will open the evening with a 20-minute prelude performance before the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra takes the stage. This audition-only youth orchestra is made up of 22 of Houston's finest young musicians. The ensemble is directed by David Caceres and assisted by Associate Director James Williams III. Jazz Houston promotes the cultivation of jazz music globally through Performance, Education, and Community Outreach, and honors the Houstonians and Texans who have and continue to be major contributors to Jazz through the celebration of their legacies and the performance of their works.

Under the leadership of Marsalis, the band performs at its home, Frederick P. Rose Hall--also known as The House of Swing--tours throughout the U.S. and abroad, visits schools, appears on television, and performs with symphony orchestras. The Orchestra performed alongside Wynton Marsalis on his album Blood on the Fields, a work that earned Marsalis the Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

Since 2015, the Orchestra’s albums have been issued on its own label, Blue Engine Records. The first release from Blue Engine Records, Live in Cuba, was recorded on a historic 2010 trip to Havana by the JLCO and released in October 2015. The label issued Big Band Holidays in December 2015, The Abyssinian Mass in March 2016, The Music of John Lewis in March 2017, the JLCO’s Handful of Keys in September 2017, among many titles.