Kennedy Center Honors Oprah Winfrey -CJO Plays Gala Dinner Dance

Chicago will be well represented on Sunday, December 5th, when Oprah Winfrey receives the coveted Kennedy Center Honors award for exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts, at the 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. Ms. Winfrey has crafted one of the most innovative and distinctive careers in entertainment, including accomplishments in television and film. The President and Mrs. Obama will fete Ms. Winfrey, and the other honorees, musician-songwriters Paul McCartney and Merle Haggard, dancer-choreographer Bill T. Jones and composer-lyricist Jerry Herman, at the White House prior to the performance.

Also contributing to the gala will be Jeff Lindberg's Chicago Jazz Orchestra, which has had the distinct honor of performing as the house orchestra for the Kennedy Center Honors Dinner/Dance for 22 years.

Jeff Lindberg's Chicago Jazz Orchestra was founded in 1978 (Jazz Members Big Band) by Jeff Lindberg and the late Steve Jensen. Composed of Chicago's top musicians, the CJO is Chicago's oldest professional jazz orchestra in continuous operation and one of the oldest jazz repertory orchestras in the country. Conductor and Artistic Director Jeff Lindberg is one of the foremost transcribers in jazz. As a result, the Orchestra's repertoire draws upon his vast library, which includes the works of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, Oliver Nelson, Ray Charles, and many others.

Jeff Lindberg's Chicago Jazz Orchestra became the first professional jazz orchestra in Chicago to present a yearly subscription series (1998-99). The CJO's 2005 compact disc Clark Terry and Jeff Lindberg's Chicago Jazz Orchestra: George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (Americana Music) received widespread critical acclaim, including a rare "FIVE-STAR" rating in Downbeat magazine. The CD has been voted among the top CD's of the decade by Downbeat Magazine.

The CJO receives support from The Stare Fund, the Illinois Arts Council, The Joseph B. Glossberg Foundation, The Shana Alexander Charitable Foundation of New York, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Oppenheimer Family Foundation, and The Irving B. Harris Foundation. Additional in-kind support from the Jazz Institute of Chicago and WHPK 88.5 FM.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos