Portraits of America: A Jazz Story features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
New York, NY (May 2, 2019) – Jazz at Lincoln Center, in co-production with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, announces a unique concert event entitled Portraits of America: A Jazz Story at which the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will premiere a new suite, Of Thee I Sing. The suite will include new compositions written by members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and inspired by works in the Museum’s permanent collection. Bridging visual art and jazz composition, Portraits of America: A Jazz Story will take place in Rose Theater on June 7-8 at 8:00 p.m.
Members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have spent the past year exploring centuries’ worth of American art, ranging from masterworks to lesser-known gems in the Museum’s collection. Each musician was asked to select a single work of art as inspiration for a new original composition to be premiered at Portraits of America: A Jazz Story. Each tune in this new collection of music will be accompanied by a visual display of the artwork that inspired it ─ including works by acclaimed artists Romare Bearden, Carroll Cloar, Thomas Cole, Gene Davis, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Helen Lundeberg, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Nari Ward, George Wesley Bellows, and Frank Weston Benson ─ transforming Rose Theater into a one-of-a-kind art gallery.
Thanks to a close collaboration between Jazz at Lincoln Center’s creative and production teams and the Crystal Bridges’ digital team, each work of art will be presented in a way that highlights key details connecting it to the live music.
Portraits of America: A Jazz Story expands the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Jazz and Art songbook for the first time in a decade. Past iterations include longstanding JLCO favorites like Ted Nash’s Portrait in Seven Shades and Sherman Irby’s Twilight Sounds, and the band’s composers are eager to revisit this rich source of inspiration. The music and visuals will both stand on their own merits, as our previous commissions have proved, but when combined, they are uniquely powerful.
For additional information, visit jazz.org.
Ticket Information Rose Theater ticket prices are $40 and up, dependent upon seating section.
All single tickets for The Appel Room and Rose Theater can be purchased through jazz.org 24 hours a day or through CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Tickets can also be purchased at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60th Street, ground floor. Note: Hot Seats — $10 seats for each Rose Theater performance (excluding Jazz for Young People_® concerts and other performances as specified) and select performances in The Appel Room (excluding _Jazz & Popular Song concerts) — are available for purchase by the general public on the Wednesday prior to each performance. Tickets are subject to availability; please call 212-258-9800 for available Hot Seats performance dates.
Many of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s concerts stream live in high-definition audio and video for free to a global audience. The concerts will also be available on Livestream’s mobile and TV-connected applications with real-time DVR, chat, photos and other materials available to fans worldwide at jazz.org/live.
Additional information may be found at jazz.org | Facebook: facebook.com/jazzatlincolncenter | Twitter: @jazzdotorg | Instagram: @jazzdotorg | YouTube: youtube.com/jalc | Livestream: jazz.org/live
