John Jensen: Blog

The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the orchestra in-residence at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, will perform several special concerts while on tour in Russia May 19-24. These concerts, featuring music by jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Carter and Benny Goodman, will be held at various concert halls in several Russian cities, including the Moscow International House of Music, the Kazan State Conservatory, the Philharmonic Hall in Samara and the Spaso House, the residence of American ambassadors in Moscow.

This tour is not the first time the SJMO has reached out to audiences beyond the United States. In 2008, the orchestra performed several concerts throughout Egypt as part of the “Jazz on the Nile” tour. The Russian tour is intended to bring Russian and American citizens together through the appreciation of jazz as a unique American genre. The tour bridges cultures and promotes the shared values of freedom, cultural diversity, innovation, individuality and creative collaboration.

Charlie Young, professor of music at Howard University and lead alto saxophonist, will stand in for SJMO Maestro David  Baker as conductor for the tour. Two tap/swing dancers, Chester Whitmore and Erica Chipman, will accompany the 13-piece big band. Incorporating dance with big-band jazz is truly an American offering that the orchestra hopes will be a new experience for its Russian audiences. Young and the orchestra will select pieces by composers such as  Goodman whose work is already known in Russia from his tour there in the 1960s.

The orchestra also will lead a master class at the Ipolitov Music School and a jam session with Russian musicians at a local jazz club after the performance at the Kazan State Conservatory.