Terence Blanchard, artistic director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, has announced the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra will present a dance-inspired program featuring Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30, at UM’s Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Dr. in Coral Gables.
The work is an upbeat multi-movement jazz interpretation of The Nutcracker by Peter Tchaikovsky, created in 1960 by Duke Ellington and his musical collaborator Billy Strayhorn.
Titled “Terence Blanchard Presents: A Concert Of American Music,” the program also will feature Aaron Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring, a ballet suite for 13 instruments inspired by ballet music that Copland composed for famed dancer and choreographer Martha Graham in 1944.
There also will be two world premieres by Henry Mancini Composition Fellows, David Pegel (The Pilgrim) and Rafael da Lima de Piccolotto (Asa, Zóio e Matulão) that utilize the same instrumentation as Copland’s classic work.
Blanchard will host a pre-concert talk at 7:15 p.m. for young people involved in the institute’s community outreach program, HMI Outbound.
Scott Flavin, resident conductor of the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, and Stephen Guerra, managing director of the Henry Mancini Institute, will conduct the concert.
Tickets are general admission and priced at $15 for adults/$10 for seniors and children, and are on sale now via the Frost School’s website www.music.miami.edu/concerts, or by phone at 305-284-2400.
