Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won at least nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
North Central College is a private liberal arts college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has nearly 70 areas of study in undergraduate majors, minors, and programs through 19 academic departments organized in three undergraduate colleges/schools and a masters program.
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a large performing arts venue located at 300 South Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street, along the stretch known as the "Avenue of the Arts", in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Kimmel Center, Inc., an organization which also manages the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and, as of November 2016, the Merriam Theater. The center is named after philanthropist Sidney Kimmel.
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music. Opera houses, bandshells, and concert halls host classical music performances, whereas public houses ("pubs"), nightclubs, and discothèques offer music in contemporary genres, such as rock, dance, country, and pop.
Strathmore is a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, Maryland, United States. Strathmore was founded in 1981 and consists of two venues: the Mansion and the Music Center.
The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an educational and performing arts complex located at 500 S. Goodwin Street in Urbana, Illinois, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Herman C. Krannert, an industrialist who was the founder of Inland Container Corp. and an alumnus of the University, and his wife, Ellnora Krannert, made a gift of $16 million that made creation of the Krannert Center possible. Max Abramovitz, the architect who designed the facility, was also an Illinois alumnus.
The Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex is a sports, convention and entertainment complex located in Birmingham, Alabama. The Sheraton Birmingham and Westin Birmingham are located on the complex adjoining the convention center. Alongside numerous exhibit halls, meeting and ballrooms, the complex features three entertainment venues: an arena, concert hall, and theater. Construction on a fourth venue, a college football stadium, began in July 2019.
The Carver Theatre, now formally known as the Carver Performing Arts Center, is a theater located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. In its days as a motion picture theater, it was best known as a place where African-Americans could see first-run movies; during that time, only whites were allowed in most theaters because of segregation laws.
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a performing arts college of the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Raymond Everett Reach, Jr. is an American pianist, vocalist, guitarist, composer, arranger, music producer and educator, named by AL.com as one of "30 Alabamians who changed jazz history." He serves as President and CEO of Ray Reach Music and Magic City Music Productions.
The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (AJHF) was founded in 1978, and opened a museum on September 18, 1993, with a mission "to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of the medium of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America. Its mission is also to preserve a continued and sustained program of illuminating the contribution of the State of Alabama through its citizens, environment, demographics and lore, and perpetuating the heritage of jazz music." It is located in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
The Magic City Jazz Orchestra (MCJO) is an American jazz ensemble which was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the SuperJazz Big Band by Birmingham, Alabama jazz pianist and vocalist Ray Reach. The mission of the group is to "...perform and record big band jazz music written by well known but under-recorded jazz artists."
Henry Panion, III is an American composer, arranger, conductor, educator, and Professor in the Department of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Steve Sample Sr. is a bandleader, arranger, composer and jazz educator now residing in Bellingham, Washington. For more than 30 years, Sample was a professor in the Music Department of the University of Alabama, where he directed the Jazz Ensembles and taught music theory, arranging and jazz related courses. Sample trained many notable jazz musicians during his long tenure at Alabama, including Gary Wheat, Birch Johnson, Kelley O'Neal, Chris Gordon, Mervyn Warren, Cedric Dent, Beth Gottlieb, Mart Avant, Dick Aven and Ray Reach. He is respected by his peers as one of the finest jazz educators in the United States. On September 26, 2008, Sample was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame for his contributions to jazz education.
Neil McLean is an American saxophonist now residing in Tyler, Texas. As a member of the Henry Kimbrell Group, Ray Reach and Friends, the SuperJazz Big Band and the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, he worked with numerous notable performers, including Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, Ernie Watts, Lou Marini, Ellis Marsalis and many others. For many years, while residing in Birmingham, Alabama, Neil established himself as one of the premier saxophonists in the Southeast. His arrangements for the SuperJazz Big Band are among the finest performed by that venerable ensemble.
The Mann Center for the Performing Arts is a nonprofit performing arts center located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park, built in 1976 as the summer home for the Philadelphia Orchestra. It is the successor in this role to the Robin Hood Dell, where the Philadelphians have given summer performances since 1935. It has since hosted artists and touring companies such as the American Ballet Theatre with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marian Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Buena Vista Social Club, Ray Charles, Judy Garland, the Metropolitan Opera, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Paul Robeson, Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Midori, and Yo-Yo Ma. Major Philadelphia premieres have included the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bolshoi Ballet and Orchestra’s production of Spartacus, and Britain’s Royal Ballet’s productions of Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake. Among the scores of award-winning popular artists presented by the Mann in recent years are Jack Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Phish, Tony Bennett, Mary J. Blige, Roger Daltrey, Bob Dylan, Furthur, Arcade Fire, Aretha Franklin, Herbie Hancock, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, Jill Scott, James Taylor, Damien Rice, Alabama Shakes, Bon Iver, Lana Del Rey, The National, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Blondie with Garbage, Sugarland and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In 2010, 2011 & 2014, the Mann was nominated by Pollstar, a concert industry trade publication, as "Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue" in North America. The venue has a total seating capacity of approximately 14,000, with 4,743 seats under the roof and over 8,600 outside.
The "Fun With Jazz" Educational Program is a program of jazz educational concerts and demonstrations developed by Ray Reach and sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
UAB SuperJazz, Featuring Ellis Marsalis is a CD, recorded in 2001 by the SuperJazz Big Band of Birmingham, Alabama with guest piano soloist Ellis Marsalis. The recording, produced by University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) faculty members Ray Reach and Henry Panion, is a compilation of musical selections recorded in concert at the Alys Stephens Center on the campus of UAB. The album was mixed at the UAB Recording Studio. Recording engineers for the project were Blake English and James Bevelle. Remix engineers were James Bevelle and Ray Reach.
The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, located in Louisville and currently branded as The Kentucky Center, is a major performing arts center in Kentucky. It one of three venues owned by Kentucky Performing Arts. Tenants include Broadway Across America, Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, and StageOne Family Theatre.
