April 25,2000
Jazz Great Wynton Marsalis to Give Lecture on April
29
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Marsalis to Perform that Evening
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Wynton Marsalis will give the annual John Hamilton Fulton
Lecture in the Liberal Arts on Saturday, April 29 at 4 p.m. in Middlebury
College’s Mead Chapel on Hepburn Road off College Street (Route 125). Following
the talk, Middlebury College President John M. McCardell, Jr. will present
Mr. Marsalis with an honorary Doctor of Arts degree. Later in the evening,
Mr. Marsalis will perform with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the
College’s Kenyon Arena. Marsalis’ lecture is free and open to the public.
Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is an accomplished
and acclaimed jazz artist and composer, as well as an internationally recognized
classical musician. Born in 1961 in New Orleans, Mr. Marsalis began studying
trumpet seriously at age 12. A graduate of the Julliard School of Music
in New York City, he co-founded the Jazz at Lincoln Center organization
in 1987. Mr. Marsalis is the music director of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
(LCJO), which has performed in 50 countries on six continents, averaging
more than 120 concerts per year. LCJO members were designated Cultural Ambassadors
of the United States for their tour of Russia in the summer of 1999, and
recently performed for the first time in China, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
Mr. Marsalis made his recording debut in 1982, and over the past 18 years
has produced nearly 40 jazz and classical recordings for Columbia Jazz and
Sony Classical, which have won him eight Grammy Awards. As a classical trumpeter,
Mr. Marsalis performs and records concert, chamber, and solo music from
the Baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century repertoires. In 1983
and 1984, he won both classical and jazz Grammy Awards, the only artist
ever to have received this combination of awards in the same year. Mr. Marsalis
became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music,
in 1997, for his epic composition on the subject of slavery, “Blood
on the Fields.” The New York Times said of this work that it “marked
the symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through
Mingus, was extended into the present. It also reflects a full awareness
of Copland and Stravinsky.” Mr. Marsalis has also shown a special interest
in composing for dance, and has written works for ballets by Peter Martins,
Twyla Tharp, Judith Jamieson of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre,
and New York’s Zhong Mei Dance Company.
Music education is a top priority for Mr. Marsalis. One of the most successful
productions by Jazz at Lincoln Center is the Jazz for Young People Series,
which has become a favorite with New York audiences. In 1996, Mr. Marsalis
received a George Foster Peabody Award for two of his music education productions,
the 26-part National Public Radio series, “Making the Music,”
and his television series, “Marsalis on Music,” presented on the
Public Broadcasting System. Among the many other honors Mr. Marsalis has
received are the Grand Prix du Disque of France and honorary membership
in Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Music.
The John Hamilton Fulton Lecture in the Liberal Arts was established at
Middlebury College in 1966. Fulton was a prominent banker, financier, and
civic leader. The lectureship is the result of a generous gift from the
late Mr. Alexander Hamilton Fulton, an emeritus member of the Middlebury
College board of trustees and the son of the man for whom the lectureship
is named.
Previous Fulton lecturers have included Beverly Sills, former general director
of the New York City Opera; James A. Baker, III, former secretary of state
of the United States; and William H. Rehnquist, chief justice of the United
States.
A limited number of tickets remain available for the concert.
Tickets are $20 general admission and $15 for senior citizens. To place
an order, please call the College box office at 802-443-6433.
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