Marsalis’ Fifth

A Jazz Symphony

📍 This event takes place at Powell Hall

🕒 1 hour, 50 minutes (including intermission)

Friday, Mar 12, 2027, 7:30pm View Subscriptions Saturday, Mar 13, 2027, 7:30pm View Subscriptions Sunday, Mar 14, 2027, 3:00pm View Subscriptions

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Program

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Kevin Short, bass-baritone
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Aaron Copland Our Town
John Adams Frenzy: a short symphony
Wynton Marsalis Symphony No. 5, “Liberty” (SLSO co-commission)

About this Concert

Expansive American soundscapes and bold American voices come together in music by three celebrated composers: Aaron Copland, John Adams, and Wynton Marsalis. Teddy Abrams and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra join this incredible lineup to perform a new symphony by the virtuosic genre-crossing American music ambassador Wynton Marsalis. Copland’s orchestral suite from the 1940s film Our Town sets a tone of serenity and simplicity, depicting life in a small New Hampshire town, while John Adams’ Frenzy swings with interweaving rhythms and gestures jostling over a frenetic, perpetual pulse.

- Aaron Copland dedicated his orchestral suite from Our Town to Leonard Bernstein, who conducted the premiere performance with the Boston Pops in 1944.
- Conductor Teddy Abrams is also recognized for his innovative musical compositions, including a rap-classical-dance-opera fusion honoring the life of Muhammad Ali. He is currently at work on the score for a Broadway musical also about Ali.
- Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Wynton Marsalis was the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize and the only musician to win Grammy Awards for both jazz and classical performances in the same year. His Fifth Symphony, “Liberty,” was co-commissioned by the SLSO, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra, and receives its world premiere in Philadelphia in May 2026.