Artists

Matt Cooper Thursday May 15, 16.00 - 16.45

Matt Cooper is a jazz and classical pianist and teacher who believes that all good music is "beyond category." In his recitals you are likely to hear a stride piano solo, a boogie transcription, a tango, and a jazz standard, alongside Beethoven, Bach, Bartok, Chopin, and modern composers. Listen to his rendition of Ellington’s beautiful 1953 composition Reflections in D.

Eric Boeren All Ellington, featuring Oene van Geel Trio Thursday evening May 15

Cornetist and composer/arranger Eric Boeren has led several All Ellington projects in Amsterdam and abroad, and tonight he will lead his musicians through an interesting Ellington program with fresh and original arrangements, featuring the Oene van Geel Trio. Violist /composer Oene van Geel is a true adventurer in music. Influenced by jazz, Indian music, chamber music and free improvisation, he has applied his virtuoso improvising skills and his compositional talents to a wide range of musical activities. He won the 2013 VPRO/Boy Edgar Prijs, the most important prize in the Netherlands for jazz and improvised music.

All Ellington - The Village of the Virgins by Duke Ellington

Calefax Reed Quintet: Such Sweet ThunderSaturday May 17, 16.00 - 17.00

Shakespeare's 450th Birthday will be celebrated worldwide in 2014, and we will join the festivities with a new arrangement of Ellington and Strayhorn's Shakespearean Suite Such Sweet Thunder, to be performed by Calefax, the famous Dutch Reed Quintet. A few years ago they already arranged and performed (parts of) The Ellington-Strayhorn Far East Suite (1966), and Ellington's Ballet Suite The River, composed in 1970 for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.

http://www.calefax.nl

Duke Ellington, Neo-hip-hot cool-kiddies communities

David Berger: Black, Brown and Beige Saturday May 17, 20.30

David Berger, jazz composer, arranger and conductor, is recognized internationally as a leading authority on the music of Duke Ellington and the swing era. Conductor and arranger for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from 1988 through 1994, Mr. Berger has transcribed more than 700 full scores of classic recordings, including nearly 500 works by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. In 1996, Mr. Berger collaborated with choreographer Donald Byrd to create the Harlem Nutcracker, a full-length two-hour dance piece that expands on the Tchaikovsky/Ellington/Strayhorn score. At the festival, David Berger will conduct the Amsterdam Conservatory Concert Band in a performance of Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige.