CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band and an interfaith community choir will present excerpts from Duke Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts on April 3 (Sunday) at 4 p.m. in the Music Building auditorium, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana.
Solos will be performed by choristers from local churches as well as students from the School of Music. Local dancers Sonia Warfel, a visiting lecturer in dance, and Jordan Shevall will be featured in “David Danced Before the Lord With All His Might.”
Ellington, who died in 1974, called this sacred music the “most important thing I have ever done.” The suites include the jazz standard “Come Sunday.”
The first suite premiered in 1965 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; the second in 1968 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City; and the third in 1973 at Westminster Abbey in London.
The concert was coordinated by Barrington Coleman, professor of voice, who has performed and recorded as a tenor soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic. The jazz band is under the direction of Chip McNeill, chair of jazz studies at the U. of I. and former music director for Arturo Sandoval and Maynard Ferguson.
The concert is free, and is expected to end at about 5:30. The auditorium is Room 2100, on the south side of the building. Free parking is available.
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