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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