"100 Years of Rhapsody in Blue: New Orleans meets Harlem"

Juneteenth Recognition Concert June 19, 2024

“100 Years of Rhapsody in Blue: New Orleans meets Harlem”

Join us for a special event celebrating Juneteenth featuring Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation performing during the first half of the program with the program "New Orleans Meets Harlem".

We are honored to be able work with the St. Johns Cultural Council to present Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation at the Lewis Auditorium of Flagler College for our 2024 Juneteenth concert during the 60th year of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Law.

There are several reasons that this concert is significant for us. Marcus Roberts was a student at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind on San Marco Ave. in St. Augustine. This is the same school that pianist Ray Charles also attended decades earlier.

More importantly, St. Augustine was at the center of the 1963-64 civil rights struggles, prior to the signing of this significant legislation. And many of the locals believe that several incidents in St. Augustine caused the collapse of the Senate filibuster against this significant legislation.

We are honored to participate in the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Legislation and to bring to our audience an extremely talented program featuring a trio of African-American musicians - Marcus Roberts, piano, Rodney Jordan, bass and Jason Marsalis, drums,

During the second half of the program, members of the the St. Augustine Music Festival Chamber Orchestra will join the other musicians to perform Rhapsody in Blue on the 100th anniversay of this famous Gershwin compostion with the Paul Whitman score.

Read some information from Wikipedia.

Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition written by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, the work premiered in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City.[2][3] Whiteman's band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano.[4] Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofé orchestrated the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original scoring, the 1926 pit orchestra scoring, and the 1942 symphonic scoring.

The rhapsody is one of Gershwin's most recognizable creations and a key composition that defined the Jazz Age.[5][6][7] Gershwin's piece inaugurated a new era in America's musical history,[8] established his reputation as an eminent composer and became one of the most popular of all concert works.[9] In the American Heritage magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet glissando has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.[10