Celebrity Series of Boston
Gary Dunning, President and Executive Director
Presents
What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow
and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party
It Don’t Mean a Thing, music of Duke Ellington
Friday, April 10, 2015, 8pm — NEC’s Jordan Hall
(Boston) Celebrity Series of Boston will present What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party It Don’t Mean a Thing, music of Duke Ellington on Friday, April 10, 2015 at 8pm at NEC’s Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA. Sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger.
Tickets start at $30, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Jordan Hall Box Office, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA.
Celebrity Series of Boston has presented What Makes It Great?© with Rob Kapilow 36 times since its Boston debut in 1997. This is the Celebrity Series debut for the Kyle Athayde Dance Party.
Rob Kapilow is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, and is an accomplished pianist. He has brought the joy and wonder of classical music to audiences of all ages and backgrounds, opening their ears to musical experiences and helping them to listen actively. The reach and diversity of his interactive events is considerable, both geographically and culturally: from Native American tribal communities to inner-city high school students and from children barely out of diapers to musicologists long out of Ivy League programs. Mr. Kapilow’s popularity and appeal are reflected in notable engagements: on NBC’s “Today Show” in conversation with Katie Couric, in a program for broadcast on PBS’s “Live From Lincoln Center” in January 2008; and in his books, All You Have To Do Is Listen and What Makes It Great? Kapilow’s What Makes It Great?® (WMIG) made its debut on NPR’s Performance Today nearly 20 years ago, and with its accessible ten-minute format it quickly attracted a wide base of fans and followers.
The Kyle Athayde Dance Party is a 20-piece big band comprised of some of the most virtuosic, unique, exciting young musicians in New York City. The members come from the classical and jazz departments of the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the New School. The combination of these various areas of stylistic expertise and unique personalities of the musicians allows the Dance Party to produce a unique and exciting sound, as Athayde imagines and composes the music specifically for them. Athayde’s music draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, from video games and internet memes to jazz and classical masterworks.
Kyle Athayde is a New York-based composer, arranger, performer, teacher, and bandleader. Athayde plays vibraphone, piano, and trumpet, as well as drums, bongos, congas, timbales, string bass, bass clarinet, sousaphone, and vocal percussion. He is the leader, conductor, and principal writer for the Kyle Athayde Dance Party and is pianist for the New York Trumpet Ensemble. Athayde’s recent commissioned compositions and premieres include a double concerto for the New York Sinfonietta, a tone poem for Bobby Sanabria and the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra (the title track of their most recent album, ¡Que Viva Harlem!), two pieces for choir and band for the University of Scranton’s performing ensembles, and music for the ending credits of the film Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line. Athayde is currently working on commissions for the Canadian Brass, the New York Trumpet Ensemble, Manhattan School of Music Trumpet Ensemble, and the San Francisco Conservatory Brass Choir.
Committed to inter-disciplinary educational outreach in the arts, Athayde has offered classes, clinics, lessons, and master classes at schools, workshops, and camps throughout the country. A regular visiting faculty member of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, he recently developed and taught a class on video game music history and composition there, and directed the jazz band and a vocal hip hop class. He is the director of curriculum at the Lafayette Summer Music Workshop, and regularly offers clinics and master classes to middle school and high school bands throughout Northern California.
Program:
It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) (1931/32)
Harlem Air-Shaft (1940)
“The Single Petal of a Rose,” from The Queen’s Suite (1958/59)
“Peanut Brittle Brigade,” from The Nutcracker Suite (1960)
“Chinoiserie,” from The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse (1971)
About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 76-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 76 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience–on stages, in schools, at home– everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.
The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy & Joshua Boger; Donna & Mike Egan; Gabor Garai & Susan Pravda; David & Harriet Griesinger; Paul L. King; The Little Family Foundation; Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; Eleanor & Frank Pao; The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation; Sanjay & Sangeeta Verma; Nancy Richmond Winsten; Charlesbank Capital Partners LLC; First Republic Bank; Foley & Lardner; Massachusetts Cultural Council;The Peabody Foundation; PTC; Tufts Health Plan; The D.L. Saunders Real Estate & Hotel Investment Group, AMO; Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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