Chicago Philharmonic 2019-2020

Marcus Roberts, piano Pianist/composer Marcus Roberts has been hailed “the genius of the modern piano.” Roberts grew up in Jacksonville, FL where his mother's gospel singing and the music of the local church le a lasting impact on his own musical style. He began teaching himself to play piano at age ve a er losing his sight but didn’t have his rst formal lesson until age 12. At age 18, he went on to study classical piano at Florida State University with the great Leonidas Lipovetsky, whose own teacher was the celebrated Madame Rosina Lhévinne. Roberts has won numerous awards and competitions over the years, but the one that is most personally meaningful to him is the Helen Keller Award for Personal Achievement. While Roberts is known for his remarkable ability to blend the jazz and classical idioms to create something wholly new, he may be even better known for his development of an entirely new approach to jazz trio performance. Roberts’ critically acclaimed legacy of recorded music re ects this tremendous artistic versatility. His recordings include solo piano, duets, and trio arrangements of jazz standards, as well as original suites of music for trio, large ensembles, and symphony orchestra. His popular DVD recording with the Berlin Philharmonic showcases his ground-breaking arrangement of Gershwin's Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra ( A Gershwin Night, EuroArts 2003). Roberts launched his own record label, J-Master Records, in 2009. Since then he has released several popular recordings on that label including New Orleans Meets Harlem , Volume 1 (trio), Deep in the Shed: A Blues Suite (nonet), Celebrating Christmas (trio), From Rags to Rhythm (trio), Together Again: Live in Concert (quartet), Together Again: In the Studio (quartet), and Romance, Swing, and the Blues (with the Modern Jazz Generation). In the fall of 2017, he released his newest recording called Trio Crescent: Celebrating Coltrane . Roberts tours with his long-standing trio featuring two phenomenal musicians—Rodney Jordan (bass) and Jason Marsalis (drums). One of Roberts’ more recent musical projects is the founding of a new band called “ e Modern Jazz Generation”. is multigenerational ensemble is the realization of Roberts’ long-standing dedication to training and mentoring younger jazz musicians. In addition to his renown as a performer, Roberts is also an accomplished composer who has received numerous commissioning awards, including ones from Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, ASCAP, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Savannah Music Festival who co-commissioned him to write his rst piano concerto— Spirit of the Blues: Piano Concerto in C-Minor (2013). In 2016, Roberts premiered his second piano concerto (Rhapsody in D for Piano and Orchestra) at the Ozawa Music Festival in Matsumoto, Japan. at piece was commissioned by the Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Finally, Roberts has long been dedicated to the training and development of younger musicians. Each year, he returns to the Savannah Music Festival where he serves as an Associate Artistic Director as well as the Director of the annual Swing Central Jazz programs that bring high school students from all over the country to Savannah for educational programs and a band competition. Roberts is an associate professor of music at the School of Music at Florida State University. He holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree from e Juilliard School. Ellington cleverly renamed the movements to better match his big band style; his famous sweet tooth inspired the Peanut Brittle Brigade , originally titled March by Tchaikovsky. Similarly, Dance of the Reed-Pipes became Toot Toot Tootie Toot, and Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy changed its name and character completely, shi ing from a delicate interlude to the bolder, boozier Sugar Rum Cherry. As Ellington once said, “ ere are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind.” Simply put, Ellington and Strayhorn’s take on a classical masterpiece is good music. George Gershwin (1898 -1937) Concerto in F (1925) “Many persons had thought that the Rhapsody was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was more where that had come from. I made up my mind to do a piece of absolute music.” — Gershwin, regarding his Concerto in F In 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue became a smash hit and forced a seismic shi in attitudes regarding high art (classical music) and low art (pop, jazz, blues). It was instantly iconic; most of the tunes in the piece are still etched in the memories of anyone who has ever watched Disney’s Fantasia or own United Airlines. A er becoming an unexpected celebrity, Gershwin was ready to prove that Rhapsody wasn’t a one-hit wonder and eagerly took up a commission from the New York Symphony Society for a new piano concerto. Remarkably, Concerto in F was Gershwin’s rst attempt at orchestration. To make up for his lack of experience, he bought a copy of the common textbook Orchestration by Cecil Forsyth and learned enough to orchestrate his rst true piano concerto. To promote his Concerto in F prior to its premiere, Gershwin o ered the following description of the piece in the New York Herald Tribune : “ e rst movement employs the Charleston rhythm. It is quick and pulsating, representing the young enthusiastic spirit of American life. It begins with a rhythmic motif given out by the kettledrums, supported by other percussion instruments, and with a Charleston motif introduced by ... horns, clarinets and violas. e principal theme is announced by the bassoon. Later, a second theme is introduced by the piano. e second movement has a poetic nocturnal atmosphere which has come to be referred to as the American blues, but in a purer form than that in which they are usually treated. e nal movement reverts to the style of the rst. It is an orgy of rhythms, starting violently and keeping to the same pace throughout.” 2019 2020 SEASON: HOLIDAYS 14 FALL 2019 | THE CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY