The Antwerp Jazz Orchestra, originally founded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the jazz department at the Conservatoire, will be touring again.
The Antwerp Jazz Orchestra consists of students, teachers and alumni of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, supplemented by the most talented students from other European conservatoires (from Rotterdam and Cologne, among others) and this under the direction of Kurt van Herck. In the past, they have already collaborated with Joshua Redman (2018) and with Chris Potter (2022) as guest soloists. As 2024 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington's death, they will take this opportunity to perform the Far East Suite.
In the Far East Suite, Ellington and Strayhorn manage to connect Eastern and Western elements in a unique, groundbreaking way while always keeping the music highly accessible to a wide audience. The Far East Suite is one of the more interesting and unique creations in the Ellington/Strayhorn oeuvre. It is a reflective, evocative, virtuosic, impressionistic aural journey through the East (especially the Middle and Near East, as many have noted over the years), seen through the eyes and ears of two men who were musical visionaries and who had musicians behind them who could vividly articulate their visions.
This concert series came about with the support of vzw Bolster.