A New Year’s Celebration: Jon Kimura Parker Plays Gershwin: It was part of a trend to blend jazz and classical music in the concert hall—and although George Antheil predicted his jazz symphony would “put Gershwin in the shade,” that didn’t exactly pan out. Still, it’s a hoot to hear the two works side by side.

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A Few Things to Know

Jon Kimura Parker has spent four decades of his life getting to know Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Over time, his interpretation has become freer and more improvisatory. In a San Diego Union-Tribune interview from 2012, Parker said that Rhapsody “stands alone….It transcends everything.”

When Duke Ellington saw a stained-glass cathedral window depicting three biblical kings, he took the concept and created an orchestral “window” of his own, honoring three Black kings—Balthazar, King Solomon and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Conductor William Eddins has stood on the podium in front of major orchestras around the world and first conducted the Minnesota Orchestra in 1992, but his newest creative project is MetroNOME, a socially missioned brewery in downtown St. Paul that supports music education right here in Minnesota.

Your New Year’s Eve ticket Includes vintage jazz from Belle Amour and a Champagne toast, on us!

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