Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis open Lied season

            The Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will celebrate opening night of its 25th anniversary season with one of the best-known and most critically-acclaimed musicians on the planet. Led by nine-time Grammy Award winner Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will perform on the Lied Center Main Stage at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26.

            Tickets are available at http://www.liedcenter.org, at the Lied Center Box Office, 301 N. 12th St., or by phone at 402-472-4747. Tickets start at $45 for adults. Tickets to all Lied Center presented events are available to students for 50 percent off.

            "The Lied Center's 25th anniversary season features marquee artists in every art form," said Bill Stephan, executive director of the Lied Center. "Mr. Marsalis is without a doubt one of the top jazz musicians in the world. Not only is he an acclaimed musician, composer and bandleader, he is a cultural icon. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the Lied Center to open this historic season."

            The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, comprised of 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Featured in all aspects of jazz at Lincoln Center's programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the United States and around the globe; in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs and public parks; and with symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, local students and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists.

            Under Marsalis as music director, the orchestra spends more than a third of the year on tour. The big band performs a vast repertoire from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie and many others.

            Wynton Marsalis has been described as the most outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his generation, as one of the world's top classical trumpeters, as a big band leader in the tradition of Ellington, a brilliant composer, a devoted advocate for the Arts and a tireless and inspiring educator. He carries these distinctions well. His life is a portrait of discipline, dedication, sacrifice, and creative accomplishment.

            Born in New Orleans in 1961, Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at 12 and soon began playing in local bands of diverse genres. He entered the Juilliard School at age 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has since recorded more than 70 jazz and classical albums which have garnered him nine Grammy Awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year; and he repeated this feat in 1984. In 1997, Marsalis became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Writer: Carrie Christensen, Lied Center for Performing Arts