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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis jams Oct. 7 at Eisenhower

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will make its seventh appearance at Penn State when it performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Eisenhower Auditorium. The celebrated big band from the Big Apple has performed at Eisenhower more than any other touring arts group since the Center for the Performing Arts was formed in 1985.

Purchase tickets, which are $58 for an adult, $22 for a University Park student and $48 for a person 18 and younger. A grant from the University Park Allocation Committee makes Penn State student prices possible.

The nonprofit Jazz at Lincoln Center organization, established in 1988, has a mission to further music performance and advocate for music education. The big band musicians celebrate the historical connotations of and connections between jazz and blues, and keep the music of the genres’ composers alive and thriving among new generations of listeners.

“We don’t just play jazz,” Marsalis said. “We teach it, we write it, we dance it, we sing it, we present it, we photograph it, we film it, we produce it, we archive it, we record it, we broadcast it, we commission it, we celebrate it, we love it, we share it.”

Since conquering the professional jazz scene as a teenager in the 1970s, Marsalis has won a Pulitzer Prize, nine Grammy Awards and multiple honorary degrees and arts education and leadership awards. The New Orleans-born trumpeter also has recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz and blues, including Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Shirley Horn, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock.

Listen to music by the orchestra.

Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or artists, takes place in Eisenhower one hour before the concert and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity, so seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

Northwest Savings Bank sponsors the concert.