Mar. 10, 2008

Contact: Bob Adams
(425) 564-3081
badams@bcc.ctc.edu

Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Music” to be performed
by BCC concert choir with “The Jazz Senators”

BELLEVUE -- Duke Ellington’s three large-scale “Sacred Music” works will be performed together when the Bellevue Community College Concert Choir presents its annual Masterworks Concert on Saturday, March 15, with “The Olympia Jazz Senators Big Band" performing as special guests.

Entitled “Tribute to African-American Composers,” the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue (1717 Bellevue Way N.E.).

Tickets, at $10, may be purchased in advance by contacting Lyneen Patnoe at (425) 564-3114 or lpatnoe@bcc.ctc.edu.

Ellington was inspired to begin writing the three non-denominational religious works late in his career, during the civil rights protests of the 1960s.

Called both “reverent” and “swinging,” the music was composed for gospel choir, jazz big band and vocal and instrumental soloists.

The Olympia Jazz Senators Big Band, based in Olympia, Wash., is made of up some of the finest jazz musicians in the Puget Sound region.

###