Aardvark Jazz Orchestra - 36th Annual Christmas Concert

Aardvark Jazz Orchestra 36th Annual Christmas Concert
Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, Maine
Tickets: $15 at the door
Information: 617-776-8778 or 617-452-3205

Join the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra for music in the spirit of the season as the band presents its 36th Annual Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 14, 7:30 pm, at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston. The band will play selections from Duke Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert, original compositions by Aardvark founder and music director Mark Harvey, and fresh arrangements of carols from the band’s three Christmas CDs. Featured pieces will include O Come O Come Emmanuel, The Carol of the Birds, Ellington’s The Shepherd, and Harvey’s Benedictus, a perennial Aardvark Christmas favorite.

Continuing the band’s 36-year tradition of donating proceeds to a worthy cause, this year’s concert will benefit the arts and social outreach program of Emmanuel Church.

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra held its first concert December 23, 1973, at the Church of the Covenant in Boston as a benefit for the Chelsea Fire Fund. Every year since then, the band has given a Christmas concert to support a deserving cause. Past beneficiaries have included Doctors Without Borders, American Friends Service Committee, Rosie’s Place, Pine Street Inn, Streetpeople Unlimited, and the homeless outreach programs of Emmanuel Church.

Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra is known for its exhilarating concerts spanning the jazz spectrum, from the music of Ellington and other jazz greats to original works by founder/music director Mark Harvey, to performances with film, dance, and poetry. The band has premiered more than 100 works for jazz orchestra and has released 10 CDs (Leo Records, 9Winds, other labels) to international critical acclaim, including the latest disc, American Agonistes (Leo Records), which Billboard.com called “a stunning hour of music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous.”

Music director Mark Harvey has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus) and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, and many others. He is a winner of awards from ASCAP, the National Endowment, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program. Dr. Harvey teaches jazz studies at MIT and lectures widely on American music, religion and culture, with a specialty in Ellington’s sacred music.

Emmanuel Church is known for its long tradition of social action and social services, as well as its extensive arts and music programs, including a 30-year relationship with Emmanuel Music and also wide-ranging jazz concerts and programs.

THE AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA is managed exclusively by AMERICAS MUSICWORKS
Rebecca DeLamotte, managing director, 617-776-8778. Email: delamotte-amw@comcast.net
www.aardvarkjazz.com

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