American Riffs

Multi-talented Minnesota Orchestra trumpet player Charles Lazarus is skilled at showing the many connections between classical music and that great American tradition, jazz. Here students will encounter jazz-infused works such as Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing; Gershwin’s languid Summertime, from Porgy and Bess; and dynamic selections from Leonard Bernstein. What’s more, Lazarus, backed by a quartet of jazz stars, will perform a handful of dazzling trumpet solos.