What Makes it Great? The Music of Duke Ellington, March 10

What Makes it Great?
Featuring Rob Kapilow and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party
Sunday, March 10, 2019, 2:00PM

The Morris Museum is pleased to announce the return of What Makes it Great on Sunday, March 10, 2019 at 2:00PM after its successful first outing this past October. This program features Rob Kapilow and the Kyle Athayde Dance Party who will delve into the music of Duke Ellington. After the program, there will be a complimentary reception to meet and mingle with the performers.

Rob Kapilow will dissect and explore five masterpieces by Duke Ellington that span his great career. After his discussion of each composition, the audience will listen to the full work performed by the Kyle Athayde Dance Party. A question and answer session with the artists will take place after all five pieces have been analyzed and performed.

This celebration of the 20th century’s greatest jazz composer will span the full range of Duke Ellington’s long career, from his wildly original reinventions of his own pop songs in the 1930s to his final studio album in 1971. Kapilow shows how Ellington continually pushed boundaries, reinventing music of all kinds in his own voice – from the blues to Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” – while bringing the big band tradition to an astonishing creative height that continues to inspire musicians today. With the Kyle Athayde Dance Party, Kapilow will explore: “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing” (1931), a three-minute pop song Ellington transformed into the legendary jazz anthem, “Harlem Airshaft” (1940), the controversial piece he claimed was inspired by the myriad sounds heard in the airshaft of a Harlem apartment building, “Peanut Brittle Brigade” (1960), his own brilliant and sophisticated distillation of Tchaikovsky’s "Nutcracker Suite” “Single Petal of the Rose” (1959), inspired by a memorable meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, and “Chinoiserie” (1973) a translation of the music he heard during tours of Asia during his highly productive final years into his own unique language.

“Rob Kapilow captivated an audience that ranged in age from nine to ninety-four years old when he made his Morris Museum debut in October 2018,” states Brett Wellman Messenger, Curator of Public Programs at the Morris Museum. “Kapilow’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge about music is infectious. What is so surprising and special is that these programs are as fun as they are informative and one walks away able to hear even familiar music with new ears.”

Tickets:

• Members: $30
• Non-Members: $40
• Seniors: $35
• Students: $20 with ID

Tickets can be purchased by calling 973.971.3706 or by visiting morrismuseum.org/special-performances/

To become a Member, visit morrismuseum.org/museum-membership, email membership@morrismuseum.org, or call 973.971.3721.

About Rob Kapilow

For over 20 years, Rob Kapilow has brought the joy and wonder of classical music – and unraveled some of its mysteries – to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Characterized by his unique ability to create an “aha” moment for his audiences and collaborators, whatever their level of musical knowledge, Kapilow’s work brings music into people’s lives: opening new ears to musical experiences and helping people to listen actively rather than just hear.

Kapilow has appeared on NBC’s Today Show with Katie Couric; he presented a special What Makes It Great? for broadcast on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center; and he has written two books published by Wiley/Lincoln Center: All You Have To Do Is Listen, which won the PSP Prose Award for Best Book in Music and the Performing Arts, and What Makes It Great (2011), the first book of its kind to be especially designed for the iPad with embedded musical examples. He is currently finishing a new book for Norton/Liveright on the American Songbook. He was featured on Chicago Public Radio’s Composers In America series, and is a recipient of an Exxon Meet-the-Composer grant and numerous ASCAP awards.

Kapilow has conducted many of North America’s orchestras, as well as new works of musical theater, ranging from the Tony Award-winning Nine on Broadway to the premiere of Frida for the opening of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and premieres of works for the American Repertory Theater.

About Kyle Athayde Dance Party
Kyle Athayde is a New York based composer, arranger, performer, teacher, and bandleader. A native of Orinda, California, Kyle plays vibraphone, piano, trumpet, and drums, bongos, congas, timbales, string bass, bass clarinet, sousaphone, and vocal percussion. He is the leader, conductor, and principal writer for the New York based big band, "Kyle Athayde Dance Party", a group acclaimed for its versatility in the wide scope of styles it performs, and is the pianist for The New York Trumpet Ensemble.

Influenced by the music of J. S. Bach, Duke Ellington, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Eric Dolphy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Louis Armstrong, Igor Stravinsky, Charlie Parker, Olivier Messiaen, Art Tatum, and many others, Athayde composes and arranges music in a variety of genres, with an emphasis on jazz, classical, salsa, and electronic. While an undergraduate student at Juilliard, Kyle was heavily immersed in an inter-disciplinary arts environment which included dance, drama, and music, which provided him the opportunity to further develop and refine his programmatic approach to composition.

About the Morris Museum
Founded in 1913, the Morris Museum is an award-winning, community-based arts and cultural institution serving the public through its exhibitions in the arts, sciences and humanities. The Museum is home to the historic and internationally-significant Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata. Changing exhibits of contemporary content also explore the Guinness themes of art, sound, and motion. The adjacent Bickford Theatre is the museum's 312-seat performing-arts facility, offering unique programming, often related to the museum's exhibition themes. Continuously serving the public since 1913, the Morris Museum has a proud tradition of innovative educational programs and family events. The first museum in New Jersey to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, it has been designated a Major Arts Institution and has received the New Jersey State Council on the Arts’ Citation of Excellence, among other awards.

Tickets may be purchased online at morrismuseum.org, by phone at (973) 971-3706, or in person at the Morris Museum. The Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre is located at 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morristown, NJ, and offers free parking and full accessibility. Box office hours for phone sales are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Morris Museum is a Blue Star Museum, offering free Museum admission to active duty military personnel and their families, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Location and Hours
The Museum is located at 6 Normandy Heights Road (at the corner of Columbia Turnpike) in Morristown, NJ, and is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11:00am to 5:00pm and Sunday, 12:00 to 5:00pm. In addition, the Museum is open evenings from 5:00 to 8:00pm on the second and third Thursday of the month. Admission to the Museum is $10 for adults and $7 for children, students and senior citizens. Admission is always free for Museum members. For more information, call (973) 971-3700, or visit www.morrismuseum.org.