John Brown's big band taped a performance at the UNC-TV studio March 29 to discuss the band's education work with grade school children, and to promote its Big Band Latin Jazz Dance Party on May 4. The band has visited numerous schools around the state and in fact had performed at a school in Statesville earlier in the day. The show will air the first week of May.
The band includes other members of the Duke community: saxophonists Darren Mueller and Shaena Ryan; trumpeter Chelsea Conover Barnes; and violinist Sarah Griffin.
Brown and his 15-piece big band is currently joining forces with the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival to present performances of "Such Sweet Thunder" across the state. The music is by jazz legends Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, who based the suite of pieces on works by Shakespeare. Two shows were held in March, and one is scheduled for Durham on April 26. Duke Professor George Gopen is the narrator for the work.