Current Concert Season

The Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band, Wayne Escoffery, Music Director, will celebrate Slide Hampton and George Coleman at its season opener on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall.
Admission is free and no tickets are required.
The concert will feature the pioneering music of jazz trombonist/composer/arranger Slide Hampton’s octet (of which saxophonist George Coleman was a member), with new big-band orchestrations of “A Moment’s Notice” and “Star Eyes” by Michael Philip Mossman, arranged specifically for the Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band. Also featuring Hampton’s early works, including his expressive arrangement of “Motherless Child,” and his originals “Frame for the Blues,” “Go East, Young Man,” and “Althea,” originally written for The Maynard Ferguson Orchestra.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director.
• “Come Sunday” by Omar Thomas is a two-movement tribute to the Hammond organ’s central role in black worship services. The title is a direct nod to Duke Ellington, who held an inspired love for classical music and allowed it to influence his own work in a multitude of ways.
• “Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita) K. 361” (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) - Overture, Adagio (featured in the movie “Amadeus”), and Rondo
TRAINS! - Featuring New Haven Railroad Engine No. 349’s 1926 brass bell!
• “Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman” (Heitor Villa-Lobos)
• “Ghost Train I” (Eric Whitacre)
• “The Midnight Fire Alarm” (Harry Lincoln)
Guest Conductor: Ricky Fleming
Director of Bands, State University of New York - Buffalo State
• “Splinter” (Holly Harrison)
• “The Alcotts” (Charles Ives/trans. Richard Thurston)

Yale Concert Band, Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. “Afro-Cuban Suite” [world premiere] (Jeff Fuller), “AMEN!” (Carlos Simon), “Serenade in Eb Major, Op. 7” (Richard Strauss), “Shades of Red” [Mellophone Concerto] (Ryan J. Williams) feat. Kate Warren YSM ’23, mellophone. Kelly Watkins (Director-Eastern CT State University Concert Band), guest conductor: “Bright Shadow Fanfare” (Nicole Piunno) and “On This Bright Morning” (David Maslanka); Catherine Zhang SM ’24, guest conductor: “Rocketship!” (Kevin Day).

Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Program TBA.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Program TBA.