 "Photo: Courtesy Kristen Malecki")
Wayne State’s Jazz Big Band and Concert Chorale will collaborate at 4 p.m. on Feb. 22 at First Presbyterian Church of Farmington to perform the premiere of “Suite Justice,” an original jazz composition dedicated to the Christian Beatitudes.
This first collaboration of the Big Band and the Concert Chorale ensembles will be an event that WSU professor, composer and arranger Russell Miller said “never happens.”
“My goal was to bring together two ensembles that never are on the same stage and make a piece that would put them together,” Miller said.
The piece that will unite these two ensembles is “The Beatitudes,” an eight-piece original composition by Miller that is dedicated to the Biblical scripture Matthew 5:3-10. The Beatitudes were eight statements taught by Jesus about certain virtues and how a believer can achieve these virtues.
This production is not an annually scheduled concert and will be done solely out of the cooperation of the directors of the two ensembles, Dr. Norah Duncan of the Concert Chorale and professor Christopher Collins of the Jazz Big Band.
“Collins has been very gracious in letting me borrow his band,” Miller said. “All of my colleagues have been very supportive and helping.”
The ensemble together weighs in at a count of 17 Jazz Big Band members and 34 Concert Chorale voices. There is no price of admission, but there is a donation suggestion of $10 per person and $25 per family, though Miller said the least of his worries for the upcoming event are donations.
“It’s a huge moment for me personally, and I am having a lot of fun,” he said. “This was about providing a learning opportunity for the students and bringing the two different ensembles together.”
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