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[APPLAUSE] STEVE POND: What a week this has been. You can see the excitement in the students here. It's been an incredible week. My name is Steve Pond. I'm the Chair of the Department of Music at Cornell. And I want to welcome you to a really memorable, astounding capstone event of this week with Wynton Marsalis. It's been an experience that I'm definitely going to cherish.
Over the course of the week, Professor Marsalis has touched well over 1,000 students-- think of that, over 1,000 students-- visiting classes, meeting with faculty, engaging with grad students, and working with student musicians at Cornell, at Ithaca High School, and the middle schools, and the Ithaca community.
In each setting, Professor Marsalis has used discussion about musical concepts to make profound ethical and artistic points and discussions about life to deepen students' understanding of music and art. Integrity, accuracy, curiosity, intention-- these watchwords peppered his conversations, and students have been clearly moved, sometimes moved to tears.
This week with Professor Marsalis could not have happened without the combined efforts of several people. I'd just like to acknowledge a few of them. The AD White Selection Committee and magnificent staff, the faculty and staff of the Department of Music, Professor Marsalis's staff and the leadership of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a special thank you to Robert and Helen Appel.
The Africana Study and Research Center, Ithaca School District, especially Ithaca High School, DeWitt Middle School, Boynton Middle School, and Beverly J Martin Elementary School, as well as Opus Ithaca and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center. So now that I've said all that stuff, and I'm coming to welcome you, I'd also like to warmly welcome Cornell's President, Martha Pollack, who will, in turn, welcome Professor Wynton Marsalis. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
MARTHA POLLACK: Thank you, Professor Pond. I want to reiterate thanks to everyone who he mentioned, and a special thanks to Cornell Presidential Counselors Bob and Helen Appel. They're here tonight, and they are people who have done so much, both for Jazz at Lincoln Center and for Cornell University.
[APPLAUSE]
And, of course, an especially warm welcome to Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center's Managing and Artistic Director, who's making his first visit to Cornell as the AD White Professor-at-Large. As some of you know, Cornell's first president, AD White, saw the benefit of augmenting Cornell's regular faculty with a small number of world-famous, short-term professors.
White's vision is reflected today in the AD White Professor-at-Large Program. And tonight's concert is proof that White's vision remains powerful, even after more than 150 years. Wynton Marsalis is the leading trumpeter of his generation, an inventive composer, a scholar of jazz as an art form and a cultural statement.
As Professor Pond described so well, he's a wonderful teacher and mentor and has been working closely with the Cornell Wind Symphony and Jazz Band and the Cornell Symphony Orchestra for the past several days to prepare for tonight. Wynton Marsalis was on the cover of Downbeat Magazine this past December. As the accompanying article noted, quote, "He is arguably the most famous jazz musician in the world. But beyond his celebrity, Marsalis is also jazz's most renowned intellectual and fiercest champion."
Growing up in a prominent jazz family in New Orleans, Wynton Marsalis, at 17, became the youngest musician ever admitted to Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center, and then went on to New York City and Julliard. Two years later, he was putting on more than 120 concerts a year. His musicianship and his skills as an educator led to a jazz renaissance.
Part of the power of Wynton Marsalis's music, what he plays and what he composes, comes from his virtuosity in both jazz and classical music. In 1983, he became the first musician ever to win Grammy awards in both the jazz and classical categories. He's now up to nine Grammy awards, and I think we're all counting. On top of that, he's a prolific and inventive composer.
His 1997 Pulitzer-Prize-winning oratorio, Blood on the Field, draws on blues, work songs, chants, spirituals, New Orleans jazz, orchestral arrangements, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and a Greek chorus style of recitation. Tonight's Blues Symphony requires an entire symphony orchestra, as it traces the evolution of the blues across the Americas.
Wynton Marsalis co-founded the jazz program at Lincoln Center in 1987, and under his leadership, Jazz at Lincoln Center is now the preeminent site for jazz in the United States. Mr. Marsalis holds more than 30 honorary degrees and several major and international awards. In 2005, he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States government. And in 2015, President Obama bestowed on him the National Humanities Medal.
But Wynton Marsalis's most lasting achievements may be the jazz musicians he's inspired and mentored over more than three decades, including those in his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Group, one that my husband and I, I'm proud to say, have heard in concert more than a dozen times.
And now, we at Cornell are so lucky that the musicians Mr. Marsalis has mentored include our own incredibly talented students from the Cornell Wind Symphony and Jazz Band and the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, who are joining him in tonight's program. Please join me in welcoming Wynton Marsalis and our student performers to Bailey Hall.
[APPLAUSE]
[OBOIST PLAYING TUNING PITCH]
[MUSICIANS TUNING INSTRUMENTS]
[OBOIST PLAYING TUNING PITCH]
[MUSICIANS TUNING INSTRUMENTS]
[OBOIST PLAYING TUNING PITCH]
[MUSICIANS TUNING INSTRUMENTS]
[OBOIST PLAYING TUNING PITCH]
[MUSICIANS TUNING INSTRUMENTS]
[APPLAUSE]
CHRIS YOUNGHOON KIM: So the program says we're going to start Movement II. We're going to go slightly out of order-- Movement 3 first, then 2, then 4, and then 5.
[MUSIC - WYNTON MARSALIS, BLUES SYMPHONY, MOVEMENT 3]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - WYNTON MARSALIS, BLUES SYMPHONY, MOVEMENT 2]
[APPLAUSE]
CHRIS YOUNGHOON KIM: I'm sorry about that.
[LAUGHTER]
We're excited.
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC - WYNTON MARSALIS, BLUES SYMPHONY, MOVEMENT 4]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - WYNTON MARSALIS, BLUES SYMPHONY, MOVEMENT 5]
[CHEERING]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - BERNSTEIN TRANS. GRUNDMAN, OVERTURE TO CANDIDE]
[APPLAUSE]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - MARINI, ARR. MERRILL, STARMAKER]
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC - PAUER, ARR. BROWN, CHEROKEE SKETCHES]
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING]
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - ELLINGTON, TRANS. BERGER, SPINAZZOLA, CONCERTO FOR COOTIE]
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING]
[MUSICIANS TUNING INSTRUMENTS]
[MUSIC - BERNSTEIN, ARR. GRUSIN, TRANS. SPINAZZOLA, PROLOGUE FROM WEST SIDE STORY]
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC - ELLINGTON, TRANS. BERGER, "A PORTRAIT OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG" FROM NEW ORLEANS SUITE]
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC - COLTRANE, ARR. MARSALIS, TRANS. SPINAZZOLA, "ACKNOWLEDGMENT" FROM A LOVE SUPREME]
[CHEERING]
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
[APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING]
[MUSIC - ELLINGTON, ARR. SPINAZZOLA, TRANS. BERGER, MERRILL, SPINAZZOLA, "TOURIST POINT OF VIEW" FROM FAR EAST SUITE]
[CHEERING]
[LAUGHTER]
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERING]
WYNTON MARSALIS: Thank you all so much. I want to just thank everybody that I've had the honor of working with this last week. It's been fantastic. I'm not going to single anybody out because I don't want to leave anyone out. I'm only going to mention two of the biggest fans that Cornell ever has ever had. But this man, since the time I saw him, he's been saying, come to Cornell, man.
[LAUGHTER]
Come to Cornell. His wife, too. She is a teacher. She also attended school here. She's very happy because the Philadelphia Eagles won--
[LAUGHTER]
[CHEERING]
--the Super Bowl. Bob and Helen Appel, I want to recognize you.
[APPLAUSE]
Stand up, y'all. Don't be shy. Stand up. Stand up. Don't be shy. And this department, the music department is so fantastic. Steve, he is the coolest and hippest chair in the world.
[LAUGHTER]
This guy, I'm telling you, He knows how to dance samba and play the percussion parts.
[LAUGHTER]
And then, we were just having a conversation in his car one night. I sang a major ninth. I just sang it. I don't even know what the interval was. And he kept talking. And then, before I got out the car, he said, yeah, like a major ninth.
[LAUGHTER]
Percussionists, they're not supposed to know that kind of stuff.
[LAUGHTER]
But I want to say how spectacular it's been working with everybody, all the faculty, administration. These students are so fantastic, just the freshness.
[CHEERING]
And I know we just heard a concert, so I'm not going to talk forever. But I do want to observe one thing for our students. Bob and Helen are they. At one time, they were attending this institution like you all. Now, they support it. Many things we talk about as the cycle of life. I see kids here. And one day, you're going to have kids. You're not going to be a kid forever. You managed not to go to sleep in the concert. I'm proud of y'all.
[LAUGHTER]
I like your glasses, too. And I want to say that I was listening to the music we played tonight, and I just, I can remember when I first met Bernstein. And I remember what he said his aspirations for our country were. When I went to do Young People's Concerts, his family and him let me look at all of his scripts and do whatever I wanted to do.
I can remember being a student let into Tanglewood early by Gunther Schuller, whose music we did not play but was one of America's greatest educators and most serious people. He's not with us now. But I remember when Bernstein came to Tanglewood to conduct us playing Prokofiev Fifth, what it meant to us for the maestro to be there, and the feeling and the spirit that he brought about music. I remember being in high school playing "Candide," playing in a band. I didn't like bassoon then. I like you now.
[LAUGHTER]
I was unsophisticated. It was just ignorance. It wasn't--
[LAUGHTER]
You know, many times, you don't like things just because you're ignorant. That's all.
[LAUGHTER]
I love you. You played on a lot of contra tonight. I love that. And I just want to conclude by saying, I'm so proud of everybody here, all the teachers, students, and it's so wonderful to see everybody together on the stage, all of my sax.
We got-- I mean, it's just-- the students here are so wonderful, and I want you all to continue the things that you've been taught and what we're talking about, come together, because the world needs you to be serious and for real. We're in a lot of trouble. There's a lot of ignorance out there. And y'all are going to be the answer to it. And we want to empower y'all.
[CHEERING]
Thank you very, very much.
[CHATTER]
A. D. White Professor-at-Large Wynton Marsalis performs with Cornell University Jazz Band and Wind Symphony, and the Cornell Symphony Orchestra performs Marsalis’ newly rearranged Blues Symphony.
Program:
Blues Symphony, Movement 3 (Marsalis) Blues Symphony, Movement 2 (Marsalis) Blues Symphony, Movement 4 (Marsalis) Blues Symphony, Movement 5 (Marsalis) Overture to Candide (Bernstein, trans. Grundman) Starmaker (Marini, arr. Merrill) Cherokee Sketches (Pauer, arr. Brown) Concerto for Cootie (Ellington, trans. Berger, Spinazzola) Prologue from West Side Story (Bernstein, arr. Grusin, trans. Spinazzola) "A Portrait of Louis Armstrong" from New Orleans Suite (Ellington, trans. Berger) "Acknowledgment" from A Love Supreme (Coltrane, arr. Marsalis, trans. Spinazzola) "Tourist Point of View" from Far East Suite (Ellington, arr. Spinazzola, trans. Berger, Merrill, Spinazzola)
