Orchestral and jazz performers entertain audiences with some holiday classics in first-ever joint performance. PHOTO CREDIT: Maddie Bataille
As the semester winds down, students at the University of Rhode Island are getting ready for the holidays and celebrations.
Saturday, the URI music department hosted a joint show dedicated to playing holiday festive songs from Suite No. 1 of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.”
This marked the first-ever joint show between the URI Symphony Orchestra and the Jazz Big Band.
The first to come on stage and perform was the URI Symphony Orchestra. What they played was what you may think of when you hear “The Nutcracker,” before the Jazz Big Band came on stage to perform their bluesy version of these classic holiday songs.
In between the two sets, Director of the Symphony Orchestra Ann Davis and Director of the Jazz Big Band Emmett Goods came on stage to talk about the music we were hearing.
Goods explained how this show has been an idea for the past two years. However, because of COVID-19, their vision was put on hold and eventually changed. Goods said originally they thought they would have both the Jazz Big Band and Symphony Orchestra out on the stage at the same time and present the audience with almost an echo between the two versions of the music. Instead, the concert was split up into two sets.
Goods also explained the history behind the music variation. During the height of the jazz era, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn adapted the classic music from “The Nutcracker” to fit their style.
“The song you know so well is still there, but the funk and rhythm added in allows you to dance,” Goods said.
The Jazz Big Band closed the show with their rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and invited vocalist Tara Gozaydin out to sing.
For audience member Bianca Reyes, this performance was her favorite of the evening.
“I thought it was really cool to hear both the interpretations,” audience member junior Tiffany Morel said. “I thought it was cool to be able to see what changes were made to make the music more jazzy and soulful.”
A holiday show is something that is fun for a lot of people and audience members Reyes and Alex Rosales said that if the music department were to bring the show back in the future, they would want to come back and see it again.
“Personally, I don’t come to concerts like these, and I don’t really listen to music like this, but today was definitely super nice,” Rosales said. “I really enjoyed it.”
The end of the semester means that this is the last performance of the year for some of these musicians. Goods mentioned that he is very proud of the members in the Jazz Big Band for putting in the hard work to make this show everything that it was.
According to Gozaydin, they only had two performances this semester, so while she thought the concert went “super well,” she also said she was sad to see it’s almost over.
“But we are already looking forward to shows coming during the spring semester,” she said.
For more information on the next upcoming concert season, visit the URI music department’s events webpage.