In a strangely appropriate turn of events, while the country struggles to rebuild New Orleans and its surroundings from the wrath of the hurricane that ruined it, Wynton Marsalis will play this Tuesday night at the Hopkins Center. The eeriness of this concert stems from the fact that Marsalis -- like the jazz music from which he has built his fame -- was born in New Orleans. Thus, almost as if to simultaneously commemorate and celebrate his native city's musical richness, Marsalis will play to a long-ago sold-out event on a campus that has already taken so much action to help soften the repercussions of Katrina. Marsalis' performance promises to be an upbeat continuation of the liveliness of Hanover during Homecoming and will likely be the highlight among the arts events on campus this year.
Marsalis' career as a musician expands beyond the jazz and blues that make his city famous, and his many awards testify to the scope of his talent. When he was 17, he accomplished the feat of becoming the youngest student ever to be admitted to Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center, and the next year, he began studying trumpet at the Julliard School in New York (Julliard awarded him the Harvey Shapiro Award for his outstanding work on the trumpet). That same year, he joined Art Blakely's Jazz Messengers and signed with Columbia records.
Working with Blakely led him towards musical collaborations with many artists, including Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sweets Edison, Sonny Rollins and Kathleen Battle. He made his recording debut three years later and has since produced approximately 40 jazz and classical recordings. The artist has recorded 33 jazz and 11 classical records, sailing over seven million records having been sold all over the world. Marsalis' compositions and recordings vary in scope; he has written everything from jazz to ballet and swing music to string quartets, and he often records the work of artists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Stravinsky, Monk, Bach and Mouret.
The trumpeter enjoys the freedom to experiment musically because of his well-earned worldwide respect. In 1998, he contributed to "A Fiddler's Tale," the story of a musician who sells her soul to a music producer; Marsalis based the musical score on Stravinsky's " A Soldier's Tale." He also composed the widely acclaimed string-quartet piece "At the Octoroon Balls," a work called "All Rise" for big band, gospel choir and symphony orchestra, numerous ballet scores and Baroque music for chamber instruments and orchestra. Marsalis even composed "Ghost Dance" for New York's Zhong Mei dance company, continuing to vary the applications of his talent.
He works as artistic director at the Lincoln Center for its jazz program, which he helped found in 1987. He is known for generously donating his talent and time to charity organizations despite averaging 120 performances per year; among the organizations he helps are the Children's Defense Fund, Amnesty International, Food for All Seasons and Very Special Arts. Furthermore, he funds scholarships to Tanglewood Music Center and the Eastern Music Festival in order to encourage new jazz musicians.
A long history of awards for his compositions and recordings validate Marsalis' worldwide fame. In 1983 and 1984, Marsalis took home nine Grammies for both classical and jazz recordings and continued his prize-winning work from that point forward. His composition about slavery, "Blood on the Fields," won him the first Pulitzer Prize for jazz music. In 2001, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan granted Marsalis the United Nations distinction of Messenger of Peace, and the following year, Congress gave him the Horizon Award. Other international awards that he has received include the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, the French Grand Prix du Disque, the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music.
In the course of his career, Marsalis has received more than a dozen honorary degrees from universities and colleges not only for his recordings and compositions, but also for his role as spokesman for musical education. The virtuoso worked on the PBS program "Marsalis on Music" and the Peabody Prize-winning "Making the Music" for NPR, and has lead master classes, given lectures and put on concerts for children.
