Aardvark Jazz Orchestra to Perform 38th Annual Christmas Concert at Emmanuel Church Boston, Dec 18

Nov. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra will present its 38th Annual Christmas Concert, a Boston holiday tradition, on Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 8:00 pm at Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston. The concert will celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Emmanuel Church, which has been host to 25 of Aardvark’s 38 Christmas concerts.  

Heralded for its innovative offerings in the spirit of the season, Aardvark will perform carols and music from many traditions, including original compositions and arrangements by Music Director Mark Harvey.  Aardvark has given many premieres at Emmanuel over the years, and several of those works will be featured, including Harvey’s arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and his extended work No Walls.    Duke Ellington performed his Second Sacred Concert at the church in 1969, and Aardvark will present a piece from that concert (Almighty God Has Those Angels), along with another Ellington-Strayhorn treasure: Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) from the Nutcracker Suite.

Concert proceeds will support the Boston Public Quartet music education program at the Chittick Elementary, a Boston Public School in Mattapan. The Boston Public Quartet will join Aardvark in an arrangement of Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming, and students from the BPQ Chittick Residency will perform the french carol Il Est Ne.

The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra held its inaugural concert December 23, 1973, at the Church of the Covenant in Boston as a benefit for the Chelsea Fire Fund.  Every year since then, the band has given a Christmas concert to support a deserving cause.  Past beneficiaries have included Doctors Without Borders, American Friends Service Committee, Rosie’s Place, Pine Street Inn, The Massachusetts Council of Churches, The Poor Peoples United Fund and the outreach programs of Emmanuel Church.  Winner of the 2000 Independent Music Awards, Aardvark has concertized widely, has given premieres of more than 100 works and has released 10 CDs to international critical acclaim, including five discs on the Leo Records label.  Aardvark is managed exclusively by Americas Musicworks, www.americasmusicworks.com or www.aardvarkjazz.com

Music director Mark Harvey has performed as trumpeter in the U.S., Mexico and Europe; has recorded with George Russell (Blue Note) and Baird Hersey (Arista/Novus); and performed with Gil Evans, Claudio Roditi, Howard McGhee, Sam Rivers, and others.  An internationally acclaimed composer with over 120 works in his catalogue, he has received awards and commissions from ASCAP, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the 15th Annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators, and Meet-the-Composer-Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program, among others.  Dr. Harvey has given lectures on music, religion, and culture throughout the United States and in Europe.   He teaches jazz studies at MIT.

The Boston Public Quartet has created a permanent music education and performance residency at the Chittick Elementary, a Boston Public School in Mattapan.  BPQ’s mission is social change through chamber music.  At Chittick Elementary, the BPQ provides 33 under-served kids their only access to music education, free of charge.  Proceeds from the December 18th event will go toward BPQ’s private lesson and chamber music program, which provides each enrolled child with two hours per week of individual support through private string instrument lessons, chamber music coaching, and creative music circle, while also supporting the purchase of much-needed instruments and supplies.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church has served as a center for spiritual discovery and an advocate for social justice over the past 150 years.  Emmanuel Church welcomes all people without exception to the Eucharistic table.  The church honors individuals of every age, gender, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, and religious background.   With its partners Boston Jewish Spirit and Emmanuel Music, Inc., Emmanuel Church explores and celebrates our common spiritual heritage through liturgy, social action, music and the arts.

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Americas Musicworks, Rebecca DeLamotte, managing director, is an artist management company representing award-winning classical and jazz ensembles who tour internationally. Ensembles on our roster perform live concerts in large and small venues, including multi-media performances and a wide range of educational and outreach programs as well as custom recording projects. Concert themes range widely from the European Renaissance and Baroque to new music premieres to traditional and exploratory jazz.