Porgy and Bess

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Jazz St. Louis come together for a very special festival.

In three concerts over two weeks, conductor Leonard Slatkin will explore the ways that jazz has enriched orchestral music. Each program ends with a work by George Gershwin – here the suite from the opera Porgy and Bess.

In this performance on Jan. 12, audience members will also hear George Antheil’s A Jazz Symphony, one of the first works of orchestral jazz, and Duke Ellington’s final work, The Three Black Kings, which was written as a eulogy for Martin Luther King, Jr.

Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins will make her SLSO debut in the world premiere of Emmy winner Jeff Beal’s new jazz-inflected Violin Concerto, as well.