Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have done numerous outreach programs for school children here in Santa Barbara courtesy of UCSB Arts & Lectures and The Children’s Creative Project, with funding from a number of sources. This year 1,400 the students got to experience this wonderful event at the Granada Theatre. Mr. Marsalis has a winning way of engaging with young kids about a kind of music most of them know nothing about, drawing them in, making it fun and interesting. He gets them fired up and loudly responding to his questions as he guides them thru some history and musical demonstrations by individual members of the orchestra and the whole ensemble. This time the story was about a Duke–Duke Ellington of course. They learned about his childhood and the huge contribution he made to American music, clapping enthusiastically along with the musical interludes, often with their own sense of timing. A perfect example of how education can be a blast and inspiring too.
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