`The Lake County Symphony Orchestra has been treating concertgoers to jazz offerings for more than a decade now, and for many performers, it’s one of their favorite shows of the year.
“I have always loved jazz,” said Ron Arden, the orchestra’s artistic director and conductor. “I have a son who’s a professional jazz musician for the U.S. Marine Corps. He would say, and I have come to see it, that all music can be rooted in the history of jazz in some way.”
A Celebration of Classical Jazz, to be performed April 23 at the Village Church of Gurnee, takes on jazz standards by a combo and a full orchestral performance of a classic piece by Antonín Dvorák.
“This event features both classical/traditional orchestral work on the same evening with jazz legends like Chick Corea, Count Basie, and this year Dave Brubeck,” Arden said. “This concert continues to attract and impact audiences as one of the most unique offerings an orchestra could do.”
The concert will start with the jazz combo playing six Dave Brubeck tunes, including the iconic “Take 5,” his most familiar work. Following that performance, the entire orchestra takes on Dvorák’s “New World Symphony.”
“It’s a miraculous symphony of color, passion, and ethnic variety,” Arden said.
While writing in different genres, Arden said both Brubeck and Dvorák bring music that is healing, storytelling, and for the people.
Brubeck self-recorded “Take 5,” as record companies balked at producing a song recorded in irregular meter. His instincts were correct, however, as it has become one of the “most played and enjoyed tunes in jazz history,” Arden said.
“Brubeck was also a man of deep faith and wrote some hymns, a fact many people do not know,” Arden said. “His heart was turned to making people better and more whole. His music bears that out.”
Dvorák’s music is influenced by his first trip to America, where he visited the Great Plains where many people migrated from his homeland of Czechoslovakia.
More Top Picks Best Handheld Vacuums For Stairs
“He brings the folk style from his native land and marries it with American tunes and idioms in a way that celebrates the great truth that America is a melting pot of people looking for a ‘New World,’ Arden said. “We need to hear this. We need to remember it, and we need to love it.”
A genre-mixing concert like this is also a way to introduce more people to a kind of music that may not be familiar to them.
“Hearing classical lovers fall in love with jazz and jazz lovers fall in love with classical music thrills me to no end,” Arden said. “I am so proud that we are committed to a diversity few orchestras would be able to do — on any level. It is really the way music should be celebrated — like a smorgasbord of the best of all worlds musically.”
Lake County Symphony Orchestra Celebration of Classical Jazz
When: 7:30 p.m. April 23
Where: Village Church of Gurnee, 1319 N. Hunt Club Road, Gurnee
Tickets: $20, children 12 and under are free
Information: lakecountysymphonyorchestra.com
Jeff Banowetz is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.