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Recreating the musical performance and legacy of an all-time great is not an easy thing to achieve. For the Duke Ellington Orchestra, it’s what they are all about. And Sunday, they partnered with Syracuse University student musicians.

“Music is a very powerful, uniting tool,” Nick Dekaney, a member of the supporting choir and junior, said. “Getting to perform not only with other classmates and students is fun in itself, but then getting to bring in professional groups and then giving that to the community, that means the world.”

SU welcomed the Grammy-winning Duke Ellington Orchestra to Hendricks Chapel Sunday afternoon as part of the annual Malmgren Concert Series. The event was hosted in partnership with the SU Art Museum, the Setnor School of Music and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Following the concert was a reception for audience members at the “Homeward to the Prairie I Come” Gordon Parks photography exhibit.

The Orchestra aims to carry on and honor the legacy of the Ellington family by performing their top classics. Having been a performance ensemble for over a century, the group is committed to delivering an exceptional musical listening experience.

The Ellington family continues to be a prominent contributor in the group’s success in helping deliver the optimal testament to Duke’s musical excellence. At the event, the ensemble performed several renditions of their best pieces.

“New people that are going to be alive when I’m gone, they’ll maybe want to learn a little bit more about who this guy was,” Paul Mercer Ellington, Duke’s grandson and the Orchestra’s director of business operations, said.

The audience featured a variety of spectators of all ages. A large population of SU students watched the Orchestra and fellow students perform alongside them. The band acknowledged the value of the audience’s enthusiasm for the performance.

Included in the performance was the Hendricks Chapel Choir, an opportunity for member singers to connect and perform with some of the genre’s very best. The student chorus performed two numbers in between the Orchestra’s performances, including a piece titled “All But The One,” which included a backing instrumental from the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Dekaney and Senior McKenna Fenimore are two choir members who used their involvement in the performance as a reflection of the bigger picture of their experience as young musicians. Adding onto the experience of performing with professionals, Fenimore said there is value in meeting new people and professionals in the music industry through events like these.

“It’s exposing us to so many more people, music and composers. It really just brings everyone together,” Fenimore said.

An element of the Orchestra’s success is help from the Ellington family. Paul said one of the most important parts of having performances like this on a college campus is inspiring and uplifting younger generations through the sound.

“This music belongs to the world, which is the reason why the band is working to make sure the world never forgets who (Ellington) is,” Paul said. “When they come to see one of our shows, regardless of what emotion they’re feeling, they leave feeling better and uplifted.”

Published on September 23, 2024 at 1:01 am