Serenates 2025. Concert. Centre Cultural La Nau
2025 Serenades
Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert
Arrangement for a soloist soprano, mixt choir and big band of Høybye & Pedersen
Sara Dowling, soprano
Juan Pablo Camacho, claque dancer
Chamber choir of the CSMV, Young Choir of the Valencian Community, Coro de la Unión Musical Santa Cecilia de Onda
Nadia Stoyanova and Josep Vicent Balaguer, conduction of the choirs
Jazz orchestra from the Conservatorio Superior de Música
Joaquín Rodrigo de València
Jesús Santandreu, artistic manager
Duke Ellington, unused to expressing his relationship with Church in music, composed at 66 a series of sacred concerts to release in Churches from the USA. This interest came after the death of his collaborator Billy Strayhorn. Between 1966 and 1974 he made a tour with three sacred concerts and combined revised work pieces, new creations and local soloists.
The programmes were different with each performance, without a fix order nor a complete score, this obligated the improvisation of arrangements in each concert. This flexibility made difficult its reproduction, and has made some conductors create their own versions.
In 1993 John Høybye, was unable to find scores, he arranged the material with Peder Pedersen and unified the three concerts in one. While the original version set aside the choir (due to rehearsal limitations), this edition balances choir and orchestra. The resulting work is only titled Concierto Sacro.
Ticket sales and reservations (PVP 5€) at http://www.latenda.es/entrades or "Las Tenda" of the University
