Press room

This week, the Barbican announces an additional performance as part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s residency at the Barbican, completing the line up for the 14-16 March 2025 weekend. Opening the residency will be the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra and the Guildhall Ellingtonian Band – a performance that will sit alongside workshops with young musicians at the neighbouring Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Additionally, while in London the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, with leaders from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will deliver workshops and performances with young people from local schools in Hackney.

Full details of all ticketed performances follow below.

• JLCYO & Guildhall Ellingtonian Band (Fri 14 Mar 2025, Hall, 6.30pm)
• JLCO and LSO: The Jungle (Sat 15 Mar 2025, Hall, 7pm)
• JLCO with Wynton Marsalis: The Democracy! Suite (Sun 16 Mar 2025, Hall, 7.30pm)

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra & Guildhall Ellingtonian Band
Friday 14 March 2025, 6.30pm
Barbican Hall
Tickets from £10 plus booking fee

The next generation of jazz musicians open the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Barbican residency as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra (JLCYO) takes to the stage alongside the Guildhall Ellingtonian Band.

Led by acclaimed trumpeter and Juilliard faculty member Tatum Greenblatt, the JLCYO brings together some of the most gifted young musicians from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. As the premier youth jazz ensemble in the tri-state area and the top group of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz Academy, they deliver performances that transform aspiring artists into professional-level musicians. They will also be joined on the evening by special guest soloists, to be announced at a later date.

Opening the evening, the Guildhall Ellingtonian Band present a programme of four horn settings of Duke Ellington compositions. With passion and precision, this ensemble from Barbican neighbours the Guildhall School of Music and Drama promise a big sound from a small band. 

Produced by the Barbican
Part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra weekend residency
Find out more

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra: The Jungle
Saturday 15 March 2025, 7pm
Barbican Hall
Tickets from £45 plus booking fee

The Barbican’s resident orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano join forces with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) to present JLCO Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony No 4 ‘The Jungle’. Blending jazz, blues and classical music, The Jungle is a wild and brilliant portrait of New York City in all its dazzling, high-pressure, cosmopolitan glory. This UK Premiere performance is a co-presentation by the Barbican and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s weekend-long residency at the Barbican, JLCO Artistic Director, trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis’s Symphony No 4 encompasses glimpses of ragtime and elements of popular dance music. Its six movements combine rapid and hard-swinging fast passages with poignant, blues-tinged melodies and colourful, plushly orchestrated jazz chords. The ‘La Esquina’ movement pays homage the city’s Afro-Latin culture while the work’s finale sees wailing brass spin bold melodies over rhythmic riffs.

The evening will open with a performance by the JLCO and Wynton Marsalis of a selection of works by Duke Ellington, before joining with the LSO in the second half.

Presented by the Barbican and the London Symphony Orchestra
Part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra weekend residency
Find out more

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: The Democracy! Suite
Sunday 16 March 2025, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Tickets from £35 plus booking fee

Led by trumpeter, composer and band leader Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra presents the European premiere of Marsalis’ new work: The Democracy! Suite, as well as a selection drawn from the globally renowned ensemble’s vast canon of jazz masterworks.

“Jazz music is the perfect metaphor for democracy” says Wynton Marsalis. At a time when America, and indeed, the whole world, finds itself at a crossroads, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer was inspired to write a poignant work, The Democracy! Suite, which proves that the joy and beauty of jazz can bring us all closer together. Released as a digital album (JLCO inc., 2021) recorded by Marsalis and a septet comprising members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Democracy! Suite features impassioned compositions that are a reflection of turbulent times, urging us into action.

Presented as a two-part concert at the Barbican, a septet will perform the European premiere of The Democracy! Suite in the first half, after which the full orchestra will perform a selection of works drawn from their vast canon.

Produced by the Barbican
Part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra weekend residency
Find out more