Tchaikovsky/Ellington/Strayhorn The Nutcracker Suite Robin Haigh LUCK Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra (UO co-commission) Tchaikovsky Selections from Swan Lake COSETTE JUSTO VALDÉS CONDUCTOR MATILDA LLOYD TRUMPET Christmas is often the time for a trip to the ballet, and this concert will take you there; albeit with a bit of a twist! In 1960, the great jazz band leader Duke Ellington and his regular collaborator Billy Strayhorn took the music (and movement titles!) of Tchaikovsky’s ballet suite The Nutcracker and made it swing. This concert’s concerto, Luck, commissioned by the Ulster Orchestra for Matilda Lloyd, starts with string and wind flurries like snowflakes, that melt into a playful, buoyant work for trumpet and orchestra that keeps jazz-inflections to the fore. The concert closes with selections from another of Tchaikovsky’s peerless compositions for the ballet, the romantic tragedy, Swan Lake. Doors open: 6.30pm approx. Pre-concert talk: 7.00pm Concert start: 7.45pm Concert end: 9.45pm approx.