This concert sways towards the jazzy side of the orchestral world with names like Ellington and Gershwin, as well as the lesser-known Liebermann. No such concert would be complete without that great 20th-century classical voice in US music, Leonard Bernstein. Keeping with Orchestra Wellington’s theme of collaboration, we’re aligning with fabulous local talents who will make this a diverse and unique experience.

Duke Ellington’s Harlem suite combines the wailin’ struttin’ brass of the Te Kōkī Big Band with the plush weight of a full orchestra. This work will showcase some of the young talents you’ll see invigorating the local indie and jazz scenes in coming years.

Similarly lush — but far less familiar — is Rolf Liebermann’s Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra which brings the Te Kōkī Big Band further into the orchestra’s world. The band takes the moody classical landscape and transforms it with a fat sax section, big brass, boogie-woogie piano and tons of percussion. Liebermann called the piece an attempt to include elements of actual contemporary dance in art music.

George Gershwin’s piano concerto calls on a new collaborator, pianist David Fung, a prodigiously talented soloist who’s shared the stage with the world’s premier ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The concerto is filled with the spirit of Gershwin’s New York of the 1920s, evoking jazz, the blues and danceable riffs from the Charleston.

A very different sound is required for Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Wellington’s chamber choir, the Tudor Consort, steps in along with a boy soprano. Despite the work’s serious aims, its commissioner, the Very Reverend Walter Hussey, Dean of the Cathedral of Chichester in Sussex, said, “Many of us would be very delighted if there was a hint of West Side Story about the music.”

This event is presented with support from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.