Preview: Lewes Big Band Presents: Pete Long’s Jazz Swan Lake & Best of Big Band, Theatre Royal Winchester

Preview: Lewes Big Band Presents: Pete Long’s Jazz Swan Lake & Best of Big Band, Theatre Royal Winchester

Jazz enthusiasts can enjoy an evening performance by Lewes Big Band of composer Pete Long’s Jazz Swan Lake at Theatre Royal Winchester on Friday 25 August.

The performance will see Lewes Big Band perform Long’s re-imagination of Swan Lake, plus a selection of the biggest and best big band hits such as Rhapsody in Blue, Feeling Good, and In the Mood.

The Lewes Big Band – formed in 2019 as the Lewes Youth Band – has played at the likes of Glyndebourne Opera House with their musicians, including graduates or current students of some of the UK’s leading music institutions, such as Royal College of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Pete Long started his musical career at the Royal London College of Music before touring with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

He went onto work on the QE2 and with West End theatres, Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, and a line-up of other big stars (Tom Jones, Texas, Sir Paul McCartney, Ronnie Scott’s Big Band to name a few).

Long is also one such composer who has successfully fused together classical music with jazz – after jazz pianist Duke Ellington’s merging of classical with jazz for his Nutcracker – making his Jazz Swan Lake surely a classic of our time.

Lewes Big Band presents: Pete Long’s Jazz Swan Lake & Best of Big Band will be at Theatre Royal Winchester on Friday 25 August at 7.30pm. For more information or to book tickets visit: theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk or call 01962 840 440.

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