Big band plays holiday sweet treats

They’re actually two of the movements of the Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn jazz arrangements of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s famous “Nutcracker” ballet music.

Ellington’s big band played those arrangements on its 1960 album “The Nutcracker Suite.”

	If you go WHAT: “The Nutcracker (Swing!)” with Concordia Santa Fe WHEN: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19 and Thursday, Dec. 20 WHERE: St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 Palace Ave., Santa Fe HOW MUCH: $35 general public, $20 students 18 and under with valid ID in advance at www.ticketssantafe.org, by calling 505-988-1234 or at the Lensic Performing Arts Center box office

Concordia Santa Fe will perform arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s original music alongside the Ellington-Strayhorn arrangements in paired concerts Wednesday, Dec. 19 and Thursday, Dec. 20 at St. Francis Auditorium in Santa Fe.

The Tchaikovsky equivalent of “Sugar Rum Cherry” is “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and the “Arabesque Cookie” was originally “Arabian Dance.”

Ellington and Strayhorn also wrote a short “Entr’acte” that is in their suite.

Concordia Santa Fe gives six classical music concerts during the year, but many of its members are also jazz musicians.

“We thought it would be great fun as a fundraiser to do a jazz concert so naturally we went to the Ellington-Strayhorn,” said Kurt Carr, president of Concordia Santa Fe and its principal flutist.

“There are also jazz arrangements of more traditional Christmas carols, but we thought this was a cooler idea and more exciting for the audience.”

Because the Ellington-Strayhorn piece is jazz, various members of the 20-member band will be soloing, Carr said. Among those joining the band for the concert are pianist John Rangel, bassist Jon Gagan and drummer Cal Haines. The guest conductor is John Leisenring, Concordia’s principal tromboinist.

Concordia Santa Fe, which performed this same program last year, is a wind ensemble with approximately 40 players but with no permanent music director.

The money raised by the Ellington-Strayhorn concerts’ ticket sales will help support Concordia’s free concerts during the year as well as its outreach program, Carr said.

“It’s a combination of mentoring and hands-on education,” he said.

“Through the rehearsal process we use that to provide training for high school students and more advanced learning about music they are playing. … Everyone gets experience of what it’s like to prepare a piece for performance at a very high standard.”