New York's Children to Celebrate American Music on Duke Ellington Day 4/29

On April 29, 2010, at 1:00 p.m., New York's Children will celebrate American Music in a FREE public concert at Duke Ellington Circle.

Based on her ongoing collaboration with the Louis Armstrong Music Therapy Program at Beth Israel Medical Center, Duke Ellington's granddaughter, Mercedes Ellington is making a strong case that participation in the arts makes children healthier.

To attract public attention and support for this concept, April 29-proclaimed "Duke Ellington Day" in New York City last year-is to be become an annual day for New York City schools to showcase their music and arts programs. This year, starting at 1:00 p.m. the FREE public concert will be held at the Duke Ellington Statue, in the middle of an amphitheater that forms the intersection between Fifth Avenue and 110th Street.

Personally hosted by Mercedes Ellington, founder and president of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, the event will kick off with professional musicians playing Ellington numbers, followed by children's bands and student performers from New York City Schools, who will play music, dance and recite poetry. The show will end with a "jam session" between the professionals and the children. Thereafter, performers and audience will march along the northern pathway of Central Park in New Orleans-style "second line" procession to Central Park West, playing Duke's amazing two-note composition "C-Jam Blues." The procession will disperse at Central Park West and 110th Street. Everyone who participates in the show will receive a special Duke Ellington "Messengers of Harmony" button.

The program will feature a professional band called the

Blue Millennium Orchestra and:-

· The Duke Ellington School (Harlem's PS 4), represented

by their Ellington Poets Society;

· The Heritage School Poets in collaboration with the

City College Music Students Band;

· The Dance Times Square Dance School Ensemble;

· PS 345 from Brooklyn, represented by their PS 345

Concert Band (see photos);

· The AlLen Stevenson School, represented by their

40-student strong Fifth Grade Recorder Ensemble.

Given the connection between music, the arts and children's health, lead sponsors for this

year's event are Emblem Health and Fidelis Care NY. Both organizations are key health plans in New York City under the NYS Department of Health's Child Health Plus program, which provides free health coverage to children in New York.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 to May 24, 1974) was a bandleader, pianist and the twentieth century's most prolific composer. He started playing the piano when he was 7 years old, formed his first band when he was 25, and kept it going for more than 50 years. From the very early beginnings, in the late 1920s, Duke began calling his compositions "American Music." At the time Duke coined that expression, it was popular to view classical music as the only "real" musical culture. Duke was determined to change that view and make American Music something to be proud of worldwide.

He traveled with his band all over the globe bringing American Big Band music, jazz, American-style sacred music and blues to audiences large and small on every continent.

When the U.S. State Department launched their "Jazz Ambassador" program in 1956, Duke became a key component of that highly successful global exercise in cultural diplomacy. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. The Jazz Ambassador initiative ended in 1972 after Duke, though battling terminal cancer, made the last goodwill tour through Africa. He died two years later.

Duke used to say, "I get my mail in New York, but I live on the road!" Using a private train as their mobile residence, Duke and his band also traveled throughout the U.S. This was not just a prestigious mode of transportation; it was also a practical solution in places where segregationist policies prevented black and white musicians from staying in the same hotels. Duke's band, of course, always included both.

A source of immense pride and a great example of equality for Americans, black and white, Duke felt that racial integration was just a stepping stone to a much more important universal goal: Human harmony beyond category. As he traveled the world, Duke saw that his music often had the

effect of helping people overcome their differences. This included gender intolerance, tribal divisions and racial segregation in many places.

Based on Duke's philosophies, The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts now develops programs to stimulate harmony among people by using music and the arts. The Center seeks to help individuals become "Messengers of Harmony" in the world by encouraging more engagement in music and the arts-especially at a young age.