What to Expect

• A groundbreaking new work by visionary composer and JLCO saxophonist Ted Nash
• Glenn Close, award-winning star of stage and screen, in a featured role
• Free pre-concert discussion about the music and artists at 7pm

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra saxophonist Ted Nash is a visionary composer at the top of his game. Nash’s most recent creation for the JLCO, The Presidential Suite, earned him Grammy Awards for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album and Best Instrumental Composition in 2017. Tonight’s concert is the world premiere of his new work, Transformation, featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and award–winning actor and personal friend Glenn Close.

This original work is inspired by pieces, curated by Close, exploring the idea of transformation in the tangible and intangible sense, from chaos to order, darkness to light, hatred to forgiveness, and everything in between. Excerpts from works by Ted Hughes, Conrad Aiken, Edward O. Wilson, Louise Glück, Tony Kushner, Judith Clark, and others will be read by Glenn Close, with surprise guests to be announced. Joining the performance will be Wayne Brady, Justin Vivian Bond, Amy Irving, Adriane Lenox, John Cameron Mitchell, and Eli Nash. In addition, dancer Nijawwon Matthews will perform choreography by Jared Grimes (please note that Jared Grimes will not perform). 

Nash has already turned such open-ended concepts into some of the finest big band music of the 21st century, and Jazz at Lincoln Center is thrilled to commission his latest suite.

Photo of Glenn Close by Brigitte Lacombe

Transformation with Glenn Close and Ted Nash was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center with the generous support of the Howard Gilman Foundation.
This project is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.