Peter and the Wolf: World Premiere of Big Band Adaptation at Paul Mellon Arts Center (choate Rosemary Hall)

New England Jazz Ensemble will perform the world premiere of a new big-band adaptation of “Peter and the Wolf,” in a joint concert with the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra on April 24.

The new arrangement was created by composer/arranger Walt Gwardyak, the pianist and founding musical director of the New England Jazz Ensemble. His arrangement is the first new big band version of Peter and the Wolf in more than 50 years.

As occurs with the classical version, various musical instruments represent the characters in the jazz adaptation; vocalist Giacomo Gates, who created the “hip” libretto for the jazz version, serves as narrator...

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New England Jazz Ensemble will perform the world premiere of a new big-band adaptation of “Peter and the Wolf,” in a joint concert with the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra on April 24.

The new arrangement was created by composer/arranger Walt Gwardyak, the pianist and founding musical director of the New England Jazz Ensemble. His arrangement is the first new big band version of Peter and the Wolf in more than 50 years.

As occurs with the classical version, various musical instruments represent the characters in the jazz adaptation; vocalist Giacomo Gates, who created the “hip” libretto for the jazz version, serves as narrator

The New England Jazz Ensemble will also premiere two other compositions that were inspired by Peter and the Wolf: John Mastroianni’s “Waltzes with Wolves” and Jeff Holmes’ “Wolves.” Gwardyak, Holmes, and Mastroianni are the principal composers for the New England Jazz Ensemble, which was established in 1991.

The Wallingford Symphony will perform the familiar classical version of Sergei Prokofiev’s piece at the concert, which begins at 8pm at Choate Rosemary Hall's Paul Mellon Arts Center, 333 Christian St., Wallingford, Connecticut.

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