Aardvark Orchestra's 41st Annual Christmas Concert Presents Duke Ellington's arrangement of the Nutcracker Suite, December 21

The Aardvark Orchestra, one of New England's premier jazz ensembles, is performing the complete Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite at its 41st annual Christmas concert this year.

The concert takes place at the glorious Emmanuel  Church on Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 21, 2013. Tickets are $20 and can only be purchased at the door. Find more information here, or by calling (617 452-3205).  Here are directions to the church.

Proceeds of the concert will benefit the Pine Street Inn, which helps over 1,600 men and women in Boston each day.

The Ellington/Stayhorn jazz arrangement of one of the world's most recognizable classical pieces was first issued in 1960, marking the unique ability of the two artists to apply jazz interpretations to classical music with humor and imagination.

So songs from the Suite like The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is transformed into The Sugar Rum Cherry, the Russian Dance is recast as The Volga Vouty, and the Waltz of the Flowers is adapted into the Dance of the Floreadores.

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