Benny Meets Artie

“Virtuosos on clarinet and saxophone” (New York Times), Grammy-winning identical twins and Juilliard grads Peter and Will Anderson hail from Bethesda, Maryland. They’ve performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Wycliffe Gordon, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, and can be heard on the 2014 Grammy-winning soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire with Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. They’ve headlined at The Blue Note, Kennedy Center, New Orleans Jazz Festival, and live on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion Radio Program.

On Saturday, March 7th, the Andersons will present “Benny Meets Artie” at Nelson Hall. They will explore the lives and music of two American cultural icons, clarinetists Benny Goodman & Artie Shaw, with their jazz sextet featuring vocalist Molly Ryan, as well as an informative narrative and entertaining video presentation. Songs will include swing era hits “Sing, Sing, Sing,” “Begin the Beguine,” “Stardust,” and “Moonglow.” Raised in poverty in Chicago, Benny Goodman was a classical clarinet prodigy who soon sparked an international swing craze in the 1930s, and premiered the first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Artie Shaw was a composer, author, and master clarinetist, pushing musical boundaries by blending American swing with European and Latin styles.