74TH SEASON

OF CONCERTS

MAY 8, 2016 • NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Photo by John Abbott

2 • National Gallery of Art

3:00 and 4:15 • West Building, West Garden Court

Oran Etkin, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone

Steve Nelson, vibes

Helen Sung, piano

Rudy Royston, drums

Presented in honor of In Celebration of Paul Mellon

What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman

Program to be announced from the stage
The Musicians

Oran Etkin moved from Israel to the United States at age four. Surrounded by classical

and Israeli music, he heard Louis Armstrong at age nine and became entranced by the 

trumpeter's soulful sound, swing, and melody. Armstrong inspired Etkin to search for a

way to express himself through music with honesty and integrity. Etkin's search led him 

to Benny Goodman, a musician also raised in a Jewish immigrant home and transformed

by hearing Armstrong.

Like Goodman, Etkin is a clarinetist and bandleader who calls upon classical, Jewish,

and African musical traditions. Described as "a composer of eminent individuality" by his

mentor Yusef Lateef, Etkin's unique sound emanates from an openness to discovering the

world within himself and exploring it through his music. On this imaginative tribute to

Goodman, Etkin taps into the melodicism of Armstrong and the bandleader statesmanship

of Goodman while remaining true to his own creative voice. Etkin is riding a career high with

this unique recording, which follows three previous award-winning Motema Music releases.

Etkin studied classical clarinet and composition at Brandeis University and received

his masters in jazz performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He has a robust

international career as a leader, and has collaborated with many artists including Mike

Stern, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Wyclef Jean. Etkin's music was featured on a Grammy

Award-winning children's compilation, and his previous Motema releases Kelenia, Wake

Up Clarinet! and Gathering Light have garnered international acclaim and multiple awards.

This year Etkin presented Gathering Light at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and

was invited by Herbie Hancock to perform at UNESCO's International Jazz Day celebration.

4 * National Gallery of Art

Program Notes

When National Gallery of Art founder Andrew Mellon died in 1937, only months after the

Gallery had been approved by Congress, his thirty-year-old son Paul saw the museum to

completion. In 1941, Paul Mellon presented the building and his father's collection of art to

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who accepted it on behalf of the American people. Some

1,027 works of art given by Paul Mellon and his wife Bunny form an extraordinary legacy.

During this year of the 75th Anniversary of the National Gallery, an exhibition celebrating

Paul Mellon's generosity will be shown between May 8 and September 18. Featuring a

hundred of the finest pastels, watercolors, drawings, prints, and illustrated books given

to the Gallery by Paul Mellon, in Celebration of Paul Mellon attempts to honor his personal 

approach to collecting. The exhibition is not ordered by formal museum chronology or

separated by geographical schools. Rather, it shows works grouped in a domestic style, 

in an attempt to share Paul Mellon's delight in and personal relationship to each of these 

extraordinary works.

Benny Goodman was famously Paul Mellon's favorite musician, and on his ninetieth

birthday, Bunny surprised him with a party at the National Gallery. It was reported in the

New York Times this way:

Just in front of his table was an unwonted sight at the National Gallery —

an unmistakable dance floor. As dinner ended, a small but select

company of jazzmen was seen to be heading his way. After a moment 

or two, they were joined almost subliminally by a distinguished old

gentleman who was carrying the kind of bag that was once the mark

of a country doctor on his rounds. Taking his time, he opened his bag,

took out a clarinet and put it together. When Paul Mellon saw who it

was, a 400-watt smile broke out on his face. "I don't believe it!" he said.

"I just don't believe it! It's Benny Goodman!"

What's New? Reimagining Benny Goodman is inspired by two historic moments

when Goodman used music to transform American society. The first was Goodman's

famous concert at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21,1935, a show cited

by historians as launching the Swing Era.

A few months after the Palomar show, the newly ordained King of Swing revolutionized

society again by inviting pianist Teddy Wilson to join him and drummer Gene Krupa to form

America's first mainstream racially integrated band —the Benny Goodman Trio —which

would soon expand to a quartet with the addition of Lionel Hampton on vibraphone. Inspired

by Goodman's contribution to a struggle for freedom that continues to this day, Etkin penned

the composition, "When Every Voice Shall Sing” and dedicated the album to that groundbreaking trio/quartet. He wrote about the work:

I see the swing era as a spiritual awakening in the midst of the Great

Depression. Through his clarinet, Goodman brought the swinging

rhythms of black America, the soulful cry of the blues, and the wailing 

moan of the Jewish prayer into American homes, creating a positive

movement of music and dance that carried the country through a difficult

period and quickly spread throughout the world.

Program notes by Oran Etkin

74th Season • 5
Upcoming Events of the Seventy- General Information

Fourth Season of The William

Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot

Belin Concerts

Ariel Quartet, with Alon Goldstein, piano 

Music by Brahms and Mozart. Made

possible by the Gottesman Fund

in memory of Milton M. Gottesman

May 15, Sunday, 3:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Aphrodite Mitsopoulou, pianist

Music by Chopin, Liszt, Konstantinidis,

and Skalkottas. Cosponsored by the

Embassy of Greece for the European

Month of Culture

May 19, Thursday, 12:30

West Building, West Garden Court

Jenny Scheinman's 

Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait

Original score accompanying

a documentary

May 22, Sunday, 4:30 

East Building Auditorium

Winners of the 2016 Joseph and Goldie

Feder Memorial String Competition

and Misbin Family Memorial Chamber

Music Competition

Presented in cooperation with

Washington Performing Arts

June 5, Sunday, 2:00 and 4:00

West Building, West Garden Court

Admission to the National Gallery of Art

and all of its programs is free of charge,

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording equipment

during the performance is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic

devices are turned off.

Concerts are made possible in part

through the generosity of donors to the

National Gallery of Art through The Circle.

Reserved seating is available in recognition

of their support. Please contact the

development office at (202) 842-6450 or

circle@nga.gov for more information.

www.nga.gov

www.instagram.com/ngadc

www.twitter.com/ngadc

www.facebook.com/nationalgalleryofart

The department of music produced these

program notes. Copyright © 2016 Board of

Trustees, National Gallery ofArt, Washington

Cover William H. Johnson, Blind Singer (detail),

c. 1940, National Gallery of Art, Washington,

Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Florian Carr

Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation

Back cover West Building, East Garden 

Court, Photo by Rob Shelley, National Gallery

of Art, Washington