Jazz at Lincoln Center was founded as a department of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. in 1991 after four successful years as a Lincoln Center summer concert series called Classical Jazz. Under the leadership of Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the LCJO performs a vast repertory, from rare historic compositions by composers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus, to newly commissioned works by Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Jimmy Heath, Chico O'Farrill, and others. The LCJO currently spends over half of the year on tour and in February 2000 will make its debut performances in China, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Hawaii. For its tour to Russia in summer 1999, the LCJO was designated Cultural Ambassador of the United States of America under the White House Millennium Council Program. Audience dances on dance floor.
Audience is seated in concert hall.