Marian McPartland’s ‘Piano Jazz’ Turns 30

By I Jan. 6, 2009

Marian McPartland’s popular National Public Radio program, “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz,” will celebrate its 30th year on the air in 2009. In celebration, McPartland will perform the New York debut of her first symphonic work, “A Portrait Of Rachel Carson,” with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra conducted by Richard Auldon Clark on Jan. 22 at the Trinity Wall Street Church. The concert will be free and open to the public.

McPartland composed “A Portrait Of Rachel Carson” at age 89, in honor of the influential environmentalist author of Silent Spring, which helped launch the modern conservation movement. She premiered the piece in November of 2007 with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra as part of a special program conducted by Dr. Donald Portnoy.

Heard by more than a quarter million listeners on NPR each week, “Piano Jazz” is one of the longest-running jazz programs on NPR. The show features McPartland’s encyclopedic knowledge of the jazz repertoire and her ability to adapt on-the-fly to the many styles and personalities of “Piano Jazz”‘s more than 500 guests.

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