Beginning with an impromptu backstage audition, the 30-year collaboration between Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn bore some of the best jazz music of all time and helped shape the sound and spirit of modern jazz as we know it today. Audiences can experience the brilliance of symphonic jazz classics with pianist Lara Downes in a celebration of Ellington’s and Strayhorn’s virtuosic compositions. The concert will feature renditions of “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing,” “Strange Feeling,” “Night Creature,” and “Something to Live For,” plus some favorite Gershwin overtures.