Born in New Orleans, Wynton Marsalis has been called the “Pied Piper” of jazz and the “Doctor of Swing.” He is Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, and President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.

Concerto in D was given its world premiere by violinist Nicola Benedetti and the London Symphony Orchestra in November, 2015. In his program note, Marsalis says the piece “was written for Nicola Benedetti…. I considered aspects of her Scottish ancestry, the great Afro-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s love of legendary Scottish poet Robert Burns, my love and inextinguishable respect for Scottish baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley…and the luminous but obscure achievements of Afro-American keyed bugler Francis Johnson…. 

“The piece opens with Nicky whispering a solo note before the orchestra enters, as if to say ‘And so it came to pass’ or ‘Once upon a time’….

“Movement 1 is a complex dream that becomes a nightmare, progresses into peacefulness and dissolves into ancestral memory.

“Movement 2 is a syncopated, New Orleans jazz, calliope, circus clown, African gumbo, Mardi Gras party in odd meters.

“Movement 3 is the progression of flirtation, courtship, intimacy, sermonizing, final loss and abject loneliness that is out there to claim us all.

“Movement 4 is a raucous, stomping and whimsical barnyard throw-down. She excites us with all types of virtuosic chicanery and gets us intoxicated with revelry and then…goes on down the Good King’s highway to other places yet to be seen or even foretold.”