Sunday, September 19, 2021 (2:00-4:00pm)

This annual event is co-produced by the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts and the American Tap Dance Foundation to commemorate Duke Ellington’s birthday. 

Co-hosted by Mercedes Ellington & Tony Waag and features performances by the Duke Ellington Center Big Band (musical director Eli Yamen) with guest artist conductor George Caldwell and violinist Sandra Billingslea; actor Miles Purinton in a piece from Ellington’s Shakespearean Suite; City of Jazz recited by Mercedes Ellington, Tony Waag and his rendition of I’m Just a Lucky So and So from Sophisticated Ladies, Karen Callaway Williams & Sharon K. Janda in Sugar Rum Cherry from Ellington’s Nutcracker, and DeWitt & Jennie Fleming in Come Sunday/David Danced Before the Lord from Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert.  

 Additional cast members include vocalists Marion Cowings, Antoinette Montague and Ty Stevens, ballroom dancers Michael Choi and Vanda Polyakava, belly dancer Anna Pipoyan, tap dancer Dexter Jones, and Mark Mindek on stilts. 

This event is FREE & open to the public!

The Duke Ellington Statue is on 5th Avenue and 110th Street in Manhattan.