Palm Beach Symphony Masterworks Series Concert Featuring Guest Pianist Shelly Berg

Shelly Berg, piano, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. This evening’s Guest Artist is generously sponsored by Patricia Lambrecht. George Gershwin: An American in Paris George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue Alan Hovhaness: Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, Op. 128 Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141 In this powerful launch to the season, American innovation meets Italian grandeur. A master of jazz and classical fusion, pianist Shelton “Shelly” Berg will perform two of Gershwin’s most iconic works—An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue. This exhilarating season opener also features the meditative beauty of Hovhaness’ Prelude and Quadruple Fugue and Respighi’s radiant Pines of Rome. Berg is a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and producer. His newest album Alegría, released in July 2024, was recorded with bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and Dafnis Prieto. Berg’s original song “At Last” was nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. Prior critically acclaimed albums include Gershwin Reimagined: An American in London, The Deep, The Nearness of You, Blackbird and The Will. Berg earned three Grammy nominations in the Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) category with jazz singer-lyricist Lorraine Feather and international superstar Gloria Estefan, and a fourth Grammy nomination as co-producer of Gloria Estefan: The Standards. He earned his fifth Grammy nomination as co-arranger of “I Loves You Porgy / There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from the 2018 album Rendezvous featuring jazz singers Clint Holmes and Dee Dee Bridgewater with the Count Basie Orchestra. Other recent projects include arranging, orchestrating and co-producing the Estefan Family Christmas album, and recording and/or performing with Tony Bennett, Steve Miller, Seal, Lizz Wright, Andra Day, Monica Mancini, Kari Kirkland, Carmen Bradford, Chris Botti, Renée Fleming and Arturo Sandoval. He is also artistic director of The Jazz Cruise, artistic advisor for the Jazz Roots series at the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center in Miami-Dade County, and music director of The Barclay and Beyond Jazz Orchestra at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. An award-winning educator with more than 40 years of leadership in higher education, Berg has served as Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami since 2007 and announced he’ll be stepping down from that position in Spring 2026. He was previously the McCoy/Sample Professor of Jazz Studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and a past president of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE). In 2003, he was honored as Educator of the Year by the Los Angeles Jazz Society and in 2002 received the IAJE Lawrence Berk Leadership Award. In 2000, the Los Angeles Times named him one of three “Educators for the Millennium.”

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Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3296333-0

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3296333-2

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