Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents
Kind of Blue: Celebrating the Music of Miles Davis
Featuring Ravi Coltrane, Etienne Charles and Veronica Swift with Shelly Berg and the Frost School of Music's Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra and its resident conductor, Scott Flavin
Due to injury, Ambrose Akinmusire will be unable to perform at Kind of Blue: Celebrating the Music of Miles Davis. Etienne Charles will perform in his place. We wish Akinmusire a speedy recovery.
Born in 1926, Miles Davis was among the greatest innovators in jazz. This centennial concert celebrates his unparalleled musical legacy, which includes the albums Sketches of Spain, Tutu, Birth of the Cool and Kind of Blue.
Read about Davis' 1959 album Kind of Blue at Arsht Magazine.
Donations help the Arsht transform lives by connecting our community to the arts. Make a gift today at ArshtCenter.org/Gift.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
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Ravi Coltrane
Saxophone
Artist Bio
Ravi Coltrane
Ravi Coltrane
Ravi Coltrane is a critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated saxophonist, bandleader and composer. Coltrane has released six albums as a bandleader and has collaborated on a number of others. Born in Long Island, he is the second son of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. He was raised in Los Angeles, where his family moved after his father’s death in 1967. He lives in Brooklyn, and maintains a fast-paced touring, recording, composing and performance schedule. He leads the effort to restore the John Coltrane Home in Long Island and presides over important reissues of his parents’ recordings.
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Etienne Charles
Trumpet
Artist Bio
Etienne Charles
Etienne Charles
As a sideman, Etienne Charles has performed with and/or arranged for Roberta Flack, Chucho Valdés, Marcus Roberts, Marcus Miller, Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Big Band, Monty Alexander, Gregory Porter, Terri Lyne Carrington, René Marie, Paulette McWilliams and many others. He has been commissioned as a composer and arranger by Lincoln Center for the New York Philharmonic (2021), Savannah Music Festival (2017), Chamber Music America (2015 and 2021), the Charleston Jazz Orchestra (2012) and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (2011).
He currently serves as associate professor of studio music and jazz at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.
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Veronica Swift
Vocals
Artist Bio
Veronica Swift
Veronica Swift
Veronica Swift first gained international attention in 2015, when she won second place in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Vocals Competition. Four years later, Mack Avenue Records released her acclaimed album Confessions when she was only 25 years old. She demonstrated her flair for conceptual song cycles on her follow-up album, This Bitter Earth, which not only gave glimpses of her rock influences but thematically touched upon some of the harder truths of being a woman, particularly when it comes to domestic abuse. Swift is more than a jazz singer, exploring French and Italian opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk and vaudeville. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains intact regardless of genre.
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Shelly Berg
Piano
Artist Bio
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg is a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy-nominated arranger, orchestrator and producer. His newest album, Alegría, was recorded with bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and Dafnis Prieto and released July 2024 on ArtistShare. It is described as “buoyant joy” by JazzViews.net and “an instant jazz piano trio classic” by Modern Drummer. Berg’s original song “At Last” was nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.
An award-winning educator with over 40 years of leadership in higher education, Berg is Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He has appeared as a performer and lecturer throughout the United States as well as in Canada, China, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Japan, Romania and Venezuela.
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Scott Flavin
Resident conductor, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
Artist Bio
Scott Flavin
Scott Flavin
Scott Flavin is professor of violin and conducting at the Frost School of Music. He enjoys an incredibly versatile career as a conductor, violinist, composer, writer and pedagogue. As a conductor, he holds several important positions, including resident conductor of The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. He is conducting artist faculty at the Eastern Music Festival and founding conductor of the Camerata Orchestra in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. He has conducted at various festivals, on Jazz and the Philharmonic for PBS and for a wide variety of notable artists, from Joseph Silverstein to the Beach Boys.
Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
Adrienne Arsht Center
Inspirational Bon Mot Series Presented by Adrienne Arsht
