![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Alan-Shindelman.jpeg\")
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The Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra is honoring jazz icon Charlie Parker with a symphonic tribute featuring acclaimed saxophonist Vincent Herring on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Alan Shindelman<\/p>\n
Brooklyn music lovers are in for a special treat just in time for Valentine\u2019s Day.\n<\/p>\n
For the first time ever, Brooklyn\u2019s premier professional orchestra, the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra<\/a>, is dedicating a full program to jazz, featuring the work of the late Charlie Parker, \u201cCharlie Parker with Strings,\u201d on Feb. 13 at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights. It is also the first time in more than a decade that \u201cCharlie Parker with Strings\u201d will be heard live in New York.<\/p>\n The one-night-only performance, featuring acclaimed alto and soprano saxophonist Vincent Herring<\/a>, brings classical and jazz music into conversation by paying homage to one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time and a key figure in reshaping American music in the 20th century.<\/p>\n \u201cCharlie Parker with Strings\u201d highlights Parker\u2019s love for classical music. By bridging the gap between jazz and classical traditions, Parker intended to reach a wider audience \u2014 though at the time, jazz purists accused him of \u201cselling out.\u201d<\/p>\n The groundbreaking compilation album, released in 1955, became the most commercially successful chapter of Parker\u2019s career and has long been considered a turning point in jazz history. Blending Parker\u2019s improvisatory brilliance with lush string arrangements, the sessions revealed another dimension of his artistry \u2014 deeply melodic, expressive and expansive \u2014 while bridging bebop\u2019s radical language with a broader musical audience and affirming Parker\u2019s vision of jazz as an elastic art form capable of existing alongside classical traditions.<\/p>\n Even 70 years after Parker\u2019s untimely death at 34, the father of bebop\u2019s work continues to feel daring, lyrical and emotionally expansive. Selections are drawn from the Great American Songbook \u2014 music Parker transformed through the Strings sessions \u2014 including \u201cSummertime,\u201d \u201cApril in Paris,\u201d \u201cThey Can\u2019t Take That Away from Me,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m in the Mood for Love.\u201d Presented in their original string arrangements, the works spotlight the lyrical beauty, harmonic daring and emotional range that defined Parker\u2019s playing, even within the lush sweep of an orchestral setting. Presented as a complete work, the performance also includes music from the original score that was never recorded, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Parker\u2019s landmark string project live in concert.<\/p>\n Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director and conductor Phil Nuzzo said that \u201cCharlie Parker didn\u2019t just push jazz forward, he redefined what was possible,\u201d describing Parker as the cornerstone of jazz.<\/p>\n \u201cCharlie Parker set a point of departure for the rest of Jazz from him, going forward. He just changed the genre. His conceptualization of it is different from people\u2019s previous to him,\u201d Nuzzo told Brooklyn Paper.<\/p>\n After a series of sold-out concerts, Nuzzo said he wanted to \u201cbend\u201d the orchestra\u2019s repertoire.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re pretty secure with an audience here. Let\u2019s try and bend it a little bit,\u2019\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cSo we have the union of symphonic strings with a jazz combo, which is very unique, and not done that often, but these are iconic arrangements. They are clearly not done that often; the last time it was done was a decade ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Nuzzo said he was excited to collaborate with Vincent Herring, whom he described as the \u201cpresent-day GOAT.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201c[Herring] brings a special stature to it. Yeah, we can have somebody else play it, but to have somebody play like Vince is, you know, off the charts for us,\u201d Nuzzo said. \u201cThere are people who are musicians, and then there are people with music in their soul; it just pours out. And he\u2019s like, a vessel for this stuff. Just pours all this music out. You can just feel it when he\u2019s playing. It doesn\u2019t seem technical, it doesn\u2019t seem pedantic; it just flows out of the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Herring, who has performed and recorded with jazz greats including Nat Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Cedar Walton and the Mingus Big Band, is known for his intense, soulful sound and commanding swing.<\/p>\n He told Brooklyn Paper that Parker was a source of inspiration and a blueprint for how he learned to improvise while playing jazz.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI teach in a few different conservatories and all over the world, and in every conservatory music school, they studied Charlie Parker as one of the leaders in jazz, and one of the reasons why is because of his innovative thinking,\u201d Herring noted. \u201cHis creative imagination is something that can\u2019t be easily duplicated. His technical skills are not exceptional, but the thing that separates him from all of us is his imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n Herring also said the notion that Parker \u201csold out\u201d with \u201cCharlie Parker with Strings\u201d was \u201cblown out of proportion,\u201d describing the album as the \u201cmost refined, beautiful works that [Parker] did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, he said it himself that that was his favorite thing that he did. It was not only a sense of accomplishment, but also being able to play and perform with the orchestra was a big deal to him, and I don\u2019t think it was selling out,\u201d Herring said. \u201cIn fact, I think it stands the test of time, because it\u2019s a beautiful body of work in his solos and the interpretation of the melodies. They\u2019re classics for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Tickets for the tribute to the jazz icon start at $55 and are available through Eventbrite<\/a>. For a lineup of the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra\u2019s upcoming concerts \u2014 including \u201cBuried and Born in Brooklyn,\u201d celebrating the borough\u2019s musical heritage with a program devoted to composers born in Brooklyn \u2014 visit the orchestra\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra is honoring jazz icon Charlie Parker with a symphonic tribute featuring acclaimed saxophonist Vincent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,33206,100,99,49438,49439,49440,6160,49441,9,24,12,370,63,16223,49442],"class_list":{"0":"post-110059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-chamber-orchestra","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-charlie-parker","13":"tag-charlie-parker-with-strings","14":"tag-father-of-bebop","15":"tag-jazz","16":"tag-jazz-legend","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newsletter","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-st-ann-the-holy-trinity-church","23":"tag-vincent-herring"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Philip-Nuzzo-Headshot-credit_-Melody-English.jpeg\")
Philip Nuzzo said Charlie Parker didn\u2019t just push jazz forward, he redefined what was possible.Photo courtesy of Melody English<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/VincentHerring_EricAlexander_2614-HERRING-ONLY-copy.jpeg\")
Acclaimed saxophonist Vincent Herring is know for his intense, soulful sound and commanding swing.Photo courtesy of Eric Alexander<\/p>\n