University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Choirs
Kenneth Kiesler, conductor
University of Michigan Choirs
Eugene Rogers, music director
UMS Choral Union
Scott Hanoian, music director

The combined forces of a symphony orchestra, a jazz orchestra, and a chorus capture the stylistic range of this epic blues suite.

Wynton Marsalis’s massive jazz symphony All Rise (Symphony No. 1) was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the millennium and had its world premiere in December 1999. Blending influences from African chant, New Orleans parade music, gospel, symphonic modernism, and Latin-based music, All Rise is a 12-movement arc built on the structure of the Blues that moves from uplifting and energetic to dark and distressing to Marsalis’s vision of the “togetherness and ascendance” of humanity. Marsalis has said that this monumental work is about “the rise from destruction to creativity, drawing joy out of tragedy, and refusing to be beaten down.” Of the world premiere performance, the Chicago Tribune enthused, “Marsalis finds plangent blues melody at [the] core…This is what makes All Rise cohere even though its 12 movements span entire continents and musical cultures.”