Accomplished alumnus Williams joins Jazz Ensemble

Celebrated jazz composer Patrick Williams, T ’61, will return to Duke as a guest artist in the Duke Jazz Ensemble’s Alumni Weekend concert. Williams, who has received four Emmy Awards and an Academy Award nomination for his film and television musical scores as well as two Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his big band jazz compositions, will spend several days meeting with students in the Jazz Studies Program and rehearsing with the jazz ensemble as part of a “mini residency” prior to the event, according to John Brown, director of the Duke Jazz Studies Program.

The Duke Jazz Ensemble, which performs with four prominent guest artists each academic year, is particularly excited to work and interact with a Duke alumnus, Brown said.

“[Patrick Williams] is a great arranger and a person who loves and supports music, so I know he will offer a good experience for the students,” Brown said. “The experience will be enhanced by the fact that he is bonded to these students because he’s a Duke alum.”

At Duke, Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and directed the student-run jazz big band, Duke Ambassadors, from 1959 to 1961. His works include orchestral concert compositions such as An American Concerto (1977), which earned him a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in music, and celebrated big band recordings including Threshold (1973) and Sinatraland (1998). He has also arranged albums for Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand.

After his years at Duke, Williams went on to study composition and orchestration at Columbia, and then moved to California to work in the film and television industry. However, he has maintained his connection to Duke over the years—he has since returned to Duke as a guest lecturer, and the university awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 2001.

“As with all of our concerts, we want people to see what we’re doing at Duke and what our students are doing,” Brown said. “It’s also significant because Duke is a place where people go and do great things, and the concert allows us to welcome them back home.”

Patrick Williams will perform with the Duke Jazz Ensemble over Alumni Weekend at Page Auditorium on April 22 at 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general admission.