Ellington To Perform At Eastern

Ellington To Perform At Eastern

YPSILANTI —

April 14, 1973

Duke Ellington, one of America’s most honored musicians, will appear at 8 p.m. May 4 in Peace Auditorium on the Eastern Michigan University campus. Reserved seat tickets are on sale at the McKenny Union ticket office on the campus.

Composer, writer, pianist, conductor — and recently appointed by President Nixon as unofficial goodwill envoy for American music abroad, Ellington has had a career of heroic proportions since his first professional appearance in 1916.

Honorary degrees have been bestowed on Ellington by many universities since the first one by Ohio’s Wilber-force University in 1949. In May, 1970, Ellington was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the next month the American Ballet Theatre premiered his ballet, “The River,” at Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts in New York.

Ellington has been a White House visitor through several administrations. Welcomed as a “fellow piano player” by Harry Truman, he was appointed to the National Council of the Arts by President Johnson.