a juneteenth celebration: a tribute to count basie

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A Juneteenth Celebration: A Tribute to Count Basie

June 17, 2023

• Time: 6pm – 8pm

Spady Museum 
170 NW Fifth Avenue
Delray Beach, FL 33437
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In recognition of Juneteenth, Donna Singer and the 18-piece Diamond Jazz Orchestra will pay tribute to Count Basie, Duke Ellington and other big band greats. The museum will open beforehand for exhibit viewing. Guests will be encouraged to dance during the concert. All proceeds from this benefit concert, in honor of the Juneteenth holiday, will go toward underwriting programming and events of the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum. Tickets are $50 per person; $80 per couple. Rain or Shine.

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Performer Donna Singer has wowed jazz lovers around the world through her recordings and live performances at festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs. Her European concerts include dates in Paris, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy and Wales. She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera Guild Recital Hall in Lincoln Center, Central Park’s Naumburg Bandshell and The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. Learn more about Singer HERE.

For “An Evening with Donna Singer and the Diamond Jazz Orchestra Paying Tribute to Count Basie,” Singer said the audience should anticipate a night filled with inspiration, rhythm and above all else, dancing.

Q: What should the audience expect from the evening?

Singer: The music will be songs that Count Basie is well known for. He was a band leader, who inspired so many others, including Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra, as well as a musician, so we will be focusing on his charts. We are paying tribute to the greatness of Count Basie.

Q: Where else have you performed this tribute?

Singer: I’ve been performing for more than 30 years, which includes formal training at The Julliard School. And I’ve been singing with Big Band orchestras since the 1990s in Fort Lauderdale. I decided to form the Diamond Orchestra, hand-picked by me, because I love singing with an orchestra and the ‘surroundness’ of that music. Since we came into being, this will be our sixth or seventh concert.

Q: Will there be anything different about this particular concert?

Singer: We plan to incorporate some instrumentals, arranged by Count Basie. For the first time, we are really going to feature the orchestra. Some songs Basie that arranged, I will be singing.

Q: Why the Spady Museum partnership?

A: We collaborated together at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, then in partnership with Arts Garage, then again via Joan Cartwright, a mutual friend of mine and Museum Director Charlene Farrington. I wanted to do a fundraiser, so we designed this evening. Charlene was right there, loving the idea. We met each other’s energy.