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Jazz Band
Drummer at the concert
Timacua House

Flying Horse Big Band Plays Outside the Classroom

Timacua House
Wide photo of stage
Jeff Rupert preparing for concert
Close-up of Nutcracker

In his downtown Orlando home, nicknamed "The White House," Glazer has created a special space where he invites performers to "bring arts and music back into that forgotten venue — the living room."

Since 2000, Glazer's Timucua Arts Foundation has hosted hundreds of concerts, which are free and open to the public. The Flying Horse Big Band is one of the largest groups to perform here.

“The performance was a real honor and a great partnership that helps everyone involved — the students, the presenter and the Orlando cultural community,” says Big Band leader Jeff Rupert, UCF director of Jazz Studies.

Rupert says he selected Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's 1960 jazz interpretation of the Tchaikovsky holiday classic because of its rarity. "The piece isn’t played very often because it’s so challenging, but we have the goods to pull it off."

Senior baritone saxophonist Joshua Senften plays a solo. Made up of students from the UCF Jazz Studies program, the ensemble reached number 35 on the JazzWeek chart in March 2013 with the album, "The Blues is Alright."

The Big Band often invites special guests to sit in. Here, local musician Michiko Morell contributes a conga beat to the holiday performance. "Jazz is social music," says Rupert. "It’s amazing what a culturally rich area Central Florida really is."