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The Triumph of American Music

The Triumph of American Music

Date:
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Time:
6:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:
Main Auditorium
Audience:
  Adult     Emerging Adult: 18-24 Year Olds     High School     Intergenerational     Senior Citizen  
Categories:
  Durham Library Foundation     Humanities     Music  
Registration has closed.

****Registration is closed but there are still seats available for walk-ins this evening! Please join us!****

Presented by:

John Edward Hasse

Grammy Nominated, Award-Winning Music Historian, & Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution


John Edward Hasse has served as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History for the last 32 years, curating exhibitions on Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, & Ray Charles. He served as principal advisor for the U.S. Postal Service stamp series 'Legends of American Music' & authored the acclaimed biography "Beyond Category: The Life & Genius of Duke Ellington" among so many other accomplishments. Hear from one of America's foremost music historian-educators!


January 11, 2023 6:00 - 7:00 PM

Durham County Main Library Auditorium

Reserved seating will be honored up until 5:55 PM at which time all remaining seating will be first come first serve. 


Interested in learning more? Read presenter's full bio here: 

John Edward Hasse Award-Winning Music Historian & Curator Emeritus, the Smithsonian Institution One of America’s foremost music historian-educators, Dr. John Edward Hasse helps audiences understand the power music has to move and inspire us to greater heights.

John Edward Hasse is a museum curator, author, speaker, and leader in his field. For the last 32 years, he has served as Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, where he curated exhibitions on Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles, and founded the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Jazz Appreciation Month, now celebrated in all 50 states and in 40 countries. Recently, he transitioned from Curator to Curator Emeritus—a lifetime honor—at the Smithsonian. He is also a former Chairman of Smithsonian Music.

He is author of an acclaimed biography, Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington, with a Foreword by Wynton Marsalis, and editor of Jazz: The First Century, with Forewords by Quincy Jones and Tony Bennett. Hasse is co-author of Discover Jazz and coproducer/co-author of the Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology. He is a contributor to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and eight encyclopedias. As an expert on 20th century American music, he has been interviewed in The New York Times, on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, PBS, CNN, and many other news outlets. Hasse also served as the principal advisor to the U.S. Postal Service on its stamp series Legends of American Music that began with Elvis Presley.

He earned a B.A. Cum Laude from Carleton College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Indiana University, two Honorary Doctorates, and a Certificate in Business Administration from The Wharton School. He has received two Grammy Award nominations and two ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in writing about music. Berklee College has named him their Herb Alpert Scholar-in-Residence for two years in a row, 2017 and 2018. Active in cultural diplomacy for the US State Department, Hasse has lectured on leadership, the arts, and music in 20 countries on six continents.

Event Organizer

Profile photo of Celeste Holtzmann
Celeste Holtzmann

~she/her~