The Nutcracker Suite: Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Ensemble I

Celebrate the season with a program that bridges classical masterworks and jazz innovation. The evening opens with Bizet’s spirited Farandole and features soprano soloists Janinah Burnett and Michaela Kelly in Richard Strauss’s luminous Four Last Songs and Morgen.

At the heart of the concert are two unforgettable interpretations of The Nutcracker. The UNCG Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s cherished orchestral suite, followed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s groundbreaking jazz reimagining. Heard side by side, these works reveal how the same musical ideas can inspire vastly different sounds, styles, and traditions.

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Versatile singer, actor, musician, writer, arranger, and educator, Janinah Burnett has thrilled audiences domestically and internationally in opera, recital, musical theatre, jazz, television, and film. Some of her signature operatic roles include Mimí in La bohème, Lëila in Les Pêcheurs des Perles), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaëla in Carmen, Marguerite in Faust, and Violetta in La Traviata. An original cast member of Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème on Broadway as Mimí, she won a Los Angeles Theater Alliance Award and performed on the Tony Awards.  Janinah was on the roster of principal artists at the Metropolitan Opera for eight consecutive seasons debuting as Bianca in La Rondine. 

More recently Janinah was a member of the closing cast of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, making appearances as “Carlotta Giudicelli” since 2016.   

In February 2021, Burnett released her debut album, Love the Color of Your Butterfly, which features musical arrangements and collaborations with some of the world’s best jazz musicians. Released on her own record label Clazz Records, Love the Color of Your Butterfly is an amalgamation of jazz, opera, art song, oratorio, rhythm and blues, and spirituals and introduces her concept of “Clazz,” which encourages collaboration and redefines the parameters of genre while embracing parts of history that are erased, widely unknown and forgotten. Love the Color of Your Butterfly has been featured in numerous publications including the Financial Times, Playbill, Broadway World, Downbeat Magazine, and Opera News.  

Soprano, researcher, and teacher Dr. Michaela Kelly is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Previously, she taught as lecturer at Scripps College and Chapman University. Michaela was recently awarded a 2026 Faculty Research Grant from UNCG to support her upcoming album release of Windows: Five Songs of Love by Alan Louis Smith with the Navona Record Label. Upcoming engagements for 2026-2027: soprano soloist for the Brahms Requiem with Cumberland Choral Arts, soprano soloist with Raleigh Camerata, soloist for Vier Letzte Lieder by Strauss with the UNCG Symphony Orchestra, soloist with the Piedmont Wind Symphony saxophone ensemble, as well as recitals in California, Michigan, and throughout North Carolina. Michaela will also be the guest clinician for the 2026 Guilford County All County Treble Chorus.

A flexible and dynamic performer, Michaela has sung with the Los Angeles Opera Chorus and Los Angeles Master Chorale on their GRAMMY award winning album “Ortiz:Yanga.” She is an avid recitalist and passionate about art songs. Recently, Michaela performed as a fellow at the Cincinnati Fellowship of the Song and sang a mini-recital highlighting the benefits of cross training at the NATS National Conference. During her first year on faculty at UNCG, she sang as the soprano soloist with UNCG Chamber Singers in Schubert’s Mirjam’s Siegesgesang, as part of a vocal trio for UNCG’s annual Collage, as well as with the UNCG new music ensemble, Present, Continuous. Michaela was a recipient of the inaugural American Art Song Prize at SongFest where she performed a recital curated and coached by Libby Larsen, John Musto and Martha Guth. She has performed as a recitalist at Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Classical Music Institute, Source Song Festival and has appeared as a soloist with the UNCG Chamber Singers, Claremont Concert Orchestra, Thornton Wind Ensemble, I Cantori di Carmel, New England Conservatory Opera, and NEC Choirs and Orchestra.

Michaela was a recipient of the 2024 Emerging Leader Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Michaela currently serves as Co-Vice President of North Carolina NATS and previously served as Vice President of Programs for NATS – Los Angeles. Her article “The Composition of a Voice Lesson: How a Motor Learning Classification Framework Affects Teacher Effectiveness” was published in the May/June 2025 edition of the Journal of Singing. She has presented her research at the Pan-American Vocology Association Symposium, Mid-Atlantic Regional NATS Conference, North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference, Cal-Western NATS Conference, and NATS National Conference. This research will culminate in an upcoming online course with Embodied Music Lab titled “The Reflective Studio Music Teacher” which will be released in the spring of 2027. 

Dr. Kelly holds a Bachelor’s of Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a Master’s of Music in Vocal Pedagogy from the New England Conservatory, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of Southern California.

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The vibrant UNCG Orchestra program has long been recognized for performance excellence, adventurous programming, and high artistic standards. A diversity of offerings allow students the opportunity to perform repertoire for ensembles ranging from the largest cornerstone and contemporary works for full orchestra, to intimate pieces for chamber orchestra, to string orchestra.

Students in the UNCG Orchestra program are dedicated to the performance, study and cultivation of orchestral music of the highest quality. The UNCG Orchestras offer outstanding performances throughout the year and enhance the institutional spirit and community of UNCG. We seek to promote music education in the state of North Carolina and in our region by supporting secondary school orchestra programs and other organizations through our outreach activities and other annual events on campus.

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The Miles Davis Jazz Studies Program is a small, highly specialized program within the School of Music in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). The program offers a comprehensive curriculum in improvisation, arranging and composition, jazz history, theory, ear training, pedagogy, and piano skills, leading to a Bachelor of Music inPerformance with a concentration in Jazz Studies.

The program’s faculty are internationally recognized jazz artists and educators, providing students with exceptional mentorship and professional guidance. Through participation in several small jazz combos and two large jazz ensembles, students gain extensive performance experience and benefit from unique opportunities to study and perform alongside their faculty mentors.

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