BBC Big Band

presents

‘Divas: The Story of Swing’
feat. Claire Martin 

Oxford Festival of the Arts is delighted to bring the internationally acclaimed BBC Big Band and multi award-winning jazz vocalist Claire Martin OBE to Oxford for a spectacular evening of world-class music, inspired by the great swing bands and legendary jazz vocalists of the twentieth century.

Through diverse repertoire arranged and curated by the BBC Big Band’s conductor, Barry Forgie, and Claire Martin OBE, the concert celebrates the music of the twentieth century’s quintessential vocalists and big bands – whose legacy and influence continues to define a classic era of music.

Featuring music from the leading ladies of big band, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee, alongside iconic bands and composers including the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Goodman, this will be a night to remember.

A truly unique evening of world-class music, performed by one of the world’s finest jazz orchestras!

A wonderful band!
Tony Bennett

World-class musicians … a brilliant musical force
The Telegraph

Our finest jazz singer
The Times

She ranks amongst the four or five finest female jazz vocalists on the planet
Jazz Times USA

A consummate jazz singer with old-school virtues … she wins plaudits everywhere she works
The Guardian