NextThreeDays: Event Display

Danish Radio Big Band in Concert with Cécile McLorin Salvant
Venue: Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Organizations: Cécile McLorin Salvant, Danish Radio Big Band
Date: Friday, February 20, 2026
Time: 7:30 - 9:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost:
Ticket Prices (depending on location): • Category A $65.00 • Category B: $45.00 • Category C: $25.00

Students with ID and youth 18 and under: $10.00

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Description:
The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech presents the Danish Radio Big Band in concert with Cécile McLorin Salvant on Friday, February 20, 2026.

Danish Radio Big Band brings powerhouse sound alongside three-time Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.

For over 50 years, the Danish Radio Big Band has been a driving force in Copenhagen’s thriving jazz scene, earning its reputation as one of the world’s most dynamic and innovative ensembles.

Now led by Grammy-nominated composer Miho Hazama, one of the most promising and talented young composers and arrangers of her generation, the Danish Radio Big Band brings its powerhouse sound to the stage alongside Cécile McLorin Salvant, a three-time Grammy-winning jazz vocalist, composer, and fearless storyteller. Salvant, known for her electrifying interpretations and genre-defying artistry, returns to the center after her unforgettable 2023 debut.

The Danish Radio Big Band (DR Big Band), often referred to as the Radioens Big Band, is a jazz big band founded in Copenhagen in 1964, when the Copenhagen jazz scene was particularly active and the city was regularly visited by prominent jazz artists from the U.S. Originally called the New Radio Dance Orchestra, in the early years the band was led by Ib Glindemann. Over the next few decades, many new faces joined — a succession of striking bandleaders, musicians, and guest soloists such as Chris Potter — all of whom helped to develop the band into the experienced ensemble whose record releases and concerts have a devoted following all over the world.

Links:

• https://www.drkoncerthuset.dk/ensembler/dr-big-band/
• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLysPxrQwj2Yd3eCFXZuomzBToOilaEEcm

Cécile McLorin Salvant, is a composer, singer, and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described Salvant as“a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings”.

Salvant has developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. Salvant is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor.

Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010. She has received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Window”, “Dreams and Daggers”, and “For One To Love”, and was nominated for the award in 2014 for her album “WomanChild”.

In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Nonesuch Records released “Ghost Song” in March 2022, and has since gone onto receive two Grammy Nominations as well as appearing on a number of year end best lists for 2022.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, of a French mother and Haitian father, she started classical piano studies at 5, sang in a children’s choir at 8, and started classical voice lessons as a teenager.

Salvant received a bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Links:

• https://www.cecilemclorinsalvant.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/CecileMcLorinSalvantMusic
• https://www.instagram.com/cecilemclorinsalvant/

Tickets range from $25.00-$65.00 depending on seat location. Tickets for students with ID and youth 18 & under are $10.00.

Tickets can be purchase online, at: https://tickets.artscenter.vt.edu/Online/mapSelect.asp?doWork::WSmap::loadMap=Load&createBO::WSmap=1&BOparam::WSmap::loadMap::performance_ids=8682F53B-611B-49FE-9298-5FB5841F4DFA or in person at the box office or by calling the box office at 540-231-5300.

This performance will last approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech is located at 330 Turner Street NW in Blacksburg, VA.

For more information, visit: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/danish-radio-big-band.html or https://www.facebook.com/artscenteratvt or https://www.instagram.com/artscenteratvt/ or call 540-231-5300.