Jazz at Lincoln Center has plans to expand abroad, creating a new jazz club in Doha, Qatar, and four other cities as part of an unusual partnership with the St. Regis chain of luxury hotels.

The new club opening in Doha, the capital city, next April will be the first time this nonprofit New York City jazz organization, known for presenting high-quality concerts and education programs at its Columbus Circle home, has established a permanent subsidiary abroad.

The 120-seat club is being built as part of a new $1 billion luxury hotel going up in Doha and will be modeled on Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Manhattan, with the same curved interior walls, open sightlines, superb acoustics and glass exterior wall with a vista, except that it will overlook the Persian Gulf instead of Central Park.

With a small population and immense wealth from oil and gas reserves, Qatar has evolved into a cultural hub in the Middle East, as the ruling monarchy has invested money in education and the arts in an effort to diversify its economy. In 2008 the government opened the Museum of Islamic Art, a zigguratlike structure of white stone designed by I. M. Pei, and an orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic, was formed in Doha. Last year the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opened, with 6,000 works. For the past three years the Tribeca Film Festival has run a festival in Doha, which has a small pop music scene, including some jazz.

The Doha club is only the start, said Adrian Ellis, the executive director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The group has reached an agreement with St. Regis Hotels and Resorts to open four more clubs in new hotels being built around the world over the next five years, though deals on specific sites have yet to be negotiated.

The Doha deal carries little risk for Jazz at Lincoln Center; the group will receive a percentage of ticket sales for booking jazz acts for the new space, as well as a percentage of the food and beverage sales.

For its part, St. Regis Hotels has persuaded a private developer in Qatar, Omar Alfardan, to invest $20 million to build the club, which will be called Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha. The hotel chain, owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, will employ the staff of the club and pay the fees and travel expenses for the musicians.

Mr. Ellis said the revenue from the Doha club would help support the organization’s educational programs, like the annual Essentially Ellington high school band competition and the Middle School Jazz Academy. The group has a $40 million operating budget, of which about $22 million comes from ticket sales, advertising and other earnings. Mr. Ellis estimated that the partnership with St. Regis Hotels would bring in an additional $1.5 million a year in earnings within five years, not counting the contributions Jazz at Lincoln Center might collect from Qatar’s well-heeled philanthropists if the program there becomes popular.

“For us it’s a contribution back to the bottom line,” he said. “We have a vast array of education programs and related programs that don’t generate a surplus, so we are always looking for new sources of income to support those. But it’s also about reaching new audiences.”

Wynton Marsalis, the virtuoso trumpet player who has long been the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, said the financial windfall mattered less than the opportunity to spread American culture and to introduce new audiences to jazz.

He said he would initially focus on sending musicians to Doha who are comfortable playing the role of cultural ambassador. The first showcases will have educational themes, he said, highlighting, for instance, important players from New Orleans or different periods in jazz history.

“When we work with our partners, it’s not cut-throat, cold-blooded business deals that we are trying to strike,” he said. “We are trying to strike mutually beneficial deals that allow us to prosper in a community sense.”

Paul James, the global brand leader for St. Regis Hotels, said the partnership fits well with his company’s attempt to use jazz to market its brand, tapping into the history of the original St. Regis Hotel, on East 55th Street, where jazz figures like Count Basie and Duke Ellington played during the height of the swing era.

The luxury chain has been expanding rapidly over the past four years, doubling the number of its hotels to 24. There are eight properties scheduled to open in the next six months, Mr. James said. Turning over the artistic programming at clubs in some hotels to Jazz at Lincoln Center makes good business sense, not only giving the hotel’s clubs a classy imprimatur but also ensuring that the musicians are first-rate, he said.

“You can make a jazz club, but you can’t make a Jazz at Lincoln Center jazz club,” Mr. James said. “That sense of quality and professionalism and the talent of that musician pool is untouchable.”

Mr. James said he approached Jazz at Lincoln Center about the possibility of a partnership in October 2010. The timing was fortunate, Mr. Ellis said. He and Mr. Marsalis had been talking to some of the organization’s board members about establishing a more permanent presence in other cities, replicating the acoustic experience audiences have had since Jazz at Lincoln Center moved into the Time Warner Center in 2004 and raised $131 million to build three high-tech performance spaces.

“St. Regis pitched us our idea,” Mr. Ellis said.

Mr. James said the pieces of the deal came together quickly because Mr. Alfardan, the real estate developer who owns the new hotel in Doha, is a jazz fan and eagerly embraced the proposal.

It is unclear where the future Jazz at Lincoln Center clubs will be built, Mr. James said. St. Regis has entered into talks with the owners and developers of several hotels in other American cities, China and Latin America.

Mr. Ellis said he was confident that at least four more clubs could be opened over the next five years, given the number of hotel projects in the St. Regis pipeline. If it is successful, the performance space in Doha could become a model for other partnerships with for-profit companies.

“If we are careful not to bite off more than we can chew, it could transform our business model,” Mr. Ellis said.

This article was originally published in The New York Times.

Come join the top NCCU undergraduate and graduate student jazz instrumental and vocal performers in a great evening of jazz music!

Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Location: B.N. Duke Auditorium
Admission: Free

Beginning Oct. 24, WNCU will have a new host for jazz weekday evenings. Serena Wiley will be hosting the evening show weekdays, from 7-10pm. Serena is a graduate of NCCU’s jazz studies program. She plays tenor, alto sax, and flutes and is currently gigging in a reggae band. We welcome her expertise and passion for jazz to WNCU.

On Sunday, Nov. 6, WNCU will change their schedule. Close to Thee, a new gospel program, hosted by Carolyn Satterfield, will air from noon until 2 pm. Join Carolyn for traditional gospel from some of the most beloved artists of all time.

Tune into The Animal House every Monday from 3 – 4 p.m.

The Animal House is a weekly discussion that explores the latest in animal science, pet behavior, and wildlife conservation. We hope to deepen human understanding of animals and explain the powerful bonds that link us to the animal world. Our goal is to be fun, substantive, and appealing to a broad audience — both those with pets and those without them.

The Animal House will go from the bat caves of northern Virginia to the big game reserves of Botswana as we discuss the latest in animal-related news. And each week, you can count on expert advice about all your pet-related questions from Dr. Gary Weitzman, veterinarian and executive director of the Washington Animal Rescue League.

Click here to visit show website.

Tune into WNCU on Saturday, Sept.3 at 9 p.m. for a re-broadcast from WXPN’s Blues and Beyond featuring Honeyboy Edwards – A Long Life in the Blues.

At 92, David “Honeyboy” Edwards was still touring and playing the blues, though he no longer hopped freight trains to get around. His new album “Roamin’ And Ramblin’” covered an amazing period of sixty-five years, from his 1942 Library of Congress sessions with Alan Lomax to sessions he did last year with Bobby Rush, Billy Branch, and others. The album also offered some previously unavailable recordings from the 1970s, featuring Edwards with the late and great Big Walter Horton on harmonica, and also Sugar Blue. We’ll feature “Roamin’ And Ramblin’” on this program.

We’ll also hear from Robert Johnson — Honeyboy was with Johnson when he died — from a new, sound-quality-improved reissue of his work, and we’ll hear pianist Jimmy Blythe, both from piano roll and 78 rpm record. The show also includes music from Larry Willis and Catherine Russell, and African sounds from Leni Stern and Lionel Loueke.

WNCU will air a special thank you concert for all supporters during our fall fund drive.  Tune in on October 11at 7 p.m.

Sing the Truth! is Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo and Lizz Wright singing together and taking turns on music by Miriam Makeba, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, Tracy Chapman and more. The voices are amazing, and so are the songs. “Powerful” barely describes the impact. See a short video at wbgo.org/Detroit.

Tune in every Monday at 9:40 p.m. for Jazz Stories.

Jazz musicians refer to what they do as telling stories. We bring you backstage stories from jazz legends and those in the making. Hear what jazz sounds like when musicians put down their instruments. Each piece is approximately 10 minutes in length.

The Harlem Quartet, a world-class ensemble of string musicians from diverse ethnic backgrounds, is coming to North Carolina Central University on Sept. 8 for a special 7 p.m. performance at B.N. Duke Auditorium that is free and open to the public.

Praised for its “panache” by The New York Times, the Harlem Quartet is currently the resident
ensemble in the New England Conservatory of Music’s Professional String Quartet Program. Its mission is to advance diversity in classical music while engaging young and new audiences through a varied repertoire that highlights works by minority composers.

The Harlem Quartet has gained a wide audience since its acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut in 2006. That same year, the ensemble also appeared at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre with a well-received performance of Wynton Marsalis’s At the Octoroon Balls. In collaboration with New York Philharmonic Principal Cellist Carter Brey, the group performed at the Library of Congress in a concert employing the Library’s matched collection of Stradivari instruments.

Each member of the Harlem Quartet is a seasoned solo artist, having appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, National, New World and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, among others. As a quartet, they have performed in many communities across the country including Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Boston.

Dr. Timothy Holley, associate professor of music at NCCU, said the quartet’s program strikes a fine balance between the standard chamber music repertoire and that of African-American composers.

“Among the genres of operatic and orchestral music, chamber music—which includes the string quartet in particular–is still recognized as the backbone of classical music,” he said. “It is an interesting and challenging notion to have such an ensemble performing in concert, not just at NCCU but any performance space in the African-American community.”

Holley also noted the unique blend of culture created by the quartet’s lineup. Violinist Ilmar Gavilán is Cuban; violinist Melissa White is African-American; violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez was born in Canada but his family is from the Dominican Republic; and cellist Paul Wiancko is of Polish and Japanese descent.

The quartet opened its 2009-10 season as featured soloists on the national Sphinx Chamber
Orchestra Tour, including performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin College, and the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. In December, it gave two performances at the White House for guests of President and First Lady Michelle Obama, and made a Christmas morning appearance on NBC’s “Today Show.” The Quartet has also performed with the legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and made its London debut performance at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the U.K.

The Harlem Quartet performed during the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild 2010-2011 Masters Series. This year, the guild has partnered with NCCU’s Department of Music and University College to bring the ensemble to NCCU as part of a return performance in the Triangle Area. The Sept. 8 concert is funded through the Lyceum Series. The Raleigh Chamber Music Guild will host a ticketed show 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, in the Fletcher Opera House in Raleigh. Tickets are available at the guild’s office, 919-821-2030 or www.rcmg.org.

“The Raleigh Chamber Music Guild has done an amazing job in identifying and engaging young chamber music ensembles of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in their annual chamber music series,” Holley said. “They have wanted for several years to partner with NCCU in hosting a concert beyond the city limits of Raleigh. It is also a very important charge of the RCMG that its guest performers have a close and direct connection to the community of their audience.”

He described the partnership as “a visionary undertaking” that helps challenge perceptions that only certain styles and traditions of music are presented at institutions such as NCCU.

Learn more about The Harlem Quartet on their website, www.harlemquartet.com.

WHAT: The Harlem Quartet performs at NCCU
WHEN: 7 p.m., Sept. 8
WHERE: B.N. Duke Auditorium, 1801 Fayetteville St., Durham
COST: Free, open to the public.
INFO: Call University College at 530-6932