On Feb. 11, the Historical Society of Washington gathered Duke Ellington's friends and fans at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church to share their experiences and memories of him. Here are excerpts from the event, "Remembering the Maestro."
Luvenia George, the coordinator of the Duke Ellington Youth Project at the Smithsonian Institution:
"In high school Ellington was also an artist. He could have been an artist, but as he said . . . whenever he would play piano he would see a pretty girl at the end of the piano, and he said this is where he wanted to be."
