Students at the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus in Aurora held a birthday party for their school’s namesake, Charles Burrell, who turned 103 years old OCt. 4, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
Students at the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus in Aurora held a birthday party for their school’s namesake, Charles Burrell, who turned 103 years old OCt. 4, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
Students at the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus in Aurora held a birthday party for their school’s namesake, Charles Burrell, who turned 103 years old OCt. 4, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
Students at the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus in Aurora held a birthday party for their school’s namesake, Charles Burrell, who turned 103 years old OCt. 4, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
Students at the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus in Aurora held a birthday party for their school’s namesake, Charles Burrell, who turned 103 years old OCt. 4, 2023. PHOTO COURTESY OF AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
AURORA | Charles Burrell, namesake of the Charles Burrell Visual and Performing Arts Campus, celebrated his 103rd birthday with students at the school Wednesday morning.
Students danced, sang songs and presented him with brightly decorated birthday posters.
School district officials also presented Burrell with a plaque, which states that Oct. 4 will be recognized as Burrell Day, to honor “his accomplishments as one of the first African American musicians to obtain a major contract with a symphony.”
Burrell joined the Colorado Symphony in 1949 and retired in 1999, according to his biography on the district website. While he played classical music and performed with the Colorado Opera Orchestra and the Central City Opera Orchestra, he was renowned for being a jazz bassist. He performed with jazz musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Billie Holladay.