With the help of a grant from the Ford Foundation, the score and instrumental parts were copied, and the work itself was premiered by a 30-piece orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller and produced by Mingus's widow, Sue, at Alice Tully Hall on June 3, 1989, 10 years after his death, and issued as a live album.

Accurately convinced that it would never be performed in his lifetime, Mingus called his work Epitaph declaring that it was written "for my tombstone.

The album The Complete Town Hall Concert (United Artists UAJ 14024) includes the tracks "Epitaph Pt.

From Martin Williams's review: "The occasion was supposed to have been a public recording date, but the producers' announcements and ads somehow came out reading 'concert.'

After Mingus's death, the score to Epitaph was rediscovered by Andrew Homzy, director of the jazz program at Concordia University, Montreal.

At that point Homzy and Sue Mingus got in touch with Gunther Schuller, who put together an all-star orchestra to play this very demanding piece of music.

"[4] And conductor Gunther Schuller stated "The only comparison I've ever been able to find is the great iconoclastic American composer Charles Ives."

Despite all these challenges, however, the concert, at Alice Tully Hall in New York's Lincoln Center in 1989, was a critical triumph, if ten years too late for Charles Mingus to enjoy it.

Conductor Saxes and woodwinds Trumpets Trombones and tuba Rhythm section In 2008, the full score of Epitaph was published by Let My Children Hear Music, Inc (The Charles Mingus Institute), distributed by Hal Leonard.