Chicago Sinfonietta Announces Conversational And Immersive 2019-2020 Season Lineup

The nation's most diverse orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, is proud to present a lineup of fresh and collaborative programming for its 2019-2020 season, Dialogue. Each of the five concerts in the 2019-2020 series boasts an engaging, thematically-curated repertoire of pieces written by underrepresented composers, each encouraging a different conversation or call to action. Before the season begins, Chicago Sinfonietta will perform a live concert screening of Jordan Peele's smash hit film Get Out, conducted by score composer Michael Abels, at the Auditorium Theatre on Saturday, September 21.

Chicago Sinfonietta's season will offer two performances per concert with one at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., and the other at Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., in Naperville. Heavily rooted in the importance of inclusivity, the upcoming season will cross-pollinate with talent from other art forms and magnify its message of "artistic conversations" through the use of these creative partnerships. Sparking conversation with timely motifs, each performance will ignite audiences to do more than just listen.

"We are so excited to generate conversation and consciousness with our performances this season," said Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. "Chicago Sinfonietta prides itself in pushing the boundaries of what classical music performances can look and sound like and stretching ourselves as musicians and I think we knock this out of the park in our 2019-2020 season! We continue our commitment to women composers, diverse works of music and important causes that define humanity and the society we live in, from issues of race, to the environment and more. Audiences of all ages with a variety of musical interests will find that it is a great balance of classic orchestra repertoire paired with new works with phenomenal special guest artists, which is quintessentially Sinfonietta."

The series begins October 5 and 7, 2019, with the environmentally focused Forces + Fates, exploring the beauty and volatility of nature and the influence it has had on art throughout centuries. This concert will feature breathtaking works that highlight the earth at different stages including Felix Mendehlssohn's The Hebrides which was composed in reaction to the awe-inspiring nature of Fingal's Cave in the British Isles, as well as Clarice Assad's Nhanderu, influenced by the rainmaking rituals of the Amazonian Tupi-Guarani tribes. Forces + Fates will also feature the world-premiere of a Chicago Sinfonietta commission entitled Earth Tryptic composed by Fernando Arroyo, Stephan Smith, and Michelle Issac. George Walker's Lyric for Strings, will precede the finale of the concert, a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 that poses the question, "What happens next?" Audiences will be left in awe of the magnificent world around them and aware of just how much of an impact humans have on the environment.

The 2019-2020 season marks the return of the wildly popular, sensory concert experience celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali on November 9 and 11, 2019, aptly named Love + Light. The concert will feature many acclaimed guests including Conductor Sameer Patel, Assistant Conductor for the San Diego Symphony and a Project Inclusion Fellow Alumni. Audiences will be captivated as they experience the incorporation of Indian dancers on Stravinsky's Firebird Suite featuring the Mandala Ensemble. Esteemed violinist Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam will perform an original concerto fusing Carnatic musical traditions of Southern India with Western Classical music in his Shanti-Priya Concerto for violin and orchestra. Love + Light will honor the rich heritage and cornerstones of this autumnal holiday while portraying the message of light and beauty, as well as elements of mythology, in a stunning cross-cultural collaboration.

The third concert in the upcoming season, Chicago Sinfonietta's annual MLK Tribute Concert, is set for January 19 and 20, 2020. The MLK Tribute Concert will feature Chicago Sinfonietta Assistant Conductor and Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow Alumni, Jonathan Rush, as well as Kymberli Joye - his sister and semi-finalist on NBC's hit singing competition The Voice. The duo will captivate audiences with a moving performance of Patty Griffin's Up to the Mountain, touching on the emotion surrounding Dr. King's famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, arranged for orchestra by 19-year-old virtuoso, composer and conductor Jherrard Hardeman. Joel Thompson's searing work, The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, sorrowfully featuring the final words of seven victims of police brutality, will be performed with the Waubansie Valley High School Mosaic Choir, followed by Glory, the Academy Award-winning song composed by John Legend and Common for the hit film Thelma. The second half features the final movement of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony No. 2 performed by Roosevelt University Conservatory Choir and North Central College University Choir.

Building on last season's Project W initiative that focused on women composers, Chicago Sinfonietta honors female artists Frida Kahlo, Maya Lin and Alma Thomas, when it presents Sight + Sound as the fourth concert in their five-part series on March 7 and 9, 2020. Featuring a World Premiere commission from Composer Courtney Bryan and guest performer and world-renowned violinist Jennifer Koh inspired by the women artists noted above, this concert will reveal the artist's journey and art's impact on every aspect of being. Sight + Sound will include works such as Adam Schoenberg's Finding Rothko, which has been cast in four movements each named after a primary color used in Rothko's paintings and Maurice Ravel's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel's piece was inspired by a meeting Mussorgsky had with artist Viktor Hartmann discussing their devotion to Russian art, with each of the 10 movements in the piece representing a work by Hartmann at the exhibition. The concert as a whole paints a clear picture of the importance that art and its makers have on our culture.

The 2019-2020 season will conclude on May 9 and 11, 2020 with Fusion + Fuego, which will spark conversation alongside the debut of a new composition from bassist Victor Wooten's The Lesson. Wooten's composition is written specifically for this performance, based on an original book. Told in the form of spiritual journey through the eyes of a young musician using the teachings of a philosopher and musical genius, the movement depicts the duality of music and life, as well as how each lesson learned has its own meaning. Fusion + Fuego will also focus on the intersection of Jazz fusion folk music and Latin music through works including Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances, Arturo Marquez's Conge del Fuego and Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout. This performance will highlight the importance of understanding many cultures and the wisdom that the each culture brings to the table.

For 32 years, diversity, inclusion, and bold and dynamic programming have been at the center of Chicago Sinfonietta's mission. In 2016, Chicago Sinfonietta was one of just 14 organizations in the nation to receive the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions - the "genius award" for nonprofit organizations. The Sinfonietta was also selected in 2016 by the Chicago Innovation Awards in recognition of its innovative approach to programming. Prior to that, Chicago Sinfonietta was named by ASCAP as the recipient of the 2011-12 Award for Adventurous Programming and in 2013 was dubbed, "the city's hippest orchestra" by the Chicago Tribune, always embracing the daring programming that has been part of its history.

For more information or to purchase season tickets, please visit www.chicagosinfonietta.org.