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CHICAGO SINFONIETTA ANNOUNCES 2014-2015 SEASON & CONTINUATION OF MEI-ANN CHEN AS MUSIC DIRECTOR THROUGH THE 2016-2017 SEASON
New season featured artists include Mucca Pazza, Redmoon, Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato and more!
(CHICAGO, May 7, 2014) – The Chicago Sinfonietta, the nation’s most diverse and inclusive professional orchestra led by Music Director Mei-Ann Chen, today announced its 2014-2015 season, which includes five concerts that continue to reimagine the symphonic concert experience and feature cutting-edge artistic partnerships. The Chicago Sinfonietta board of trustees also announced today that Chen, has signed a contract extension engaging her for an additional two years. The orchestra’s upcoming 2014-2015 season marks Chen’s fourth season as music director. The new contract extension continues her tenure with the orchestra through the 2016-2017 season, bringing her relationship with the orchestra to six years.
Maestro Chen and the Chicago Sinfonietta have been a powerful and successful collaboration since day one. Jim Hirsch, Chicago Sinfonietta Executive Director, stated, “We are delighted that Mei-Ann Chen has extended her contract. Mei-Ann has thrilled the Chicago Sinfonietta’s audience members, enhanced the quality of music-making from the orchestra, and brought a fearless, innovative approach to our programming that has helped grow the audience and raise our profile locally and nationally since she became our Music Director in 2011. We look forward to working with her on concert and educational programs for at least two more years.”
Ms. Chen stated, “In 2011, at my first concert with the Chicago Sinfonietta as Music Director, I said to the audience that this group and its connections to the communities of Chicago is such an inspiration, that my goal is to make this the mightiest and most impactful boutique orchestra in America. Three years later, I still am inspired every time I stand before this wonderful ensemble of musicians. I look forward to our work over the next several years, beginning with the upcoming 2014-2015 season.”
Highlights of the upcoming season, which runs September 2014 through June 2015, include a collaboration with Chicago’s “punk marching band” Mucca Pazza; Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato in the premiere of a new tango-jazz inspired work; and a performance by child prodigy and cellist Sujari Britt, among others.
Native Chilean Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando guest conducts a rousing Día de los Muertos concert featuring the masterful shadow-puppetry of Redmoon; followed by a Martin Luther King Tribute featuring excerpts from a new symphonic work by talented African American teenager Jherrard Marseille Hardeman, and the Waubonsie Valley High School Mosaic Choir.
In addition to the diverse array of guest artists slated to perform with the Chicago Sinfonietta this season, audiences will enjoy performances of orchestral masterworks, including Carl Orff’s magnum opus Carmina Burana and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No.9 From the New World. Closing out the season; a tribute to our service members including music from Vietnam veteran and Chicago-based composer James “Kimo” Williams.
Maestro Chen noted, “The Chicago Sinfonietta 2014-15 season presents exciting, one-of-a-kind concert experiences that we hope will surprise, entertain, and inspire. Our goal is to present a unique mix of repertoire and guest artists that will provide the audience with something they might not have experienced before.
“The opportunity to collaborate with such talented and diverse musicians on such contrasting works is a great opportunity for our orchestra to shine and for our audience to get a taste of these very different, but connected, cultures,” explained Chen.
The Sinfonietta performs all five of its subscription concerts in the western suburbs as well as in downtown Chicago. The Sinfonietta’s suburban home is the Wentz Concert Hall of North Central College, 171 E. Chicago Avenue in Naperville, while downtown Chicago concerts take place in Orchestra Hall of Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Avenue. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.chicagosinfonietta.org.
For those wanting a “sneak peak” of Chicago Sinfonietta’s upcoming 2014-2015 Season, a special preview concert will be performed at Cantigny Park in West Suburban Wheaton on Saturday, August 9th, at 8.pm. For more information or to purchase tickets for that performance only, call 630-260-8162 or visit www.cantigny.org/calendar
CHICAGO SINFONIETTA’S 2014-2015 SEASON
Concert 1: Rethink. Redefine. Reimagine.
Sat, Sep. 20, 2014 at 8 PM, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Mon, Sep. 22, 2014 at 7:30 PM Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta; Mei-Ann Chen, conductor; Mucca Pazza
Maestro Chen opens the season venerating the classics with Ralph Vaughn Williams’ English Folk Song Suite and a nod to the trailblazing spirit of African American composer Florence Price with Dances in the Canebrakes. Tradition continues with works by Benjamin Britten and Gustav Mahler. And then things go in a totally different direction, positioning orchestra and punk marching band, Mucca Pazza, in a raucous musical conversation. As a special treat, Two Brother’s Brewing Company offers a beer-tasting designed to complement the music.
Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite
Price Dances in the Canebrakes
Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Mahler Excerpt from Symphony No.1
Messing Holiday on Ice
Smith Rabbits and Trees
Tchaikovsky Overture 1812
Concert 2: Día de los Muertos
Sat, Nov. 15, 2014 at 8 PM, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Mon, Nov. 17, 2014 at 7:30 PM, Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta; Alejandra Urrutia-Borlando, guest conductor; Redmoon
The duality of grief and joy of the Day of the Dead celebration is captured in this concert that begins and ends with the rollicking, exuberant music of Mexico by two of its greatest living composers, Arturo Rodríguez and Arturo Marquez. In between are works that explore the darker side of humanity: Yin-Yin Suite, which was inspired by a poem about the death of a cousin, and the tortured love story of Manuel de Falla’s El Amour Brujo, whose story will be told with shadow puppetry by Redmoon.
Rodríguez Mosaico Mexicano
Cofré Yin-Yin
De Falla El Amor Brujo Ballet Suite
Marquez Danzon No.2 Ballet
Concert 3: Annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King., Jr.
Sun, Jan. 18, 2015 at 3 PM, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Mon, Jan. 19, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta; Mei-Ann Chen, conductor; Sujari Britt, cello; Waubonsie Valley Mosaic Choir
Dr. King spoke about his dream for a new generation, so Chicago Sinfonietta is turning the spotlight on today’s youth–from opening the concert with part of a new symphony from an African-American teenager to featuring child prodigy Sujari Britt in Saint-Saëns’ Violoncello Concerto No. 1. Other young Chicagoans will provide a fresh take on the orchestra’s performance of Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, before the high-schoolers from Waubonsie Valley High School Choir bring down the house with their global take on Dr. King’s legacy through song.
Hardeman Movement 3 from Symphony No.3 “Blues”
Saint-Saëns Violoncello Concerto No.1
Copland Lincoln Portrait
Various Gospels and Spirituals
Concert 4: Primal Instincts
Sat, Mar. 21, 2015 at 8 PM, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Mon, Mar. 23, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta; Mei-Ann Chen, conductor; Cristina Pato, gaita
Gluttony, lust, passion, grief—have your most primitive impulses triggered, beginning with the first notes from the tragic tale of Carmen. A new tango-jazz inspired work featuring incendiary Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato turns up the heat before the orchestra delivers the final primordial blow with one of the most overpowering works of all time, Carmina Burana, which was inspired by medieval texts about the fickleness of fortune and ephemeral nature of life.
Bizet Selections from Carmen Suites No.1 & No.2
Solla A Galician Voyage: Concerto for Bagpipes, Piano & Orchestra
Orff Carmina Burana
Concert 5: United We Stand
Sat, Jun. 6, 2015 at 8 PM, Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville
Mon, Jun. 8, 2015 at 7:30 PM, Symphony Center, Chicago
Chicago Sinfonietta; Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Our shared experiences as Americans unite us in way that lead to different expressions by each of us—some are inspired to create music, while others serve in the military. Still others are led to do both, like Vietnam Veteran James “Kimo” Williams, whose music offers a unique tribute to our service members. Experience America through the eyes of two others—one native son, Charles Ives, offers an unusual, lush version of our unofficial national song, “America,” followed by Antonin Dvořák’s New World Symphony, which embodies the spirit of America through the eyes of an immigrant.
Ives Variations on “America”
Williams Symphony for the Sons of Nam, Chapter 2, Soldier’s Lament
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World”
Ticket Information
Season subscription discount packages are now available and entitle the buyer to a full range of exclusive membership benefits, including: ticket exchange or replacement privileges; discounts on additional single ticket purchases; a “Bring a Friend for Free” pass to the concert of one’s choice; and priority seating. Single tickets for the 2014-2015 Season go on sale June 9, 2014 with prices ranging from $46 – $58 for concerts at Wentz Concert Hall; and $16 – $99 for concerts at Symphony Center, with special $10 pricing available for students at both locations.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.ChicagoSinfonietta.org or through the Chicago Sinfonietta Box Office at (312) 284-1554.
The sponsors of the Chicago Sinfonietta’s 27th Season include ABC-7, BP, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Chicago Magazine, Exelon, Fairmont Chicago, Fifth-Third Bank, Hotel Arista, Millennium Park, Naperville Magazine, Nicor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Southwest Airlines, and WBEZ-91.5.
About the Chicago Sinfonietta
The Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra that forms unique cultural connections through the universal language of symphonic music. For over 26 years, the Sinfonietta has pushed artistic and social boundaries to provide an alternative way of hearing, seeing and thinking about a symphony orchestra. Each concert experience fuses inventive new works with classical masterworks from a diverse array of voices to entertain, transform and inspire. The Chicago Sinfonietta performs five subscription concerts in both downtown Chicago at Symphony Center and in Naperville at Wentz Concert Hall.
The Sinfonietta has a proud history of having enriched the cultural, educational and social quality of life in Chicago under the guidance of Founding Music Director Paul Freeman. Mei-Ann Chen succeeded Paul Freeman as the Chicago Sinfonietta’s Music Director beginning with the 2011-12 season. In 2012 the Sinfonietta was honored with two national awards for excellence from the League of American Orchestras, one for adventurous programming and one recognizing Maestro Chen with the Helen M. Thompson Award for an Emerging Music Director.
About Mei-Ann Chen
An innovative and passionate force both on and off the conductor’s podium, Mei-Ann Chen is one of America’s most dynamic young conductors. Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011 and of the Memphis Symphony since 2010, Ms. Chen’s reputation as a compelling communicator has resulted in growing popularity with orchestras worldwide, and she is a sought-after guest conductor. She has conducted major symphony orchestras throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, and in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Taiwan. Ms. Chen served as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony and Baltimore Symphony, under the aegis of the League of American Orchestras, and with the Oregon symphony as well. Among her honors and awards are Copenhagen’s 2005 Malko Competition, and a 2007 Taki Concordia Fellowship. Born in Taiwan, Mei-Ann Chen has lived in the United States since 1989. She holds master’s degrees in violin and conducting from the New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan. Ms. Chen also participated in the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. and at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen.
Mei-Ann Chen was unanimously selected as Music Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta after a two-year, international search following the announcement of Sinfonietta founder and classical music pioneer Maestro Paul Freeman’s pending retirement. Her tenure began with an August 2011 concert at Millennium Park attended by over 7,000 people. The Chicago Sun-Times stated, “She seems to be just the conductor the orchestra needs…” The Chicago Tribune praised her inaugural subscription debut that September, “Chen, … is a musician for whom “dynamic” and “electric” seem altogether too limiting. Her entire body is a bundle of podium energy; her keen ear and sharp eyes miss nothing. …In everything the sinfonietta players came through wholeheartedly for their new artistic chief.” In 2012-2013 the orchestra released its first recording in ten years, “Delights and Dances”, on Cedille Records. Featuring works by Michael Abel, Benjamin Lees, An-Lun Huang and Leonard Bernstein, the CD was praised by ClassicsToday.com, “The most important piece on the disc is Benjamin Lees’ Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra … It has been long due for a new recording, and this one is outstanding. … The Harlem Quartet, dedicatees of Abels’ piece, play all of this music very beautifully indeed. … The Chicago Sinfonietta under Mei-Ann Chen is a virtuoso group that accompanies with impressive technique…”.