American Rhapsody

Overview

This concert is dedicated to Phil Engel a long-time board member, friend, and support of the Chicago Sinfonietta.

Innovation has always defined America — especially its music.

In 1924, Rhapsody in Blue opened with a wild, sliding clarinet note that made people sit up straight. What followed was the first true fusion of jazz and orchestra — bold piano, jazz rhythms, and memorable melodies. Guest pianist Clayton Stephenson, praised as “a poet and master storyteller,” brings this electrifying music to life.

Then experience something brand new. Blues, Ballads, Bebop: A Miles Davis Symphonic Tribute is a world premiere by Chicago Sinfonietta’s own principal violist, Seth Pae, honoring the Chicago-legend who reinvented jazz again and again.

The evening closes with William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, built on three African American spirituals he loved as a child, and brought to the symphonic stage in 1934, breaking barriers in the process.