Chicago, IL – Chicago Sinfonietta announced today details of IGNITE, a bold, dynamic season fueled by passion, creativity and expression, celebrating the power of music, the culture of Chicago, paying tribute to those who have and continue to inspire change, and lighting the way to deeper connections. The season is an open invitation to engage on one’s own terms through a diverse, colorful, curated selection of contemporary and established music from around the globe and closer to home, genre-defying collaborations, powerful premieres, featuring symphonic music, reimagined, for everyone.
“We are thrilled to unveil a truly electrifying season,” said Sidney P. Jackson, Jr, President & CEO of Chicago Sinfonietta. “In a world marked by uncertainty and division, the arts remain one of our most powerful forces for unity and transformation. Music can ignite something profound, hope, dialogue, reflection, and joy, and this season, we lean fully into that spark.
“Chicago Sinfonietta has always been at the forefront of innovation and equity in classical music, and our 38th season carries that legacy forward. Through five subscription concerts across six venues, we are not only expanding our reach, we are deepening our commitment to accessibility, representation, and artistic excellence. From championing women and BIPOC composers to reimagining the concert experience for today’s world, we remain rooted in the belief that music is both mirror and catalyst. This season, we invite our community to join us not just as listeners, but as co-creators, to ignite change together.”
“Storytelling is at the heart of every musical piece, and each work has the power to connect us to a larger world and to light passion within us,” stated Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. “This 2025-26 season is about bold storytelling – connecting us more deeply to each other, inspiring one another, and celebrating the community we help to create – all through orchestral sounds with an emphasis on blazing trails and strength! Our season, IGNITE, illuminates this and more, showing how even one story can affect change and embrace inclusion.
“Our 2025-26 begins with a celebration of Asian themes. The first half shines light on Indian music with a modern twist in the Chicago premiere of works arranged for Western instruments, sung by renowned Bollywood singer Juju in her Chicago Sinfonietta debut, and conducted by an early Freeman Conducting Fellow Roger Kalia, who shares the podium with me in this Season Opening program. The second half features works from my historic moments with this wonderful orchestra – with the iconic “Saibei Dance” by An-Lun Huang (the very first work I fell in love conducting the Chicago Sinfonietta as a guest conductor in an “East Meets West” theme) and Tyzen Hsiao’s The Angel of Formosa (a work reflecting my original roots from Taiwan) – both were significant works in my first program as Music Director of Chicago Sinfonietta after our beloved Maestro Freeman passed the baton to me in 2011.
“Our uplifting and bright holiday concert is led by a more recent Freeman Conducting Fellow, Kedrick Armstrong, who experienced a meteoric rise in the industry after starting his tenure as the new Music Director of the Oakland Symphony this past season.
“Our annual Dr. King Tribute concert, which focuses on courage and community, features a live orchestral world premiere by our first Artist in Residence, American composer Kathryn Bostic – her Suite from The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat Hulu film (based on Chicago Sinfonietta cellist Edward Kelsey Moore’s New York Times Best Selling book of thesame title), and a reprise of our co-commission, breathe/burn: an elegy, by Joel Thompson in memory of Breonna Taylor, calling out injustice, which we premiered to the world in March 2021 as an online virtual concert. Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler makes his Chicago Sinfonietta debut in this powerful new work.
“Our fourth subscription concert is a testimonial to trailblazing women and a celebration of firsts, and features all women composers, including the Chicago Sinfonietta commissioned world premiere of a new work by Shirley J. Thompson presented in a collaboration with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in celebration of the dance troupe’s 30th anniversary, and the Chicago Sinfonietta premiere of Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony – through which she became the first American woman to publish a symphony in 1894 and to have it performed by a major American Orchestra in 1896.
“To open the Season Finale, we have commissioned Chicago Sinfonietta Assistant Principal Violist and former Freeman Fellow, Seth Pae, for a Miles Davis Tribute celebrating the 100th anniversary of this Illinois-born artist. Our program anchors on African American composer William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony – a riveting and intense work that the Chicago Sinfonietta has performed several times before. This work, being one of three most significant works premiered in the 1930s by history-making African American composers (William Grant Still’s 1931 Afro-American Symphony, Florence Price’s 1933 Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, and Dawson’s aforementioned 1936 work), has seen a revival movement across the country in recent years following Chicago Sinfonietta’s championing. Pianist Clayton Stephenson, who debuted with us in 2016, returns to perform George Gershwin’s popular Rhapsody in Blue.
“Later in this season, we will also release our latest recording, Black Being, produced by our longtime collaborator, Cedille Records. A unique multi-media project created by Flutronix (distinguished flutists and composers, Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull), I have no doubt that this new album will take the recording industry by storm.
“I welcome you to join us in sharing the journey of storytelling through music and IGNITING your passion!”
Chicago Sinfonietta Board Chair James Weidner remarked, “Chicago Sinfonietta has always been at the forefront of inclusion and the power of music to create positive change. This season, under our new President and CEO Sidney P. Jackson, Jr., is another thrilling chapter in our legacy, painted with the varied and beautiful colors of cultures that make up our Chicagoland community. We move forward with courage from the roots of our past and are so proud to present our exciting season and introduce our new leader to Chicago.”
» Full Press Release
Chicago Sinfonietta
IGNITE – 2025-26 Season
