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– Flutronix, Nathalie Joachim & Allison Loggins-Hull, presents a four-movement song cycle exploring and reclaiming the Black female experience through flute, electronics, voice, and chamber orchestra.
– Performed by Chicago Sinfonietta, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, with poetry by North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.
– Named one of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of 2021 by the Chicago Tribune.
– The four movements, Angels, Water Babies, Moon Pies and Stardust, and Black lights — trace a journey from the legacy of the slave trade to celebration of Black womanhood across generations.
– Recorded January 2025 at Mary Patricia Gannon Concert Hall, DePaul University.
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– Conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, Chicago Sinfonietta presents world-premiere recordings of newly commissioned works by Jennifer Higdon, Clarice Assad, Jessie Montgomery, and Reena Esmail.
– Created as the capstone project of the orchestra’s 30th anniversary season, celebrating women composers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
– Highlights include Higdon’s virtuosic Dance Card, Assad’s cross-cultural Sin Fronteras, Montgomery’s frenetic Coincident Dances, and Esmail’s East-West inspired Black Iris.
– Also features the first-ever recording of William Grant Still’s orchestral arrangement of Florence Price’s Dances in the Canebrakes; the movement “Nimble Feet” has streamed nearly 2.5 million times on Spotify.
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– Chicago Sinfonietta’s first recording with music director, award-winning conductor Mei-Ann Chen, featuring guest artists The Harlem Quartet.
– Written for the Harlem Quartet, winners of the Sphinx Competition, celebrating outstanding young Black and Latino string players.
– A vibrant program blending jazz, blues, bluegrass, and Latin dance influences within a classical orchestral setting.
– A New York Times review described the piece as “an energetic arrangement . . . which incorporates jazz, blues, bluegrass and Latin dance elements” — and which the Harlem Quartet “played with panache.”
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– Celebrates life and music of American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), whose accomplishments spanned the worlds of jazz, dance, pop, film, television, and classical music.
– Features world premiere recordings of Perkinson’s orchestral, chamber, and solo instrumental works.
– Highlights his distinctive blending of Baroque counterpoint, American Romanticism, blues, spirituals, and Black folk music.
– Performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta and conductor Paul Freeman, with Chicago’s New Black Repertory Ensemble Quartet and distinguished soloists.
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– The third and final installment of Cedille Records’ acclaimed African Heritage Symphonic Series, performed by Chicago Sinfonietta conducted by Paul Freeman.
– Features late-20th-century works by four leading Black American composers: David Baker, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Banfield, and Michael Abels.
– Includes Baker’s virtuosic Cello Concerto (1975) performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Katinka Kleijn.
– Also highlights Perkinson’s Generations: Sinfonietta No. 2 for Strings (1996), Banfield’s percussion-rich Essay for Orchestra (1994), and Abel’s internationally performed Global Warming (1990).
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– Part of Cedille Records’ African Heritage Symphonic Series, performed by Chicago Sinfonietta conducted by founder Dr. Paul Freeman.
– Features works by leading Black composers from the 1940s to the 1980s.
– Includes Ulysses Kay’s Overture to Theater Set, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and Cordero’s Eight Miniatures for Small Orchestra.
– Also highlights Hale Smith’s Ritual and Incantations and Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call and Epitaph for a Man who Dreamed, a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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– First recording in Cedille Records’ African Heritage Symphonic Series, performed by Chicago Sinfonietta conducted by founder Dr. Paul Freeman.
– Inspired by the landmark CBS Black Composers Series of the 1970s, also led by Freeman.
– Features music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Fela Sowande, and William Grant Still.
– Includes Coleridge-Taylor’s Danse Nègre from African Suite and Petite Suite de Concert, Sowande’s African Suite, and Still’s Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American.”
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– Features symphonic music by Chicago-born composer Leo Sowerby (1895-1968).
– Paul Freeman conducts the Chicago Sinfonietta and Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
– Includes world-premiere recordings of Concert Overture, Passacaglia, Interlude and Fugue, and Symphony No. 2 in B.
– Also features the jazz-infused program overture All on a Summer’s Day (1954).
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– Features world-premiere recordings of two American piano concertos with Midwestern connections.
– Includes Ganz’s Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, Op. 32 (1940) and La Montaine’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 59 (1989).
– Performed by pianist Ramon Salvatore, a champion of overlooked American piano repertoire.
– Salvatore’s final recording, dedicated to his memory following his passing in 1996.
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– A high-energy compilation from Cedille Records’ 100+ CD catalog.
– Features music designed to keep listeners “on the move” with the music’s rhythmic drive.
– Repertoire ranges from Vivaldi flute concerto to symphonic works by Franz Krommer and Jan Vaclav Hugo Vorísek.
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– A compilation of relaxing classical music drawn from 16 acclaimed Cedille Records albums.
– Features lesser-known slow movements and contemplative works across symphonic, chamber, choral, and solo piano repertoire.
– Highlights include the slow movement of a violin concerto by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Black contemporary of Mozart.