Chicago Sinfonietta Announces 2024-25 Season, PROPEL

Chicago Sinfonietta continues to redefine the classical music landscape with its 2024-25 season, PROPEL

37th Season includes:

symphonic works from film and Broadway, contemporary pieces and masterworks

One world premiere, two Sinfonietta commissions, and four Chicago premieres, including three for woodwinds

Two Live Performances of upcoming album

Return of popular holiday concert

Charles Ives Festival

Chicago, IL - Chicago Sinfonietta announced its 37th season today, PROPEL.  Highlighting the orchestra’s acclaimed ability to drive the symphonic industry forward through innovation, collaboration, and storytelling, the 2024-25 season is the next chapter in the organization’s work in redefining the classical music landscape. 

“Our 37th season, PROPEL, is all about the continuation of Chicago Sinfonietta’s work since Day One – enhance and connect with our community in a variety of ways through the universal language and art of music, which tells a unique story that resonates within each of us,” stated Music Director Mei-Ann Chen. “PROPEL highlights specific areas of our work through each concert in our subscription series- inspiring and encouraging Youth, Composers, Musicians, Conductors and the next generation of music lovers.

“We juxtapose modern works, including Juan Pablo Contreras’ Alma Monarca (Monarch Soul); Valerie Coleman’s Opus Serena, Concertino for Bassoon and Orchestra; Adolphus Hailstork’s Concerto for Saxophone; two live performances of our upcoming recording with and by Flutronix of their chamber orchestra work, Black Being; as well as globally renowned works from film and Broadway such as Laura Karpman’s The Marvels Suite and Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, against popular warhorses by Dvorák, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and more. We present several acclaimed guest artists whose approach to performing matches our own innovative mindset – vocalist Laurin Talese, guest conductor Vinay Parameswaran, flutists / composers Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull, saxophonist Timothy McAllister, and the return of our Holiday concert guest conductor Chelsea Tipton II. Lastly, we present a non-subscription project, “Charles Ives’ America," in collaboration with renowned scholar Joseph Horowitz. Join us as we continue to move forward with PROPEL."

Chicago Sinfonietta’s 37th season subscription series concerts take place at Naperville’s Wentz Concert Hall, the Sinfonietta’s longstanding suburban venue, and for the second year, at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Theatre, the organization’s new Chicago home.

President and CEO Blake-Anthony Johnson commented, “Over the past three plus decades, Chicago Sinfonietta’s commitment to innovation, diversity, inclusion, and belonging, has allowed us to redefine and reshape the 21st century orchestra. How an orchestra serves its community, and what is performed have evolved to include talent of every age, culture and background, reflecting the limitless creativity of the modern world. In all aspects of Sinfonietta’s work, the next generation of creators, performers, and audiences continue to be at the center. This season, we continue to reimagine the modern day onstage symphonic concert experience with supporting off-stage immersive experiences curated to inspire and form lifetime memories through education, community programs and novel audience engagement activities designed to underscore each concert.

"As we begin our second season in Auditorium Theatre and continue our longstanding presence in Naperville’s accessible, modern Wentz Hall, we continue to change the face of classical music, connect more deeply with our community, empower youth to explore and hone their talents, demolish barriers to access, and through creative resiliency, merge different genres to create stories that resonate strongly within and propel diversity, inclusion and innovation to the forefront of symphonic music.”

Chicago Sinfonietta
2024-25 Season, PROPEL

SCREEN AND STAGE Subscription Concert 1- OPENING NIGHT
Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 7:00 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
Sunday, September 8, 2024 at 3:00 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor 
Laurin Talese, vocalist

Laura KARPMAN The Marvels Suite (condensed version)
Joe HISAISHI Kiki's Delivery Service
Selections with vocalist Laurin Talese (Sinfonietta debut)
Maury YESTIN “My Husband Makes Movies” from Nine
Laurin TALESE / arr. Jim GRAY This Love
Leonard BERNSTEIN, music / Stephen SONDHEIM, lyrics “Somewhere” from West Side Story 
Horacio FERNÁNDEZ Tumbao (Latin Suite for Orchestra) III. Reggaeton
Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Excitement, thrills and emotions of global proportions! Chicago Sinfonietta’s 37th season opens with a deep dive into the future of classical music via pop culture works that speak to the youth of today and yesteryear. Originality, the merging of different culture’s musical traditions, and the power of females highlight Laura Karpman’s The Marvels Suite (condensed version) from the blockbuster movie The Marvels. Travel to Japan where composer Joe Hisaishi’s Kiki’s Delivery Service explores a risk-taking heroine, a globally popular piece for over 40 years! Guest Vocalist Laurin Talese adds another chapter with three romantic works of very different colors and eras: one from Broadway’s Nine; Talese’s own modern-day composition and one from Leonard Bernstein’s iconic West Side Story. The next page takes us to Mexico, where 20-something Horacio Fernández gives us a glimpse of his childhood and the influence of Latin Dance music with the third movement from his Tumbao. The evening's final work brings us back to the US, with a timeless musical commentary on belonging, acceptance and love with Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story.

CULTURE CHRONICLES Subscription Concert 2
Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 6:30 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
Friday, November 22, 2024 at 7:00 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Vinay Parameswaran, guest conductor

Gabriela Lena FRANK Elegia Andina
Juan Pablo CONTRERAS Alma Monarca (Monarch Soul) (2024)* CHICAGO PREMIERE
Antonin DVORÁK Symphony No. 8

*Commissioned by ROCO as Lead Commissioner and a consortium of Orchestras including Chicago Sinfonietta.

Experience the incredible influence and beauty of family and cultural traditions. Chicago Sinfonietta’s second concert of the 2024-25 season propels composers both living and past into the spotlight and provides a peak into how their lives influence their musical storytelling. Guest conductor Vinay Parameswaran leads a concert featuring Gabriela Lena Frank’s Elegia Andina, a work exploring her diverse heritage, particularly through her use of the Peruvian arca/ira zampoña panpipe. Chicago Sinfonietta’s co-commission and Chicago Premiere, Juan Pablo Contreras’ Alma Monarca is inspired by remarkable family practices, country traditions, and loving childhood memories paying homage to departed loved ones during the Dia de los Muertos holiday on the Mexican island of Janitzio. The evening closes with Antonin Dvorák's tribute to his homeland with his cheerful Symphony No. 8 inspired by Bohemian folk music and his bright summer surroundings. You'll never look at family traditions the same way again.


HOLIDAYS OF JOY Subscription Concert 3 - ONE NIGHT ONLY
Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 6:30 PM 
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Chelsea Tipton II, guest conductor

Nigel HESS A Christmas Overture
Arr. Alfred REED Greensleeves
Dan GOELLER Appalachian Carol
Arr. Matthew JACKFERT I Saw Three Ships
Arr. Calvin CUSTER Winter Wonderland
David LOVRIEN Minor Alterations No. 2
Samuel COLERIDGE -TAYLOR Christmas Overture
Vocal Soloist TBA
Arr. Gary E. PARKS Joyeaux Noel! A Holiday Sing-a-Long
Leroy ANDERSON Sleigh Ride

Tis the Season! Chicago Sinfonietta reunites with sought-after holiday concert conductor Chelsea Tipton II for a joyous evening of works from around the globe guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit! Stay on the nice list and bring friends and family – not just for this one-night-only concert, but for our heart-warming and delicious intermission activities as well! 

BLACK BEING Subscription Concert 4 - MLK TRIBUTE CONCERT
Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
Monday, January 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor 
Flutronix, guest artists
Nathalie JOACHIM / Allison LOGGINS-HULL Black Being CHICAGO PREMIERE
Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull, flutists Chicago Sinfonietta debut

Powerful. Dynamic. Expanding boundaries.

Chicago Sinfonietta invites you to an exclusive live preview of our next recording, Black Being, an exploration of the black female experience. Featuring composers/performers Flutronix (Nathalie Joachim and Allison Loggins-Hull), the evening propels our work in diversity, inclusion and community forward and honors Dr. Martin Luther King through a story in a way that’s never been done before. Don’t miss this compelling modern work featuring an electro-acoustic presentation with a newly commissioned text by North Carolina poet laureate Jaki Shelton Green that “gives voice to the complexities of black womanhood.” Two performances only.

LOVE LETTERS Subscription Concert 5
March 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
March 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Monica Ellis, bassoonist

Michelle ISAAC Moshe’s Dream (CS 2021-22 Commission)
Valerie COLEMAN Opus Serena
Monica Ellis, bassoonist
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No. 3, Movement III, Poco allegretto
Gustav MAHLER Symphony No. 5, Adagietto
Felix MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3, “Scottish” movements 1 (introduction only), II, and IV

What’s love got to do with it? Quite a lot, musically speaking. Join us for a musical exploration of devoted attachment, beginning with tender filial love in former Freeman Composition Fellow Michelle Isaac’s 2021-22 Chicago Sinfonietta commission, Moshe’s Dream, inspired by a dream her grandfather shared with her. Admiring love shines in Valerie Coleman’s Opus Serena, Concertino for Bassoon and Orchestra performed with Grammy Award-winning guest soloist Monica Ellis, which celebrates the life of iconic tennis athlete Serena Williams. Hidden love reveals itself in Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 - allegedly for his mentor’s wife, Clara Schumann, and Mahler’s feelings are disguised as music notes to his future wife Alma, in Symphony No. 5. The evening closes with inspirational love – Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 inspired by his visit to Holyrood Palace’s abbey ruins where Mary, Queen of Scotts, had lived.

TONAL TRANFORMATION Subscription Concert 6 – SEASON FINALE
May 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
WENTZ CONCERT HALL, Naperville
May 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM
AUDITORIUM THEATRE, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Timothy McAllister, saxophone, guest artist

Brittany J. GREEN In the Beginning CHICAGO PREMIERE
Adolphus HAILSTORK Concerto for Saxophone CHICAGO PREMIERE
Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4

Chicago Sinfonietta closes its 37th season with works that are as inspirational and creative as the people who perform them and the audiences for which they are performed. Having journeyed this season through music celebrating youth, women, culture, heritage, creativity, emotions and more, Chicago Sinfonietta pays tribute to those that allow us to transform our artform for the better. TONAL TRANSFORMATION aptly opens with Brittany J. Green’s In the Beginning, which “explores the excitement of new worlds forming, colliding, and shifting into place.” Following is a work by one of the most prolific and distinguished Black American composers of our time, Adolphus Hailstork’s Concerto for Saxophone, written for Timothy McAllister, “one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation” (The New York Times), promises an expressive and virtuosic exploration of the saxophone’s colorful range. Juxtaposing these two modern works is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s deeply colored Symphony No. 4, made possible by a female patron, described by the composer as a depiction of the nature of Fate. The work’s famous ominous opening fanfare transitions to a bright energy in the final movement, bringing our season to its conclusion.

PROPEL TICKETS
Tickets to the 2024-25 season subscription concerts are $27-$67. Box seats at Auditorium Theatre are $82.

FESTIVAL COLLABORATION
CHARLES IVES’ AMERICA (One night only)
Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM 
Mandel Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

George WALKER Folksongs for Orchestra
Charles IVES Three Places In New England
Charles IVES Symphony No. 2

Join Chicago Sinfonietta in a unique celebratory multimedia program to mark the Sesquicentenary of the iconic American composer Charles Ives whose work exemplifies his particular time. Curated by renowned cultural historian Joseph Horowitz and preeminent Ives scholar J. Peter Burkholder, and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the concert is supported by various lectures, presentations and other events honoring the illustrious American icon and offering the opportunity to explore the composer’s significance in shining a spotlight on the “American experience” through music.

TICKETS
General Admission first come first serve basis. Ticket price to be announced later in the fall.

ABOUT CHICAGO SINFONIETTA
A tenured orchestra and acclaimed cultural leader that champions diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging by creating community through curated symphonic experiences, Chicago Sinfonietta (CS) is a source of community through music, as well as ensuring and inspiring a continued investment in diversity and inclusivity in the genre of classical music to promote fairness and equity. Recognized as groundbreaking, dynamic and daring, with core values built around being culturally responsive and advocates of inclusivity in all aspects of the 37-year-old organization’s work, Chicago Sinfonietta’s unrelenting commitment to being at the forefront of innovation drives its high standard of symphonic experiences. CS takes pride in leading by example with immersive audience engagement activities, impactful career development, education, and extensive community outreach programs. Visit the Sinfonietta’s website in September 2024 for details on education, community and intermission events.2019 www.chicagosinfonietta.org

Press Contact: Laura Grant
                      917.359.7319; Lgrant@chicagosinfonietta.org; Laura@grant-communications.com