Sinfonietta’s vibrant concert makes one hope it is the finale only for the season
A pall hung over a day that was meant to be one of celebration—the culmination of the Chicago Sinfonietta’s 38th season, coinciding with Mother’s Day and a gorgeous spring afternoon.
The orchestra announced last Thursday that it would not be presenting a 2026–27 season but would be “pausing” its concerts and educational activities and laying off all staff except CEO Sidney Jackson.
That bleak news was the silent elephant in the room during the first half of the Chicago Sinfonietta’s “American Rhapsody” program Sunday afternoon at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston. Jackson and board chair Wendy Lewis made the official announcement to the audience at the top of the second half. “Do not confuse ‘pause’ with ‘stop’,” Lewis insisted.
It didn’t come as a shock to the vast majority of those in attendance who would have read the press coverage over the last few days. Ironically, the news likely boosted ticket sales. There were so many people buying last-minute tickets at the door that the concert was forced to start over ten minutes late.
When Jackson and Lewis made the announcement, the stage behind them was empty. When the orchestra filed in to play William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, the audience clapped in solidarity as the players filed into their seats, looking a bit somber but appreciative of the audience’s support.
While the pause was not discussed in the first half, the Chicago Sinfonietta’s plea for support was clear from the extensive spoken introductions. At the top of the program, Jackson was joined on stage by Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, who made a case for protecting the arts as a means of overcoming political division and social isolation. Music director Mei-Ann Chen then lauded the Sinfonietta’s various initiatives, particularly in launching the careers of young musicians through the Freeman Fellowship program. Several of these former fellows joined Chen on stage and spoke briefly about what the Sinfonietta has meant for their artistic development.
As admirable as all the Sinfonietta’s achievements and contributions are, these spoken interludes did make the concert drag on an hour longer than the publicized run time and verged on self-adulatory after a while. One wanted the music to speak for itself. And largely, it did.
The program began with the world premiere of blues, ballad, bebop: A Miles Davis Symphonic Tribute by assistant principal violist Seth Pae, commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta.
The first movement, “say their names,” draws from Davis’s So What and All Blues. The various soloists impressed with their idiomatic jazz improvisations throughout, not least among them guest pianist Clayton Stephenson, who dazzled with fleet-fingered runs. The second movement, “it is what it is,” featured a pensive duet between the piano and muted trumpet, painting the scene of a rainy night in New York City, while the final movement, “duality,” brought the work to a joyful conclusion in its bebop syncopations.
Assistant conductor for this concert, Molly Turner, led the piece with vigor and precision, though the young conductor could have loosened the reins and trusted her musicians more at times.
Stephenson returned for George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The young phenom, who only just graduated with dual degrees from Harvard and the New England Conservatory in 2023, was heard in Chicago in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Grant Park Music Festival last summer.
The orchestra was a little ragged at the start. The opening clarinet glissando lost some steam at the top, but recovered well for the rest of the famous solo. When Stephenson entered, he elevated the performance to something world-class, with sensitive phrasing, liquid legato, powerful octaves, and all the necessary pianistic pyrotechnics, while coming across as totally at ease. With the improvised jazz solos of blues, ballad, bebop fresh in their minds, the audience was spurred to applaud after Stephenson’s first main solo section. Stephenson’s energy and assuredness buoyed the orchestra, and they soon locked in under the baton of Mei-Ann Chen, demonstrating tight ensemble for the rest of the piece.
The second half consisted of Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, which came as a bit of a letdown after Stephenson’s rollicking performance in the first half. Perhaps it would have done better at the top of the program, and more people would have been induced to stay for the second half instead of leaving after the familiar Gershwin.
The Sinfonietta is credited with shedding light on Dawson’s long-neglected symphony, having performed it in 2021 and 2013. As such, the orchestra performed the now repertoire piece with polish and conviction under Chen’s baton. However, sometimes her gestures were a bit too big and bouncy, leaving the orchestra no room to grow. One wished for more dynamic subtlety, and for crescendos to start softer and piano sections to be quieter.
Highlights included Amy Barwan’s plaintive English horn solos throughout and Lindsey Sharpe’s ascending cello solo in the third movement. The bed of undulating string sound at the beginning of the second movement, “Hope in the Night,” created an appropriately eerie atmosphere for the inexorable funeral march, while the battery of percussion brought the outer movements (“The Bonds of Africa” and “O Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!”) to powerful conclusions.
The only future Chicago Sinfonietta scheduled is its annual Martin Luther King Day concert, which will act as a “special fundraising event” for the orchestra.
Let’s all hope Sunday’s event was not its final concert and that the Sinfonietta can return for its 40th anniversary year stronger than ever, with a renewed focus on the music.
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