Musicians of Chicago Sinfonietta. Photo source: Chicago Sinfonietta.
In Sunday’s (3/8) Chicago Classical Review, Tim Sawyier writes, “The Chicago Sinfonietta marked Women’s History Month with a program of female musical firsts Saturday night … An atmosphere of jubilation prevailed under the enthusiastic leadership of music director Mei-Ann Chen. Saturday’s performance was in collaboration with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater … The evening opened with Deeply Rooted co-founder Gary Abbott’s choreography of ‘Dances in the Canebrakes’ by Florence Price, who became the first black woman to have a symphony played by a major American orchestra … in 1933…. The Dances were written in 1953 … The other collaboration was the world premiere of ‘Seventh Sense: Incidents in the Life of Queen Amanirenas’ by Shirley J. Thompson, commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta and choreographed by Deeply Rooted artistic director Nicole Clarke-Springer. Thompson is the first black woman to have composed and conducted a symphony in Great Britain, and her score conveys the story of the historical African queen … Thompson’s 12-minute score channels [an] ancient musical lexicon, with modal harmonies and short, gestural phrases.” The orchestra also performed the Sinfonia in C Major by Marianna Martines, “thought to be the first woman to write a symphony of any description,” and Amy Beach’s 1894 Gaelic Symphony.
