Since the Chicago Sinfonietta’s annual Martin Luther King Day concert could not take place in person in January, “the Sinfonietta recorded ‘The Arc,’ its first virtual MLK concert … on March 20 and streamed it Sunday,” writes Hannah Edgar in Tuesday’s (3/30) Chicago Tribune. “The delay enabled the Sinfonietta to safely gather the necessary forces (about 40 musicians) for ‘breathe/burn,’ a world-premiere cello concerto by Joel Thompson.… The eight-minute ‘breathe/burn’ ” honors Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was slain by police officers in her Louisville, Kentucky home in March 2020. “Lyrical, keening, embittered, tired—Thompson taps into a universe of emotions, and in doing so unspools some of the most arresting orchestral writing I’ve heard in recent memory…. ‘breathe/burn’s’ impassioned advocates [were] cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing and Project Inclusion conductor fellow Antoine T. Clark…. Ali-Landing plays with the kind of empathy, insight, and determination that is enviable for any performer… not to mention her laser-focused connection with the Sinfonietta and Clark, who led from the podium with balletic poise.” Music Director Mei-Ann Chen led works including Dances in the Canebrakes, William Grant Still’s arrangement of a Florence Price suite; Jeff Scott’s 2018 Sinfonietta of Dreams; and Roy Ringwald’s arrangement of “We Shall Overcome.”
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