Chicago Sinfonietta musicians, local residents, and business leaders from the organization Chicago United will come together for a musical celebration of Chicagoland’s diverse people and diverse business community in a concert called Chicago Unites on Wednesday, September 5th.  Join us for this not-to-be-missed free event in glorious Millennium Park, located in downtown Chicago! 

​This concert, inspired by community and cultural unity, will include Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World), the Huapango by Moncayo (the unofficial national anthem of Mexico) and the Festive Overture by African American composer William Grant Still.  The concert will conclude with John Lennon’s inspiring song, Imagine. 

Featuring Chicago Sinfonietta’s diverse and innovative orchestra, led by Principal Conductor Mei-Ann Chen, alongside guest artists Musicality and the Waubonsie Valley High School Mosaic Choir — these are the sounds of Chicago like you’ve never heard them before!  The concert starts at 6:30PM — at Pritzker Pavilion.

Stop by the Unity Village before the concert, located near “The Bean” sculpture, and enjoy presentations by talented young artists with the city’s most pivotal multicultural movers and shakers including short performances by the Chicago Mariachi Project, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, Merit School of Music, People's Music School and Musicality as well as an interactive crowd art project by SkyArt, and other hands-on arts and music experiences for the whole family!  From 4:30 to 6:00PM — located north of “The Bean.”
 
Edward Kelsey Moore will be performing in the concert among his Sinfonietta Orchestra friends and colleagues.  Fans of Edward’s writing, will be excited to realize that this concert will take place in the beautiful Pritzker Music Pavilion, the actual setting for the (fictional) piano recital performed by Clarice Baker, which is described in Edward’s novel, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues!

CHICAGO UNITES | A Concert for Inclusion
Wednesday, September 5, 2018  at Millennium Park
Michigan Ave. and Washington St., Chicago, Illinois

UNITY VILLAGE  Open 4:30 to 6:00PM — located north of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture (known locally as “The Bean”). 
SINFONIETTA CONCERT PERFORMANCE - 6:30PM  — in the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion, located east of “The Bean.”
The events are free and open to the public!

Founded in 1987, Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra dedicated to modeling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and both racial and cultural equity in the arts through the universal language of symphonic music. Sinfonietta’s core values are built around being bold and daring in all aspects of their work, providing a source of connectivity through music, and ensuring and inspiring a continued investment in diversity and inclusion in classical music. 

The mission of Chicago United is to achieve parity in economic opportunity for people of color by advancing multiracial leadership in corporate governance, executive level management, and business diversity.  Chicago United’s membership includes many of the area’s brightest leaders who collaborate around a common goal of creating a stronger more inclusive business climate for all. 

With Father’s Day approaching here is a repost of a short essay by award-winning author and classical musician Edward Kelsey Moore about his own father, hosted on the Minnesota Public Radio websites.  In the narrative E.K.M. shares a reflection on his father’s unflappable demeanor during a gory-but-brief family crisis: “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, my father is cool!’”  The essay was posted on the MPR sites last June, shortly before Edward’s second novel, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues, was published.  You can read the essay yourself or listen while Edward Kelsey Moore reads it — and since the essay is short you’ll be done in about five minutes! 

Discover A Cellist's Appreciation For His Father's Effortless Cool, hosted (free!) at Classical MPR — by clicking here.  It is also available (free!) at MPR's sister-site, the music streaming portal, YourClassical.org.  Find it there — by clicking here.  (A new page will open.)
Listen to the (free!) audio of Edward Kelsey Moore reading the essay to you on either site by clicking on the box beneath his family photo.  The audio box shows the recording length, which is 4min 31sec.  
(If you can't hear it, check that the volume is turned up on your device. Sorry but we can't help with technical questions if it won't play.)

But wait!! There's more Moore! You can enjoy many previous essays written by Edward Kelsey Moore if you — click here!

Curious about classical music?  YourClassical.org is a free streaming service from Minnesota Public Radio.  It exists through donor support — but you don’t have to join anything to listen!  (If you like what you hear you can donate at any time.)  YourClassical.org includes a collection of curated streams plus unique programs and features to promote calm and focus.  You can enjoy the live, hosted Radio stream, or Relax, Lullabies, Choral, Sacred and other audio streams by using the menu at the left of the YourClassical screen. Or start a different stream on a mobile device by tapping the Home menu.  To go deeper, you can listen to the best daily and weekly programs from American Public Media that you hear on your local public radio stations.  YourClassical.org — click around and enjoy the world's greatest music!