In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in late May and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed in cities across the country, many classical music organizations have scrambled to hire diversity officers and develop inclusion and equity plans.
But rather than instituting major changes, the Chicago Sinfonietta is simply continuing to build on a three-decades history of anti-racism and anti-sexism. At least one-third of its musicians, staff and board are people of color, making it a notable outlier in the orchestral world.
“That is a huge difference when you look at us compared to any other organization,” said Blake-Anthony Johnson, who took over earlier this year as the ensemble’s chief executive officer.
“We feel like this has been our arena,” added music director Mei-Ann Chen, “and, now, we’re just coming to the forefront. Everybody is trying to really tackle: ‘How should our programming be diverse?’ And we’ve been doing it for so long.”
That diversity is once again at the forefront as the Sinfonietta begins its 33rd season, “Stories of the People,” with a prototypical program on Oct. 17 that features three composers and arrangers who are women and six who are people of color.
According to the Institute for Composer Diversity, the ensemble performed twice as many works by composers from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural groups — 58 percent — as any other American orchestra in 2019-20, and it ranked third in presentations of music by women.
Because of restrictions surrounding COVID-19, the first two programs of the Sinfonietta’s modified season will be presented on-line with smaller-scale works and reduced forces to accommodate capacity limits onstage. The Sinfonietta hopes to return to some sense of normalcy with an in-person closing concert on May 3, 2021.
The virtual concerts are expected to run 50-60 minutes, including introductions to the selections and transitional footage. “I think that might be just right in terms of our virtual audience,” Chen said, pointing to viewers’ more limited on-line attention spans.
While the size of the season has been pared back from five to three programs, the ensemble’s artistic ambitions remain as strong as ever. Each of the 2020-21 concerts will feature a world premiere by an African-American composer. “In this day and age, I can bet you that there are so few orchestras that are actually looking at commissioning, and that’s what make us unique,” Chen said.
The Oct. 17 concert, titled “COMMON GROUND: Collective Stories,” will showcase a new work by Kathryn Bostic, the Sinfonietta’s first-ever artist-in-residence — a two-year position conceived by Johnson. According to him, the post is meant to answer this question: “What does it look like when you have another artistic partner who can really connect some dots to not just what we do onstage but also what we do offstage in a different way?”
The result is a four-minute work titled “Portrait of a Peaceful Warrior.” “It’s basically my tribute to the common ground we all experience as community,” Bostic said, “coming together especially in this time of chaos and turbulence. I wanted to write something that was hopeful, powerful and celebratory of the human spirit.”
Chicago Sinfonietta, Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
When: Streams at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17; will remain on-line for 24 hours
Where: Ticketholders receive an access link via e-mail
Tickets: $45 (complete season: $85)
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