CSO.org: The African American Network invites you to a special May 3 postconcert conversation with Renée Baker and Jessie Montgomery

 We look forward to seeing you again! The Chicago Symphony Orchestra African American Network will hold its first in-person AAN event since concerts paused back in 2020. Join us for this night of music, conversation and reconnection!

Following the CSO concert on May 3, the AAN will host a special postconcert chat with Chicago composer, conductor and frequent African American Network guest Renée Baker and CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery. Known for their contributions to the modern landscape of classical music, Baker and Montgomery come together to share their unique perspectives as female composers of color.

All ticketholders are invited to attend this free postconcert discussion, which follows a riveting concert led by Riccardo Muti,  including a world premiere, a double bass concerto and Beethoven’s homage to nature, the Pastoral  Symphony.

Use promo code AAN to get access to $40 tickets, which includes both the concert and postconcert discussion.

Tuesday, May 3, 7:30
Muti Conducts Montgomery & Beethoven Pastoral

Get tickets

For personalized assistance with your order, please call Patron Services at 312-294-3000 or chat with us online at cso.org and mention promo code AAN.

Invite your connections to this night of celebration! Feel free to share this event on Facebook. 

Open rehearsal invitation

Each season the CSO opens several of its working rehearsals to the public. You are invited to join us for an open rehearsal on Thursday, May 5, as Riccardo Muti leads the CSO in rehearsals of a concert featuring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Florence Price and William Grant Still. The concert for this program will be May 5-7, and you can order $40 tickets with the promo code AAN.

Rehearsal
Thursday, May 5, 10:00-2:30
Riccardo Muti conductor
Beethoven Overture to Egmont
Beethoven Symphony No. 4
Still  Mother and Child
Price Symphony No. 3

Concert
Muti Conducts Beethoven, Still & Price
Thursday, May 5, 7:30 
Friday, May 6, 1:30
Saturday, May 7, 8:00

To RSVP for a free ticket to the May 5 open rehearsal, contact Patron Services mentioning this invitation. Please note, seating is limited for open rehearsals and tickets are required.

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Jessie Montgomery’s newest work, Hymn for Everyone, which will have its world premiere April 28-May 3, isn’t the piece she originally intended to write. When she was named in April 2021 as Mead Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Montgomery received two orchestral commissions from the CSO. The first was scheduled for performances this spring, the second for April 2023.

"What could come after [the Fifth Symphony]?" wrote Frederick Stock, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra‘s second music director, in Talks About Beethoven’s Symphonies. "The subtlety of Beethoven's imagination found an answer in due time, and in his Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral, we find his thoughts expressed in a new form. Even though other composers before him and in his time had attempted to write program music, Beethoven was the first whose efforts in this direction proved to be a lasting achievement."