Chicago Sinfonietta presents Hello Chicago!, conducted by Mei-Ann Chen August 14, 2011

The Chicago Sinfonietta proudly introduces its new Music Director, Mei-Ann Chen, to Chicago with a special free concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park called Hello Chicago! Chicagoans get a unique opportunity to get to know Maestro Chen as she leads the musicians of the nation’s most diverse orchestra in a program inspired by Chicago’s neighborhoods.

The city’s African-American heritage is honored by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Danse Nègre and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s “Rondo” from Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings, while Chicago’s famed Sones de México Ensemble Chicago joins the orchestra in paying tribute to the city’s Latino roots in Victor Pichardo’s Encuentro: Suite de Danzas Yucatecas. Excerpts from Zhan-Hao He and Gang Chen’s The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, with erhu (Chinese violin) soloist Betty Xiang, pays homage to the Asian community, and Chicago’s European roots are celebrated in Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Capping off the celebration is Leonard Bernstein’s splendid overture to the comic operetta Candide.

Official Website: http://www.chicagosinfonietta.org