An important milestone takes place this year and I want to draw some attention to it.  WFMT General Manager Steve Robinson is celebrating his 10th anniversary as GM of Chicago’s only classical music station and the WFMT Radio Network.  For those of us lucky enough to know and work with Steve, we can attest to his generosity and visionary leadership in the classical music arena.  His energetic and effective work on behalf of all of the classical music organizations, performers, and music schools in Chicago is enormous.

It would take a lot more space then we have to share all of the highlights of the last ten years of Steve’s stewardship, but here are a few that I would like to share.

Chicago a cappella presents "Roll, Jordan, Roll" on Feb. 6, 7, 13, and 14. 
 
How did the African-American spiritual come about?  Here are some thoughts about the social background and history of the spiritual, from my program notes for these upcoming performances.   
 
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This is the first in a series of blogs to provide historical context for Chicago a cappella's upcoming February performances of spirituals, Roll, Jordan, Roll.  Some of this material didn't make it into the program notes and so is unique to this blog and this website.  Enjoy, and don't be shy about commenting if you have something to say.

Special Guest, Courtney Perkins and Angela Golden in a dialogue about Million Dollar Quartet.

CP:  One of the benefits of running a blog, or having a co-worker/friend that does, is that you get invited to events with the comical name "blogger night" offering free tickets to an otherwise pricey show that I've wanted to see for some time.  Advertised on cabs and local buses everywhere, Million Dollar Quartet.

AG: I may have ignored those cabby signs, but I paid attention when I got an opportunity to get free tickets. 

CP: Blogger Night became our mantra leading up to the performance --it had a certain ring to it.

AG: But we bloggers didn't get any special recognition which was sort of disappointing.

The Los Angeles Times recently published a great article by Chloe Veitman about female conductors.  This seems especially relevant to me because the Chicago Sinfonietta has recently begun search to find a successor to our Founder and Music Director, Paul Freeman.  While I won’t go into any details about our search process, we have definitely become aware of some extremely talented female candidates, two of whom – Mei-Ann Chen and Alondra de la Parra - will be guest conducting our orchestra next season.