I’m guessing that most of you have seen or heard about Yo-Yo Ma’s encounter with the wombat on Tuesday night at the Harris Theater.  I happened to be in attendance that night as the Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion musicians performed with Yo-Yo and members of the Civic Orchestra as a part of the Chicago Community Trust’s 96^th Anniversary celebration. 

Jeri Lynne Johnson is the Founder and Music Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia.  She will be co-conducting the Chicago Sinfonietta’s annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. concerts with Mei-Ann Chen on January 15^th in Naperville and January 16^th at Symphony Center. 

I want your advice.  The Chicago Sinfonietta recently began a twelve-days promotion that we think is kind of fun, maybe a little bit creative, and hopefully somewhat viral in nature.  It is on this latter point that I need your advice.  What should we do to make this thing go viral?  Here http://www.chicagosinfonietta.org/twelve-days-and-ways/ is a link to our 12 Days, 12 Ways holiday gift idea promotion. 

And the Winner Is...

Sometimes it’s really fun to be the Executive Director of the Chicago Sinfonietta.  Aside from the day-to-day challenges of selling tickets and subscriptions, raising enough money to keep the orchestra afloat, and the six thousand other things that are bound to wake me up every night,  it’s a wonderful privilege to work in our field and for this particular orchestra.  Last week I had a truly amazing experience that I have to share with you.

Discussions about race are often fraught with difficulties and discomfort. The fact is, most of us don’t have many opportunities to engage in conversation with diverse groups of people, and when we do, we aren’t always sure of how our words are being perceived. Mix in the decidedly non-diverse world of classical music and all hell can break loose as we saw on this very website a number of years ago when the topic was raised. If you are interested, click here to read the original post and make sure to read all 55 comments.