“It says much about the evolution of acceptance of gender identity and sexual diversity in American society in recent decades that a concert of pieces by LGBTQ composers and musicians such as the one given by the Chicago Sinfonietta on Monday night at Orchestra Hall could even be done in downtown Chicago,” writes John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (3/29) Chicago Tribune. “And it made perfect sense that an orchestra that for nearly 30 years has championed diversity, equity and inclusion should be the one to do it. The program led by guest conductor Michael Morgan touched musical bases familiar as well as unfamiliar … Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, played alongside recent scores of Jennifer Higdon and David Conte. Two Chicago choruses took part—the Allegrezza Singers and the Musicality vocal ensemble from Curie High School—as did the incisive pianist Sara Davis Buechner, playing Rachmaninov’s ‘Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.’ Buechner (born David Buechner) is among the nation’s most eloquent spokespeople for transgender rights…. Her formidable technique was more than equal to the rigors of this glittery showpiece…. Morgan’s effective choral arrangement of the Quintet and ‘Somewhere,’ from Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story,’ brought … the concert to a rousing close.”
Posted March 30, 2017
In photo: pianist Sara Davis Buechner
