Chicago Sinfonietta, Waubonsie choir perform MLK tribute concert

Wentz Concert Hall on the campus of Naperville's North Central College will be the setting Sunday for the first of two MLK tribute concerts with the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The evening's program to celebrate the life and times of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. features several guest artists, including musicians Kyle Dickson and Kenneth Woods and guest conductors Kedrick Armstrong and Kellen Gray.

A portion of the concert also will pair the Chicago Sinfonietta with Waubonsie Valley High School's 140-voice Mosaic Choir.

"It's a gospel and multicultural choir," Waubonsie Choir Director Seth Durbin said, which features students from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds in grades nine through 12.

The Mosaic Choir has performed with the Chicago Sinfonietta, a professional orchestra dedicated to diversity and inclusion, about a half-dozen times, Durbin said.

The two groups most recently teamed up in September for a show in Millennium Park in Chicago.

"It's actually pretty cool for our students," Durbin said.

During the September show, choir members got to remain on stage after their performance while the symphony played Dvorak's "New World Symphony."

Durbin said the partnership came about when Chicago Sinfonietta officials discovered the high school choir and its makeup.

"They found out about Mosaic and the diversity of the students and they really liked that," he said.

The Sunday and Monday programs call for the Chicago Sinfonietta's rendition of Beethoven's "Egmont Overture," Hailstork's "Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed," Weston's "The People Could Fly," and Coleridge-Taylor's "Petite Suite de Concert."

The choir also will sing five Negro spirituals from Tippet's "A Child of Our Time."

"They do an MLK concert event every year," said Durbin of the Chicago Sinfonietta. "We end with 'We Shall Overcome.'"

Mosaic will again join the Chicago Sinfonietta for a performance Monday at Symphony Center in Chicago.

"Very few high school students get to sing there," Durbin said.

The Sunday show at North Central begins at 3 p.m. in the concert hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave. Tickets are $49 and $62 and available at finearts.northcentralcollege.edu.

If you go

What: MLK Tribute Concert

When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20

Where: Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville

Tickets: $49, $62

Info: finearts.northcentralcollege.edu