This release by the Chicago Sinfonietta reproduces a concert of music by women, Project W, subtitled "Hear Me Roar" presumably for the benefit of Helen Reddy fans. It lived up to billing in several ways: Taiwanese-born conductor Mei-Ann Chen has an inspiring story that began with her parents telling her a girl couldn't be a conductor, and the Chicago Sinfonietta, of which she has been conductor for some years, has outstripped other ensembles in its inclusion of women musicians (they now make up almost half the group). The ...
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This release by the Chicago Sinfonietta reproduces a concert of music by women, Project W, subtitled "Hear Me Roar" presumably for the benefit of Helen Reddy fans. It lived up to billing in several ways: Taiwanese-born conductor Mei-Ann Chen has an inspiring story that began with her parents telling her a girl couldn't be a conductor, and the Chicago Sinfonietta, of which she has been conductor for some years, has outstripped other ensembles in its inclusion of women musicians (they now make up almost half the group). The strongest aspect of the concert, though, was not simply that it included music by women but that it made musical sense while doing so. With one exception, all the music celebrates dance in one way or another. Chen is at her considerable best in the opening work, William Grant Still's arrangement of Florence Price's 1953 piano pieces entitled Dances in the Canebrakes. Price's later music, almost completely neglected in her own time, is being rediscovered to fine effect, and Chen...
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