Renee Bakers’ Through His Spirit & CSO x The Joffrey Ballet

When the renowned composer and conductor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson died in Chicago on March 9, 2004, he left behind a huge artistic legacy — one that’s being celebrated in music and dance April 10-13 at Symphony Center. In these concerts, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra teams with the Joffrey Ballet to perform the world premiere of acclaimed choreographer Amy Hall Garner’s Second Nature, set to Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 1.

The April 11 performance will be preceded by Renée Baker’s homage to Perkinson, a chamber work titled Through His Spirit. As part of a pre-concert event presented by the CSO’s African American Network at 6 p.m. in Grainger Ballroom, Baker’s Through His Spirit will be performed by musicians from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Baker’s own Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, which she will conduct. The work’s three movements reflect Perkinson’s cultural depth and stylistic omnivorousness. Rather than being a pastiche of his work, Baker says, her piece is an homage to his work. (Ticket start at $40 with promo code AANSEASON thats for the concert and reception)