The Chicago Sinfonietta recently announced its 30th season line-up, as well as the launch of its Commissions by Women Composers Project, a season-long effort to close music’s gender equality gap by commissioning, performing, and recording, works by women composers.

Hear a rarely-heard live performance by Mahalia Jackson’s broadcast from the Morrison Hotel in 1975 courtesy of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

If you’re looking to expand your own repertoire, why not explore the music of living composers? Check out these 10 composers changing contemporary classical music today who also all happen to be women.

Author and activist Maya Angelou is best for her autobiographical memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But have you heard Angelou sing?

Maestro Muti sat down with Sheila Jones, coordinator of the CSO’s African American Network, years ago to ask, “How do we bring the African American community into Symphony Center?”

Composer and cellist Tomeka Reid presents the world premiere of “Present Awareness” alongside the works of Alvin Singleton, Olly Wilson, and Kahil El’ Zabar.

Mahalia Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. Learn about how musicians and music historians are changing the conversation about the “Queen of Gospel.”

Music and dance provided an outlet for enslaved people to express their sorrow, though often their cries of pain sounded quite the opposite to slave owners.

Before Nina Simone became one of America’s most iconic jazz musicians, she wanted to have a career as a classical pianist.