The power of the Negaunee Music Institute comes full circle at IMPACT

On March 15, the Negaunee Music Institute (NMI) held its annual showcase of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) inspiring education and community programs. Orchestra Hall was filled with enthusiastic supporters of these programs, who came to celebrate NMI and see 10 live performances, as well as multiple short films representing various NMI initiatives. The concert was a lively and moving tribute to the extraordinary impact of the Negaunee Music Institute’s work.

IMPACT was also an important fundraising event for the Negaunee Music Institute, raising well over $315,000. Supporters gathered in the Forte event space on East Adams for a preconcert, champagne toast hosted by the 2026 IMPACT Host Committee. After the concert, an elegant dinner in Buntrock Hall was attended by nearly 200 guests, including NMI leadership, supporters and many musicians who had performed earlier in the evening. At the dinner, CSO Life Trustee Robert Kohl was honored for his steadfast support and leadership of the CSO’s educational and community-engagement programs.

The concert, IMPACT: Showcasing Education & Community Programs of the CSO, opened with a side-by-side performance of the Finale from Dvořák’s Wind Serenade, featuring members of the Civic Orchestra, the training orchestra of the CSO, and musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Principal Oboe William Welter, Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson, Principal Bassoon Keith Buncke, Principal Horn Mark Almond, CSO Cello Brant Taylor and Assistant Principal Bass Alexander Horton). “It’s the perfect way to start the concert,” said NMI Managing Director Jonathan McCormick in an earlier interview, “because it demonstrates one of our core values — mentorship.”

Following welcoming remarks and an introduction to the evening’s concert by Jonathan McCormick, the Percussion Scholarship Program (PSP) was represented in two performances, beginning with first-year students performing Amandi’s Ritmo Bagatello, followed by high school juniors and seniors performing the demanding Trio per Uno by Zivkovic. The latter required the three musicians to play multiple percussion instruments and a shared bass drum at the center. The two pieces demonstrated the mastery PSP participants achieve over the course of this program, which provides weekly percussion instruction on a full-scholarship basis to Chicago youth in grades 3-12.

Winner of the 2025 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition, Jeremy Liu, performed a solo work: Chopin’s Etude in A Minor, Op. 25, No. 11 (Winter Wind). The video that preceded the piece showed how formative the competition and subsequent performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were for the young musician, now age 14, in developing his artistic voice.

Next was a performance of the Prelude from Grieg’s Holberg Suite featuring musicians from the CSO, Civic Orchestra and Chicago Public Schools, representing the robust network of partnerships between NMI and CPS. For select schools across the Chicagoland area with band and orchestra programs, these partnerships feature coaching and mentorship by CSO and Civic Orchestra, in-school performances, attendance at CSO open rehearsals and more. This program responds to the unique needs of partner schools and advocates for equitable access to music education. Martin Nocedal, director of orchestras at Lincoln Park High School, who conducted the Grieg, spoke to the value of this program at his own school.

CSO Principal Second Violin Baird Dodge and his daughter Rosie provided a charming introduction to NMI’s latest school and family project, Mother Goose and the Cabinet of Wonder. This collaboration between Miss Natalie Merchant, Chicago Children’s Theater and the CSO’s Negaunee Music Institute was further illustrated by a short video in which Natalie Merchant, as Mother Goose, gave a fairytale preview of the initiative.

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by the Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, performed the last four pieces of the night, beginning with a rousing rendition of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. The score highlighted the talents of the ensemble, as well as its individual sections, in a rousing rendition of the sturm und drang classic.

Next the Civic Orchestra premiered the first fully orchestrated arrangement of a song created through the NMI’s Notes for Peace program, Miracle Baby. Launched in March 2018 in partnership with Purpose Over Pain, Notes for Peace uses the therapeutic benefits of music to support families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Over 100 songs have been written by the Civic Fellows and teaching artists from the Irene Taylor Trust. Vocalist Leah Dexter gave a moving rendition of Miracle Baby, composed in honor of Tre’ja Kelley (2001–2019) by her mother Marlo Fields with Emma Williams and Rex Horan, both of whom also orchestrated the song.

Moldovan singer Ana Everling performed a doina (an improvisatory and melismatic Romanian folk style) and a song by Zlata Tkach titled Baby Birds to represent one of NMI’s most recent programs, a partnership with the Chicago Refugee Coalition. This initiative weaves music and storytelling to pay homage to Chicago’s multiculturalism. 

Before the final piece of the program, the finale from Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Jonathan McCormick returned to the stage to honor CSO Life Trustee Robert Kohl. “The Enigma Variations Finale is relevant because, of course, it is a piece written in tribute to some of Elgar’s dearest friends. At this concert, we’re paying tribute to CSOA Life Trustee Robert Kohl, a steadfast supporter and advocate of the CSO’s education and community programs for decades,” said McCormick. He also highlighted that the beloved finale is the last in a series of variations on a theme, a fitting, full-circle conclusion to an evening that celebrated the significant impact of NMI’s many programs.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is grateful to the many supporters of the Negaunee Music Institute. The two events that bookended the evening’s performance allowed many of those supporters to pay tribute to NMI’s programs and initiatives as well as the generous contributors whose work and gifts make them possible.