History & Archive

Sheila Jones, founder of the AAN
Credit: Todd Rosenberg

The Legacy of Sheila Jones

The African American Network was established in 2016 by Sheila Jones to present an annual series of curated and hosted programs to create connections and conversations through music. The mission of the AAN is to serve and encourage individuals, families, educators, students, musicians, composers and businesses to discover and experience the timeless beauty of music.

A former choir conductor and string teacher at Milwaukee’s Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts, Jones rose up through the ranks of the CSO’s ticketing and patron services department before she was promoted in 2018 as the full-time director of community stewardship of the CSO’s African American Network. Her energetic charm and warm persona endeared her to friends and associates along the way.

“Sheila Jones was a tireless champion for Black music representation in the programming and CSO activities. During her time coordinating the African American Network, she brought in new patrons, organized cultivation events, and brought performers and audience members together. Her impact was significant. I speak from a longitudinal perspective, having been a pre-concert lecturer for 23 seasons at the CSO.” — musicologist Dr. Johann Buis

Read more in As the CSO’s Sheila Jones retires, her cause lives on.

Milestones

• Annual Black History Month events, anchored by world premiere presentations about historic Black artists such as Josephine Baker and James Baldwin, featuring new scores by Chicago-based composer-conductor Renée Baker.
• A reception celebrating the world premiere of an SCP Jazz commission by ragtime composer-pianist Reginald R. Robinson of a work dedicated to the life and legacy of African American bandleader James Reese Europe, whose “Hellfighters” regiment brought black American music to France during the Great War.
• A multimedia event with the South African Consulate in Chicago to celebrate the centennial of human rights activist Nelson Mandela’s birth, before an SCP concert featuring the historic Soweto Gospel Choir in “Songs of the Free.”
• A preconcert discussion and recital to honor William Grant Still’s In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy, with guest conductor Bramwell Tovey and baritone Thomas Hampson, along with baritone Robert Sims and scholar Stan West.
• A recital and lecture by musicologist Samantha Ege on Chicago-based composers Margaret Bonds and Florence Price titled “A Celebration of Women in Music: Composing the Black Chicago Renaissance.”
• Attendance as special guests of Maestro Muti at dress rehearsals of concert opera stagings of Verdi’s Falstaff and Aida.
• A community open rehearsal with Maestro Muti and the Chicago West Community Music Center, founded and directed by Darlene and Howard Sandifer, at the Columbus Park Refectory.
• “Bridge Over Muddied Waters,” an original concert work created and performed by African American mezzo-soprano and educator Cynthia Clarey and award-winning concert artist Beckie Menzie.
• “A Tribute to the Role of Music in the Battle for Civil Rights,” a concert program featuring music of the 1950s and 1960s, performed by young musicians from the Chicago West Community Music Center.