The Chicago Sinfonietta — one of the metro area’s leading orchestras and among just a few in the world devoted to advancing racial equity — announced Thursday that it would pause the vast majority of its artistic and educational activities during the 2026-27 season.
The organization is instead entering a “strategic renewal period” to regain its financial footing prior to its 40th anniversary season, according to a statement. During that time, the organization will lay off its seven-person administrative staff at the end of the month, leaving president and CEO Sidney Jackson as the sole full-time employee. (This weekend’s concerts of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” a Miles Davis tribute by Seth Pae and William Dawson’s “Negro Folk Symphony,” slated for Friday and Sunday in Naperville and Evanston, will still be performed.)
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“We’re in the process of figuring out how we will show up outside of a subscription season,” Jackson told the Tribune.
The move is one of the most drastic yet undertaken by an area organization to counteract the flurry of challenges facing the performing arts after the COVID-19 pandemic, including depressed audience attendance, rising costs and a shifting philanthropic landscape.
Simon Woods, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, told the Tribune the Sinfonietta’s move is rare in the orchestra world, but not unprecedented. The San Antonio Philharmonic canceled the majority of its remaining season in February, citing fiscal and legal challenges.
“It is unquestionably a time of stress,” Woods said.
Despite an increase in ticket sales this season, the Sinfonietta, like many arts organizations of its size, is “heavily reliant on foundation giving” which has dwindled, Jackson said, though he and board chair Wendy Lewis declined to discuss specifics.
As foundations and corporations shy away from DEI initiatives, fearing legal standoffs, the Sinfonietta may be bearing the brunt of the culture shift. The late conductor Paul Freeman founded the Sinfonietta in 1987 with a goal for the orchestra to “cut across racial barriers,” as he told the Tribune in the Sinfonietta’s early years. Its current mission statement — to “champion diversity, equity, and inclusion” through its programming — is similarly unequivocal.
“I think we’ve had to navigate the funding landscape a little differently,” Jackson said, “and I do think our commitment and who we are is a factor.”
In 2022, the Tribune named Blake-Anthony Johnson, the Sinfonietta’s then-CEO, its Chicagoan of the Year for Classical Music. His leadership coincided in a windfall of investment in the organization, which doubled its operating budget and resulted in a net income of $1.35 million in fiscal year 2022, according to publicly available Form 990s filed annually by nonprofits. As a result, he oversaw ambitious initiatives like a pay-what-you-can ticket pricing program and the orchestra’s move to the 3,875-seat Auditorium Theatre.
But in subsequent years, the organization broke from its pre-pandemic trends of modest surpluses and deficits and began bleeding cash. The Sinfonietta ended the 2025 fiscal year — the last with a publicly available 990 — $700,000 in the red. In 2024, that shortfall neared $1 million.
Johnson left the organization in 2025 to become the CEO of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, a position he departed earlier this year. Jackson succeeded him after three years at the New Jersey Symphony, where he helmed the development team.
By way of immediate plans, the Sinfonietta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day concert — long its calling card — will be reimagined as a “special fundraising event,” per the provided statement. Jackson said the organization is also pursuing more for-hire opportunities in an attempt to raise revenue.
Most of all, Jackson said, he plans to spend the next year assessing what “the greater Chicago community is asking for” from the Sinfonietta.
“This is a moment in time to reflect and move forward in a sustainable way,” he said.
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.