Silenced Voices Series: Latin American Composers
At The Chicago Academy for the Arts, music is never just about notes on a page. It’s about stories, context, and the voices behind the sound. On March 6 at 7:00 pm, the Academy’s Music Department continues a powerful tradition with Silenced Voices: Latin American Composers, an immersive concert experience that brings history, culture, and performance together on one stage.
2025's Silenced Voices Concert, featuring Native American composers
Launched in Spring 2021, the Silenced Voices Series was created to spotlight composers whose work has been historically suppressed, overlooked, or excluded from the traditional canon. Each year, our students and faculty dive deep into the music and lived experiences of these artists, centering not just their compositions, but the worlds they inhabited and the barriers they faced. Past concerts have highlighted Women Composers, Black Composers, Composers of the Middle East, LGBTQ+ Composers, and Native American Composers, making each performance both a concert and an act of recognition.
What makes the Silenced Voices Series truly unique is its format. These are scripted concerts, designed almost like a play. Between musical selections, audiences are guided through the composers’ stories — their cultural environments, their challenges, and their lasting impact. Music students take on dual roles as both performers and characters, seamlessly blending narration, acting, and live performance into one cohesive experience.
2025's Silenced Voices Concert, featuring Native American composers
This year marks an exciting evolution of the series. While past scripts were written by faculty, the entire Music Department is collaboratively researching and writing the script for this program, giving students an even greater voice in shaping how these stories are told.
The March 6 concert will feature music by an extraordinary range of Latin American composers, including Astor Piazzolla, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Juan García de Zéspedes, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kali Uchis, and more. Reflecting the incredible diversity of Latin American music, the program spans popular music, jazz, classical compositions, and beyond, offering something familiar, something unexpected, and something deeply moving.
2025's Silenced Voices Concert, featuring Native American composers
Silenced Voices: Latin American Composers is more than a concert; it’s a living classroom, a work of collaborative scholarship, and a celebration of artists whose voices deserve to be heard, studied, and amplified.
We invite you to join us on March 6 at 7:00 PM in the Music Wing for an evening where music, history, and storytelling come together, and where students step into the spotlight as performers, historians, and advocates for artistic equity.
More about the event: https://www.chicagoacademyforthearts.org/academy-events/mu-silenced
