This latest volume brings the project up to date, with entries on almost 500 women whose death dates fall between 1976 and 1999. You will find here stars of the golden ages of radio, film, dance, and television; scientists and scholars; civil rights activists and religious leaders; Native American craftspeople and world-renowned artists. For each subject, the volume offers a biographical essay by a distinguished authority that integrates the woman's personal life with her professional achievements set in the context of larger historical developments.

Conductor, chorus director, airplane pilot, educator, activist, mentor, and advocate Margaret Hillis blazed a trail upon which many continue to tread. The first woman to regularly conduct a major symphony orchestra, she was the founder of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and served for thirty-seven years as its first director, winning nine Grammy Awards. In Margaret Hillis: Unsung Pioneer, author Cheryl Frazes Hill--a longtime colleague and associate--examines how Hillis was able to overcome the many challenges she faced, navigating a career in ways relatable not only to musicians but also to women in all professions. Margaret Hillis's story is one of resilience, determination, and passion for music. Her journey is an inspiration, a portrait of what it takes to succeed at the highest level in any field.

Includes biographies of selected American women choral conductors.

Thirty-two composers, conductors, performers, scholars, patrons, critics and others integrally involved in the American classical music milieu offer perceptions, criticisms and praise in assessing the music world and their experiences.

A unique journey through the 20th century in Chicago, this work reveals the characters whose lives put an indelible stamp on the city. Some were famous, like Richard J. Daley and Harold Washington, while others were infamous or unacknowledged, living fascinating lives that helped shape the city while remaining anonymous at the same time like, such as Emma Schweer, who is believed to have been America's oldest elected office holder; Zofia Kuklo, a shy church-going, Polish immigrant grandmother who hid Jewish individuals from the Nazis during World War II; and James Tuach MacKenzie, the dashing and charismatic former drum major and band manager of the Stock Yard Kilty Band, among the most prominent of Chicago's many pipe bands. In "Chicago Lives" readers explore the struggles of immigrants, the innovation of architects and artists, the dedication of activists and city officials, and the actions of Chicagoan's whose feats were never recorded by history books, until now.