The best-known of George Frideric Handel’s compositions—his Messiah oratorio and his Water Music suites, for example—are recognized by millions beyond the niche of classical music aficionados. But Handel wrote hundreds […]
Philip Glass is considered one of the greatest living composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. His spare and layered compositions can be interpreted in many ways other than as […]
There are few pieces of music that satisfy me more thoroughly than Franz Josef Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation. Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus performed it for a rousing sendoff to […]
“The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play,” said the late Austrian composer Richard Strauss. And the beauty of classical […]
The 34th installment of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Duo Piano Festival will take place in person at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. Starting this Friday evening, July 8, and […]
One of the principles we celebrate on Independence Day is freedom of speech. And some of the principals participating in the Grant Park Music Festival‘s Independence Day Salute Saturday exercised […]
For the second time in a week, a Chicago orchestra’s conductor was suddenly sidelined due to a positive COVID-19 test just hours before a concert. Last Thursday, this happened to […]
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra succeeded in a tall order on Thursday night: turning a major work that has often left me wanting into a thing of abject beauty. To accomplish […]
The Chicago-based Kontras Quartet performed several string quartets by American composers at Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall yesterday. Hosted by the American Music Project, the program included works by five contemporary […]
One of the leading incubators of new music in Chicago is housed at the Chicago Center of Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. The 13-member Grossman […]
What kind of concert starts with an 11-minute introductory piece that ends up getting two ovations? A Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert that opens with Brio by Chicago-based composer Augusta Read […]
Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood has a new performance space, and a four-day chamber music festival will take place there this weekend. Described as “a sleek, minimalist space offer[ing] luscious acoustics […]