Review: Whitney Celebrates Empty Bottle with Small Talk
Empty Bottle is celebrating their 33 1/3 anniversary with a slew of shows that really capture what the small bar venue is all about. In their big lineup there seems […]
Review: An Evening With David Byrne Is An Evening to Remember at the Auditorium Theatre
It’s been 50 years since David Byrne first introduced his trademark brand of quirky pop-punk/world music fusion to audiences as the frontman of Talking Heads—note the lack of “the” in […]
Review: An Exuberant Nova Linea Musica Evening with Owls at Guarneri Hall
I felt an extra sense of excitement about going to Guarneri Hall on a windy evening. Nova Linea Musica presents the finest chamber music experience in Chicago, and the performers […]
Review: Muti Leads the CSO Through a Rousing Performance of Dvořák, Hindemith, and Strauss Jr.
Maestro Riccardo Muti returned to Symphony Center to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through a rousing program of 19th and 20th century music on Thursday evening. Following an overture by […]
Review: Indigo De Souza Takes Thalia Hall to the Precipice
“This s new type of set so I may mess things up” uttered Indigo De Souza during her Thalia Hall set. This playful warning was understandable as this show was […]
Review: Ear Taxi Festival Continues With the Soaring Compositions of Gustavo Leone on the Magnificent Mile
The stunning Buchanan Chapel at Fourth Presbyterian Church was the scene of an incredible immersive experience in new music on Tuesday evening. In a program entitled Viaggio Profondo: An Homage […]
Review: Brian Dunne Survives a Rental Car Horror Story to Rock Beat Kitchen
Brian Dunne is a talented musician and a gem of a human being. I knew from our conversation last week that he had great taste in music and seemed like […]
Review: Wry Witticism and Backbreaking Sincerity—Geese and the Shape of Rock to Come
“You don’t have to waste your time/Hiking up a hundred hills/You don’t have to, but I will”-“Husbands” “When I went deaf I used my eyes/They stood me in line ‘til […]
Review: Ear Taxi Festival Hosts Scott Speck and the Chicago Philharmonic for an Evening of Premieres
Ear Taxi Festival 2025 continued its run of excellence with an Anchor Performance by the Chicago Philharmonic at Harris Theater on Saturday night. Under the direction of Scott Speck, Marta […]
Review: Klaus Mäkelä, Antoine Tamestit, and the CSO Perform Hector Berlioz in a Dramatic and Exciting Way
With Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä at the podium, an expanded Chicago Symphony Orchestra gave dramatic and exciting performances of two symphonic gems by French composer Hector Berlioz on Thursday […]
Review: Music of the Baroque Gives an Interesting But Incomplete Performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos
With Nicholas Kraemer directing from the harpsichord, Music of the Baroque gave an interesting if incomplete performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos at Harris Theater on Monday night. It […]
Review: Ear Taxi Festival Delivers a Concert Not to Be Missed at DePaul
Ear Taxi Festival 2025 delivered another excellent concert on Saturday night, this one an Anchor Performance at Gannon Hall in DePaul University’s Holtschneider Performance Center. There, the William Ferris Chorale, […]