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Critic's Choice is posted! Click over to discover CCR's best bets for Chicago's bustling classical music scene in the 20...
09/09/2026

Critic's Choice is posted! Click over to discover CCR's best bets for Chicago's bustling classical music scene in the 2026-27 season.

Music of Sibelius, Shostakovich, Mahler, Stravinsky and WaltonChicago Symphony Orchestra/Klaus MäkeläSeptember 24-October 4

An eloquent and moving tribute to American soldiers and their families with the CD release of Patrick Zimmerli's song-cy...
08/09/2026

An eloquent and moving tribute to American soldiers and their families with the CD release of Patrick Zimmerli's song-cycle "Letters From The Front."

Zimmerli: Letters From The Front. Ian Gindes, pianist. John Riesen, Angela Born, Desiree Hassler, David Govertsen (Lexicon Classics).

Just two months after her acclaimed Rachmaninoff performance at the Grant Park Music Festival, Olga Kern returned for a ...
07/09/2026

Just two months after her acclaimed Rachmaninoff performance at the Grant Park Music Festival, Olga Kern returned for a recital that paid homage to the Russian composer Sunday at Ravinia.

Olga Kern’s Chicago appearances have been intermittent in recent years, but in 2026, local audiences have had the good fortune to hear the Russian-born pianist not once, but twice in a single summer. Her first-rate performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the Grant Park Orchestra....

Emiko Edwards brings eloquent and virtuosic insight to Aaron Copland's piano music in her new recording.
22/08/2026

Emiko Edwards brings eloquent and virtuosic insight to Aaron Copland's piano music in her new recording.

In 2024 Emiko Edwards performed a rich and varied program of American piano music at Ganz Hall for the American Music Project, spanning from Meredith Monk to Leon Kirchner. That recital included a thrilling performance of Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations, which is included on her new disc of Copla...

The Grant Park Chorus members were the stars of the season finale Friday night, wrapping the summer festival with magnif...
15/08/2026

The Grant Park Chorus members were the stars of the season finale Friday night, wrapping the summer festival with magnificent singing in music of Beethoven and Michael Daugherty.

One repeat Saturday night.

The final program of the Grant Park Music Festival bestowed a worthy close to a successful 2026 season, nicely tying up the America 250 summer with a theme-adjacent Beethoven symphony. Friday night’s concert was enhanced by the estimable Grant Park Chorus who were at their considerable finest in t...

In the penultimate Grant Park Orchestra program of the summer, Giancarlo Guerrero led a smart America 250 program that p...
13/08/2026

In the penultimate Grant Park Orchestra program of the summer, Giancarlo Guerrero led a smart America 250 program that paired early Minimalist works by John Adams and Philip Glass with Dvořák's America-inspired Symphony No. 9 "From the New World."

Following yet another violent morning storm, the weather cleared to bestow a perfect backdrop for the Grant Park Music Festival Wednesday night.

Klaus Mäkelä's revisiting of Stravinsky's complete "Firebird" proved even more compelling and memorable Friday night at ...
08/08/2026

Klaus Mäkelä's revisiting of Stravinsky's complete "Firebird" proved even more compelling and memorable Friday night at Ravinia than the performance of his CSO debut.

The newly renovated Ravinia stage and acoustic continues to impress as well.

The second and final program of Klaus Mäkelä’s brief Ravinia residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra drew a much larger turnout on Friday than the previous evening. Who knew Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy were more likely to pack the pavilion and fill the vast lawn than Sibelius and St...

Giancarlo Guerrero and Grant Park musicians salved the fury and grief of John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 with the spir...
08/08/2026

Giancarlo Guerrero and Grant Park musicians salved the fury and grief of John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 with the spiritual balm of Mozart Friday night.

One repeat on Saturday.

Music of mourning reached across the centuries to gripping effect at the Grant Park Music Festival Friday evening at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

Klaus Mäkelä made his Ravinia debut with the CSO Thursday night, taking the festival’s new stage and acoustic on a road ...
07/08/2026

Klaus Mäkelä made his Ravinia debut with the CSO Thursday night, taking the festival’s new stage and acoustic on a road test with Strauss’s epic Alpine Symphony.

It was exactly 120 years ago to the day Thursday night that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra first performed at the nascent Ravinia Festival (which opened to the public in 1904 with a play titled Vivian’s Papas). In 1936 the leafy Highland Park venue would become the official summer home of the CSO,...

Garrick Ohlsson returned to the Grant Park Music Festival in favored repertoire Wednesday night with Chopin's Piano Conc...
06/08/2026

Garrick Ohlsson returned to the Grant Park Music Festival in favored repertoire Wednesday night with Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Giancarlo Guerrero returned to Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion Wednesday night to lead the final two weeks of his second season at the helm of the Grant Park Orchestra.

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