All year long, Chicago comes alive with concerts, performances, and events celebrating the creativity and influence of women artists across music and beyond. This March, explore these standout events and join in the celebrations!
And don’t miss this exciting programming to honor Women’s History Month on WFMT!
La Caccina: Francesca and Friends
3/1 & 3/2: Various locations, free
Chicago treble vocal ensemble La Caccina is named for Francesca Caccini. The 17th-century composer is also the namesake of this program, which champions classical music written by women across eras.
La Caccina (Photo: Joe Mazza | Brave Lux Photography)
Ballet 5:8: Struggle & Resilience
3/1: Kehrein Center for the Arts, $40.00
Orland Park-based Ballet 5:8 is a respected female- and minority led dance troupe. The ensemble evokes Maya Angelou’s landmark autobiography with The Caged Bird Sings, a “sacred voyage, where poetry and movement intertwine.” At the meeting point of Black History Month and Women’s History Month, Ballet 5:8 reprises this program to anchor Struggle & Resilience, a new festival celebrating Latina and Black Women in the Arts.
Nani Vazana
3/5: Old Town School, suggested donation: $10.00
One of the few artists in the world making new music in Ladino (Judeo-Español), which the artist describes as “a fun melange of Castilian Spanish, and Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Turkish and some French and other Balkan languages thrown in the mix.” Vazana celebrates the matriarchal language of the Sephardic Jews and women’s empowerment.
WDCB Live Broadcast | “Women in Jazz” with Affinity Trio
Midwest ensemble Affinity Trio pays tribute to women in jazz in this performance airing live on WDCB.
Jazz Institute of Chicago’s JazzCity Series: Women in Chicago Jazz with Sharel Cassity
3/7: Garfield Park Conservatory, free
Sharel Cassity leads an exploration of important women’s contribution in the Chicago jazz landscape, in a concert held at the Garfield Park Conservatory.
Ana Everling: International Women’s Day Celebration
3/8: Epiphany Center for the Arts, $25.00
Moldovan-born Chicago multi-genre artist Ana Everling shares a concert for International Women’s Day.
Celebrating 8 Years of Mariachi Sirenas
3/8: National Museum of Mexican Art, $10.00
Chicago’s first all-women mariachi ensemble performs at the National Museum of Mexican Art, celebrating Women’s History Month as well as its eighth anniversary.
Contemporary Music with Tania León
3/8: Northwestern University Galvin Recital Hall, $8.00 (student tickets available)
Tania León returns to the Northwestern Campus — where in 2023 she received the Nemmers Prize in Music Composition — in a performance that features music by the Pulitzer-winning and Kennedy Center Honors-winning composer as well as Chicago-based Megan DiGeorgio.
Tania León receiving the Kennedy Center Honor
Orion Ensemble: To Life!
3/9-3/16: Various locations, $30.00
The all-women chamber group nears its 35th year together, and this latest concert from the Music Institute of Chicago resident ensemble features music by Brahms, Mozart, and a 2013 trio by Alexander Goldstein. The program will be shared at Nichols Concert Hall, PianoForte Chicago, and the New England Congregational Church in Aurora.
Chicago Sinfonietta: Love Letters
3/13-3/16: Various locations, from $27 (student tickets and pay-what-you-can available)
This Women’s History Month concert features music by Michelle Isaac, Sandra Bailey (a world premiere from the Sinfonietta’s former principal bassoonist), and Valerie Coleman conducted by Mei-Ann Chen.
Valerie Coleman
Echoes of Healing: D-Compressed with BSA Gold
3/13: Chicago Justice Gallery, free
On the UIC campus’s Chicago Justice Gallery, Chicago collective D-Composed teams up with the city’s BSA Gold for a musical meditation in remembrance of Breonna Taylor, shared in the gallery exhibition Echoes of Ferguson.
Indigo Sessions
Chicago musician Aliyah Jones is the creator of the Indigo Sessions, a series that pays tribute to the creativity of Black women artists.
Duo F.A.E. plays Beach and Smyth
In a concert at the Driehaus Museum’s newly renovated Murphy Auditorium, Chicago’s Duo F.A.E. perform works by two influential women composers: American Amy Beach and Englishwoman Dame Ethel Smyth.
Duo F.A.E.
La Ruta Ana Otero
3/22: Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, free
Daniela Santos and Estefanía Pizzi share the US premiere of a tribute to Ana Otero Hernández, the first Puerto Rican woman to gain international recognition as a composer, pianist, and conductor. The evening features the only extant work written by the composer.
Lyric Opera of Chicago: The Listeners
3/30-4/11: Lyric Opera House, from $42.00
Missy Mazzoli’s English-language opera was co-commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago is an adaptation of a dystopian psychological thriller of the same name by Jordan Tannahill. The Listeners is among the first operas composed by a woman to grace its mainstage series.
Amy Wurtz
4/6: Epiphany Center for the Arts, free
Though taking place in early April, this performance from Chicago composer and artist Amy Wurtz is a finale to Women’s History Month, to feature music by written across eras.
