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Music of the Baroque with Tom Wikman (04/22/1976)

September 12, 2025, 11:00 pm

Jacques-Edouard Gatteaux (1788-1881). Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), compositeur autrichien, après 1861. Bronze. Paris, musée Carnavalet. (Creative Commons via parismuseescollections.paris.fr)

Chicago’s treasured Music of the Baroque launches its 2025-26 season with a set of concerts beginning on September 14, 15, and 19. With that happy occasion in mind, we bring you this 1976 Studs Terkel interview with the ensemble’s founder, Tom Wikman.

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Meet the Host

Studs Terkel (1912-2008) radically redefined the concept of radio interviews. For 45 years starting in 1952, WFMT was his homebase. His daily radio show was a pillar of WFMT’s programming, with its eclectic and astute mix of music and conversation. Studs juxtaposed interviews with the many of the 20th century’s most significant figures with the voices of uncelebrated, working people from Chicago. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Studs helped established oral history as a popular and socially ambitious literary genre. Some of his titles include: Division Street, Hard Times, Working, Race and And They All Sang (Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey). Studs was also a recipient of the National Book Award.

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Music of the Baroque with Tom Wikman (04/22/1976)