Wednesdays at 6:30 pm
The Grant Park Music Festival is back, and so are WFMT’s live broadcasts!
WFMT is bringing you the very best that the Grant Park Music Festival has to offer this summer, giving you a front-row ticket to the Chicago summertime institution. With live broadcasts featuring scintillating solo performances, rousing choral opuses, and beloved orchestral landmarks, WFMT is your ticket to a whole summer’s worth of great music.
Ohlsson Plays Chopin
August 5, 2026, 6:30 pm
Garrick Ohlsson—one of only two Americans to have won the International Chopin Piano Competition—returns to the Festival to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, the program also journeys to Mexico and Italy with Juan Pablo Contreras’s lively Mariachitlán and Tchaikovsky’s tuneful Capriccio Italien.
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
August 14, 2026, 6:30 pm
Giancarlo Guerrero brings the 2026 season to an epic close with none other than Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, a musical affirmation of humanity on a grand scale. To conclude our season-long celebration of American music, the program begins with Julia Wolfe’s raucous Liberty Bell and Michael Daugherty’s monumental Mount Rushmore.
Gershwin An American in Paris
July 31, 2026
Making his Festival debut, Kedrick Armstrong conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in Gershwin’s jaunty An American In Paris. Experience the propulsive energy of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Sinfonietta No. 1 and Duke Ellington’s The Three Black Kings alongside Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s lyrical Violin Concerto with soloist Gabriela Lara, an alumna of the Festival’s String Fellowship program. Grant Park Orchestra Kedrick Armstrong Conductor Gabriela Lara Violin
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3
July 22, 2026
Conductor Laureate Carlos Kalmar returns to the Festival with the technically brilliant pianist Olga Kern for Rachmaninoff’s highly virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3. The program also features Stravinsky’s mischievously charming ballet Game of Cards and Elgar’s sunny In the South.
Ravel Piano Concerto
July 15, 2026
Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson makes her Festival debut with William Grant Still’s celebratory Festive Overture, followed by Ravel’s jazz-inflected Piano Concerto featuring star pianist Michelle Cann. Florence Price’s sweeping Symphony No. 3 concludes the program in its first Festival outing.
Sibelius Symphony No. 2
July 8, 2026
Conductor Laureate Carlos Kalmar returns for Sibelius’s majestic Symphony No. 2, an emblem of Finnish nationalism written at a time of cultural and linguistic suppression. Christopher Theofanidis’s Drum Circle makes its Chicago premiere, featuring the virtuosic musicians of Third Coast Percussion.
Independence Day Salute
July 4, 2026
Christopher Bell conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in this annual Chicago tradition. The family-friendly celebration includes patriotic favorites alongside Gershwin’s Three Preludes with principal clarinetist Dario Brignoli and Carlos Gardel’s Tango (Por Una Cabeza) with concertmaster Jeremy Black.
Barber Violin Concerto
June 24, 2026
Kalena Bovell leads the Grant Park Orchestra in the wistful lyricism of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto with acclaimed violinist Will Hagen. Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst opens the concert with a bang, and actors from Lookingglass Theatre Company bring to life Peter Boyer’s innovative multimedia work Ellis Island: The Dream of America.
Copland Symphony No. 3
June 19, 2026
Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3, a masterful synthesis of the composer’s expansive American musical style. Piano virtuoso Stewart Goodyear returns to the Festival for Prokofiev’s charming Piano Concerto No. 3, presented alongside Reena Esmail’s emotionally impactful Black Iris.
Bernstein West Side Story
June 10, 2026
Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero opens the 2026 Festival season in style with Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy, Latin-inspired Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Joan Tower’s Made in America and Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1 in One Movement continue the celebration of American music in honor of the United States’ 250th.
Carmina Burana
August 15, 2025
Experience the grandeur of Carmina Burana, featuring the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, three world-class soloists, and Uniting Voices children’s chorus. Giancarlo Guerrero conducts this season finale which also includes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture, and Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 2, Mysterious Mountain.
Joshua Bell and Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet
August 6, 2025
One Night Only! Joshua Bell and the Grant Park Orchestra play Édouard Lalo’s fiery Symphonie Espagnole in a program with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, and Franz von Suppe’s Poet and Peasant Overture. Giancarlo Guerrero conducts.
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
July 30, 2025
Scottish virtuoso Steven Osborne joins the Grant Park Orchestra for Beethoven’s deeply expressive Piano Concerto No. 4, led by acclaimed American conductor Joseph Young. The program also features Howard Hanson’s passionate Symphony No. 2, The Romantic.
Ravel Boléro
July 23, 2025
Pianist Maxim Lando joins the Grant Park Orchestra for Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Liszt’s Rhapsody Espagnole. The evening also includes Rossini’s charming overture to The Barber of Seville and Ravel’s exhilarating Boléro. Lee Mills conducts.
Elgar Enigma Variations
July 16, 2025
Courtney Lewis conducts Johann Strauss’ sparkling overture to Die Fledermaus and Anna Clyne’s captivating Dance, featuring cellist Inbal Segev. The program concludes with Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a beloved series of musical portraits.
Debussy La Mer
July 9, 2025
Nicole Paiement conducts Debussy’s La Mer and Smetana’s beloved The Moldau, along with a new work by Mark Adamo titled Last Year, a cello concerto inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, featuring the Festival’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence, Inbal Segev as soloist.
Beethoven Symphony No. 6
July 2, 2025
Osmo Vänskä, former Minnesota Orchestra music director, leads the Festival premiere of Henry Dorn’s Transitions, and violinist Paul Huang performs Bruch’s delightful Scottish Fantasy. The program concludes with Beethoven’s beloved Pastoral Symphony.
Mozart Paris Symphony
June 25, 2025
The Festival offers a diverse and captivating program featuring Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Valerie Coleman’s Phenomenal Women performed by the dazzling Imani Winds, and Mozart’s charming “Paris” Symphony.
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
June 18, 2025
In his debut performance as the Festival’s newly appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero leads a program featuring Grant Park Orchestra concertmaster Jeremy Black in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. The program also includes Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Port of Call and Leonard Bernstein’s searing suite from the film On the Waterfront.
Season Premiere: Rhapsody in Blue
June 11, 2025
The Festival’s 2025 season opens with George Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue, featuring renowned conductor and pianist Andrew Litton leading the Grant Park Orchestra. The program also features the vibrant Three Latin American Dances by Gabriela Lena Frank, and Manuel de Falla’s suite from the Three-Cornered Hat.
