A special program commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans
Juneteenth: Remembrance and Celebration
Playlist
Remembrance
William Grant Still: And They Lynched Him on a Tree: No. 6 They Left Him Hanging
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers & Orchestra
William Grant Still: Darker America
American Symphony Orchestra
Margaret Bonds: The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Darryl Taylor, tenor; Maria Corley, piano
Undine Smith Moore: Before I’d Be a Slave
Maria Corley, piano
Celebration
George Walker: Folk Songs for Orchestra I. Going to lay down my sword and shield
Cleveland Chamber Symphony
Regina Harris Baiocchi: ‘Hold Out for Joy’
Picasso Ensemble
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: African Suite: Danse Nègre
London Symphony Orchestra
Adolphus Hailstork: ‘Shout for Joy’
The Aeolians
Father’s Day Requests
Celebrate Father’s Day with WFMT. Honor the father or father figure in your life with a spoken dedication and musical request.
Trinity Sunday & Juneteenth
Music on Trinitarian themes and music to acknowledge the celebration of Juneteenth.
Let Freedom Ring: A Musical Celebration of Juneteenth with Lara Downes
A special program featuring the music of Black composers from Florence Price to Bob Marley, and performers like Jessye Norman and the Kanneh-Mason.
Season Finale: Music and Conversation with Randall Goosby
The American violinist comes to WFMT to share his new album—a collaboration with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra that showcases violin concertos by Max Bruch and Florence Price.
Playlist
All selections feature violinist Randall Goosby.
Florence Price: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D
I. Tempo moderato
Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano
II. Mother and Child
Zhu Wang, piano
Xavier Foley: Shelter Island
Xavier Foley, double bass
Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26
III. Finale: Allegro energico
Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Price (rr. Jim Gray): Adoration
Price: Violin Concerto No. 2
Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Music of the Baroque: Circles of Friends and ’23-24
We hear MOB’s May concert Circles of Friends — featuring selections by Haydn, Mozart, and contemporaries Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Johann Baptist Wanhal — with an intermission feature: Declan McGovern previews the 23-24 season.
War Letters
For this Memorial Day, Live From WFMT presents War Letters, an award-winning documentary WFMT created in 2001. The program was inspired by Andrew Carroll’s bestseller, War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars. Pulitzer prize-winning author Studs Terkel joins WFMT’s Lisa Flynn to share the most personal remembrances of war: letters sent home from the front by American soldiers, all of …
Memorial in Song with John Brancy and Peter Dugan
A program for Memorial Day to honor those whose lives have been forever changed by war, including songs written by composers and poets who were soldiers themselves.
Playlist
*Indicates a composer who served in WWI
Oley Speaks: “When the Boys Come Home”
Ralph Vaughan Williams*: “Youth and Love” from Songs of Travel
George Butterworth*: “The Lads in Their Hundreds” from A Shropshire Lad
Igor Novello* (arr. Dugan/Brancy): “Keep the Homefires Burning”
Walter Donaldson (arr. Dugan/Brancy): “My Buddy”
Wilfred Sanderson: “God Be with Our Boys Tonight”
Charles Ives: “Tom Sails Away”
Leonardo Dugan: “In Flanders Fields”
Maurice Ravel*: Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin
Claude Debussy: “Noel des enfants qui n’ont plus de maisons”
Sergei Rachmaninoff: “How fair this spot”
Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Spring Waters”
Irving Berlin*: “Goodbye France”
Trad. (arr. Dugan/Brancy): “Danny Boy”
Masterworks for Organ and String Orchestra
Maestro Emanuele Andrizzi leads the Chicago College of Performing Arts Chamber Orchestra in music by Mendelssohn, Poulenc, and Vaughan Williams.
Lyric Opera of Chicago Rising Stars in Concert
A showcase performance by The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center 2022/23 Ensemble with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra conducted by Roberto Kalb.