Presented by New Music Chicago, the Ear Taxi Festival will take place from mid-September to early October. This preview performance was recorded last week in Nichols Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago.

Riccardo Muti turns 80 on July 28, 2021. In honor of the Maestro, WFMT is spending the entire day celebrating his legacy in Chicago music. We’ll share an array of recordings conducted by Muti, the CSO’s music director since 2010, and even a birthday greeting or two from some esteemed colleagues.

Pianist Wael Farouk, a faculty member at Roosevelt University, has performed internationally: in Europe, Colombia, Japan, and his native Egypt. An alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music and of Roosevelt, he visited the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn in April, where he joined the New Philharmonic and conductor Kirk Muspratt for the virtuosic first three piano concertos by …

From May 2021: violist Matthew Lipman and the Festival Orchestra perform Georg Philipp Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G Major and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 at Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago. Kerry Frumkin hosts.

WFMT joins forces with Ravinia and the CSO to bring listeners a live broadcast of the orchestra’s first 2021 appearance at the festival. Chief conductor and curator Marin Alsop and pianist Jorge Federico Osorio join the orchestra in music by Joan Tower, Mozart, and Beethoven. Kerry Frumkin hosts from the Ravinia Pavillion, and George Preston hosts an introduction with commentary …

Special: Join host Maggie Clennon Reberg as she celebrates the 50th anniversary of Chicago’s treasured early music ensemble Music of the Baroque.

Celebrate Father’s Day with us! Share your dedications and requests in the form below (include keyword Father’s Day), and hosts Maggie Clennon Reberg and Oliver Camacho may select them for the air!

On a day when America commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in our country, we welcome you to Let Freedom Ring: A Musical Celebration of Juneteenth with Lara Downes. Lara has been shining a bright light on the music and contributions of Black composers through her performances, podcasts and recordings. In this one-hour special, Lara takes listeners on a unique …

Kurt Masur conducts the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Britten’s seminal work. WFMT shares this recording in recognition of Memorial Day.

All weekend long, WFMT will be honoring Memorial Day in music. Check out these highlights that you won’t want to miss.

For Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9, WFMT wants your dedications and musical requests. From 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, Maggie Clennon Reberg and Robbie Ellis will be playing your choice of music. Please submit your dedications or requests in one of two ways: Call the dedicated phone line to leave a voice message: (773) 279-2421 Submit your request on the Saturday …

Piano virtuoso Inon Barnatan joins music director Jane Glover and the Music of the Baroque Orchestra to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14. Mozart’s 29th Symphony and two works by Handel round out the performance, which was recorded live on March 29.

Grammy-winning Apollo’s Fire — led by founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell — presents a colorful, uplifting, and timely program for our time: a loving exploration of the three peoples whose music and faith brought such vibrancy to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The sounds of oud, theorbo, medieval harp, vielle, qanun, strings, wooden flutes, and exotic percussion join …

The springtime Jewish holiday of Passover is about liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt. In this one-hour special, superstar violinist Itzhak Perlman shares Passover music from many traditions, plus songs and memories from his childhood in Israel. The program draws its shape from the Passover seder and, like that ancient family ritual, the music gets progressively giddier as the show …

Rebroadcasting a conversation Kerry Frumkin recorded with the distinguished soprano. Interspersed with highlights from Ms. Fleming’s numerous recordings. Co-produced by Louise Frank.

Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) won a fair amount of renown in her native Britain, and elsewhere, in a time when women composers were generally looked down upon. She composed symphonies and a number of shorter works. Her 1906 opera, The Wreckers, was premiered in Leipzig – where she had studied at one time – but is based upon legends (and some history) …

A special performance by vocal trio Artemisia — entitled Sounds Like Us — recorded live on February 22, 2021. 8:00 pm.

All day long, tune in to hear WFMT’s celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born on this date in 1685.

In 2015, WFMT was deeply honored to welcome the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who shared her deep love for opera. During our rebroadcast of this special event, being presented in her memory, we’ll also hear some highlights from Chicago’s own classical-recording label, Cedille, and from the opera Scalia/Ginsburg.

From 2004: Host Kerry Frumkin talks with the distinguished mezzo-soprano and explores her recordings. Co-produced by Louise Frank.

A conversation with the distinguished soprano Leontyne Price recorded on the occasion of her 60th birthday.

As a special edition of Live from WFMT, we’ll air this performance from Lyric Opera of Chicago curated by music director-designate Enrique Mazzola, featuring singers from the Ryan Opera Center in songs by prominent Italian opera composers.

Join two prominent local young performers, cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing and pianist Joshua Mhoon, in a program of music by Black composers including Florence Price, Robert Nathaniel Dett, and Anthony R. Green. Both have been featured on WFMT’s Introductions in the past: Ifetayo now studies at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and Joshua is a Lang Lang Foundation Young Scholar.LaRob K. Rafael …

Scott Joplin’s ragtime opera Treemonisha is the story of a young freedwoman who faces persecution and danger because of her education. The opera was completed in 1911 but did not receive its first complete performance until 1972, 55 years after the composer’s death.

From Spirituals to modern-day gospel, Black people have connected to God and each other through music even through painful and trying circumstances. Presented in conjunction with the premiere of the PBS documentary The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, this special program takes a musical look at Black spirituality and the strength of a people determined …