Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians get 3% annual raises in 3-year labor contract

Music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti will lead the CSO season-opening concert September 21 at Orchestra Hall.

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Maria Callas will return to Chicago in September. No, we’re not kidding.

Maria Callas will return to Chicago’s Lyric Opera House for one night only... in hologram form!

Purcell opera performed in cemetery catacombs

NEW YORK (AP) — “When I am laid in earth,” the heroine sings just before she dies at the end of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.” Rarely will the aria be heard in a more fittingly sepulchral setting than when the hour-long opera, composed in the 1680s, is performed this week in the catacombs of Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery. The ...

Barenboim’s tenure at Berlin’s Staatsoper extended to 2027

Conductor Daniel Barenboim is getting a five-year contract extension as general music director of Berlin’s Staatsoper, which would keep him at the opera house until 2027.

3 Fresh Musical Events for Your Weekend!

We’re getting ready to share our Summer Music Guide (keep an eye out for it next week), but here are three events happening this weekend, each of which combine or reimagine classical music and dance, that we wanted to be sure to tell you about. The Rosina Project It’s Rossini like you’ve never heard him before. Chicago Fringe Opera teams ...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra cancels summer programming

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has canceled its summer programming, citing $16 million in losses over the past decade. The Washington Post reports the Thursday cancellation announcement by the orchestra comes about a month after the summer season was announced. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan approved a bill then that would give the group $3.2 million in state funding. Orchestra president ...

Video: Guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas Plays A Beloved Albéniz Classic

A successful, in-demand touring and recording artist, Pablo Sáinz-Villegas visited WFMT while in town to make his CSO debut in a program of Spanish and Latin American music conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.

No Raincheck Needed! — Highlights from WFMT’s Second Annual Beach Party

Even though we had to move the festivities indoors, WFMT hosts, staff, and fans were not deterred by the torrential downpour and came together for the Second Annual Memorial Day Beach Party on May 27, 2019. A full day of celebration and commemoration included on-air games, quizzes, dedications, and of course, music and performances live from the Theater on the ...

Grammy Winner Giancarlo Guerrero Grew up in Costa Rica Listening To WFMT. Now He’s Making His CSO Conducting Debut.

As Guerrero says, “In many ways, I am the poster child to show that music can...become a part of your life regardless of your background.”

Pianist Lara Downes on Drawing Courage, Joy From Women Composers and Artists

"You have these pieces of music that are part of you, part of your DNA, and every time you return to them, it just comes out differently because you are different."

Riccardo Muti Releases New Book (But You Have to Know Italian to Read It)

Despite Maestro Muti's tireless activity in the musical realm, he has not neglected the written word.

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