Chicago Holiday Performances Guide 2025: Concerts, Nutcrackers, Jazz, and more
From all corners of the city and beyond, take part in holiday cheer with music to suit every palate.
Don't Miss a Beat
Pete Seeger gets own stamp; ceremony planned at Newport Folk
Seeger, a Harvard dropout who died in 2014 at age 94, wrote or co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.”
U2, George Clooney, Amy Grant among Kennedy Center honorees
Eight-time Grammy-winning singer Gladys Knight and acclaimed Cuban-born American composer Tania León are also among the honorees.
From the end of the world to your town, Elton John’s goodbye
John has five Grammys, as well as a Tony for Aida. His "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" in The Lion King motion picture has been heard by millions of children.
US soprano, offended by blackface, pulls out of Italy opera
Soprano Angel Blue will be bowing out of La Traviata because the theater recently mounted another Verdi opera using blackface.
Bramwell Tovey, conductor and composer, dies at 69
After a long bout with cancer, Tovey died on July 12. Tovey appeared as both a conductor and pianist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and other top orchestras.
Pianist Stewart Goodyear on the Magic of Music
"Every time I play a piece of music, I train my mind to look at a score fresh."
Playlist: Classical Music To Dance To
This ain’t your average classical music dance playlist: dance along to new pieces, old grooves, treasured tangos, and winsome waltzes.
Playlist: 13 Canadian Composers You Should Know
Americans, get to know the music of our neighbors to the north with this curated playlist.
Muti’s legacy: respect composers, reject revisionists
"In 20 to 30 years, when everything will collapse, you will say maybe Muti was right," the 80-year-old Italian conductor said.
Manufacturers struggle to keep pace with vinyl record demand
The Recording Industry Association of America says record album sales grew a whopping 61% last year — and reached $1 billion for the first time since the 1980s.
