The Grant Park Music Festival

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.

Upcoming Episodes
Latest Episodes

Grant Park Music Festival's Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero

Bernstein West Side Story

June 10, 2026, 6:30 pm

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.

Pianist Stewart Goodyear (Photo by Anita Zvonar)

Copland Symphony No. 3

June 19, 2026, 6:30 pm

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.

Barber Violin Concerto

June 24, 2026, 6:30 pm

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.

Schubert Symphony No. 3

June 27, 2018

Carlos Kalmar conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in a program featuring flutist Adam Walker.

Mozart Violin Concerto

June 15, 2018

Carlos Kalmar conducts the Grant Park orchestra and violin soloist William Hagen.

Opening Night – Haydn and Walton

June 13, 2018

Carlos Kalmar conducts the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus in a program that features baritone soloist Dashon Burton from the Grammy Award-winning group Roomful of Teeth. Below, Michael San Gabino interviews Grant Park audience and artists before the opening night concert.

Grant Park Music Chorus Sings Rachmaninoff

April 9, 2018

The Grant Park Chorus last summer presented two performances of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (Vespers), one of the alltime greatest works of a cappella choral music. It was a personal favorite of the composer’s among his creations, and has often been singled out as his masterpiece. Consisting of 15 movements, the work draws on sacred texts from the Vespers, the Matins, ...

Soprano Janai Brugger (Photo: Dario Acosta)

Beethoven Symphony No. 9

August 18, 2017

Led by conductor Carlos Kalmar and chorus director Christopher Bell, the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus come together for a performance of Brahms’s Schicksalslied and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Featured performers include soprano Janai Brugger, mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy, tenor Brendan Tuohy, and bass Russell Braun.

Cellist Harriet Krijgh. (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

Haydn Cello Concerto

August 16, 2017

Cellist Harriet Krijgh joins the Grant Park Orchestra in a performance led by Carlos Kalmar at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Listen to Resphigi’s The Birds, Chadwick’s Symphonic Sketches, and Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, which features Krijgh.

Pianist Stephen Hough. (Photo: Sim Cannetty-Clarke)

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1

July 26, 2017

Led by Carlos Kalmar, the Grant Park Orchestra and pianist Stephen Hough perform at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Hear Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, Brahms’s Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 3, and 6, and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring Hough.

Violinist Angelo Xiang Yu (Photo: Kate Lemmon)

Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto

July 19, 2017

Guest conductor Brett Mitchell and violinist Angelo Xiang Yu join the Grant Park Orchestra in a performance at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Listen to Bunch’s Supermaximum, Copland’s The Red Pony, and Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3, featuring Yu.

Guest conductor Fawzi Haimor. (Photo: fawzihamor.com)

Haydn London Symphony

July 12, 2017

Guest conductor Fawzi Haimor leads the Grant Park Orchestra in a performance of Roustom’s Ramal, Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 “London,” and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis live from the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Independence Day Salute

July 4, 2017

Conductor Christopher Bell leads the Grant Park Orchestra in its annual Independence Day Salute, which brings patriotic favorites such as Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and more to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. An encore performance will be held on Wednesday, July 5, at 6:30 pm at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 ...

Soprano Jessica Rivera. (Photo: Isabel Pinto)

Missa Latina

June 28, 2017

Led by guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya and chorus director Christopher Bell, the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus come together to perform Sierra’s Missa Latina, which features soprano Jessica Rivera as a soloist.

Pianist Conrad Tao. (Photo: conradtao.com)

Stravinsky Firebird

June 23, 2017

Pianist Conrad Tao joins the Grant Park Orchestra in a performance led by Carlos Kalmar at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Listen to Schiff’s Infernal, Stravinsky’s The Firebird, and Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto, featuring Tao.

Conductor Carlos Kalmar leads the Grant Park Orchestra.

Opening Night: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

June 14, 2017

The Grant Park Orchestra is joined by violinist Vadim Gluzman in a performance led by Carlos Kalmar at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Hear Alfvén’s Festival Overture, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture, and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, featuring Gluzman.

Through the Night with Peter van de Graaff