Stories

Studio portrait of Samuel Vargas wearing a heart necklace and a satin and lace black shirt

75th Annual Elgin Symphony Orchestra Season Announced

Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Beethoven, and other high-flying orchestral highlights mark the ESO’s 75th anniversary season.

Michael San GabinoNovember 22, 2019

Opera Explores the Brink of Humanity: ‘Dog Days’ Gets Chicago-Area Premiere

Louise FrankNovember 22, 2019

Discover the versatility of Jan Peerce in 3 powerful recordings

Death row inmate Terence Andrus and Ryan McKinny talking via phone through a glass window at prison visitation. Both smiling, Andrus holds up a piece sign with his hand.

Keegan MorrisNovember 22, 2019

Opera’s Ryan McKinny on Friendship, Artistic Bond with Death-row Inmate: ‘We’re Human Just Like Him’

Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has surgery for brain tumor

Associated PressAugust 9, 2021

The 76-year-old conductor had surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, and that the operation was successful.

Artist Icebreaker: Conductor Teddy Abrams

Adela SkowronskiAugust 6, 2021

Ahead of his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut, conductor Teddy Abrams explains why classical music needs to reach out to young people and embrace other artforms — and explains how Leonard Bernstein was a role model for both of these missions.

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Violinist Nathan Meltzer, an 18-year-old Julliard student who has been loaned the recovered Stradivarius violin (Photo: Jiyang Chen)

Totenberg Stradivarius reborn 4 decades after theft

Associated PressNovember 18, 2019

Roman Totenberg didn't live to see his instrument again; he died in 2012 at the age of 101. But Nathan Meltzer, a nineteen-year-old star violinist, has revived the prized instrument.

Video: Ahead of Chicago Premiere, An Excerpt From Rachmaninoff’s ‘Aleko’

Keegan MorrisNovember 15, 2019

Two operatic opus ones will have their Chicago premieres this weekend, and they both command a chorus of well over 100. Chicago Opera Theater opens its 2019-20 season with a double bill: Joby Talbot's Everest and Rachmaninoff's Aleko.

This Animated Video Explains Why Mozart Was One of the Best Procrastinators

Michael San GabinoNovember 15, 2019

"Mozart led a hectic life — he was basically an overcommitted freelancer,” says Josh Davidoff, program coordinator at 92nd Street Y in New York.

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