Stories

From the Opera House to Your House: Ryan Opera Center Artists Bring Music Home

Keeping busy and enjoying great music are some of the best ways to get through COVID-19 quarantining. Ryan Opera Center artists have been doing both in a series of homemade performance videos.

Stephen Raskauskas | April 20, 2015

Julia Wolfe Wins 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music

Stephen Raskauskas | April 10, 2015

Guggenheim Fellow Rudresh Mahanthappa On Creating Music that Defies Genre

Stephen Raskauskas | March 31, 2015

14 Facts About Haydn

Members of the Chicago Children’s Choir perform at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (Photo: Tipping Point Photograhy)

A live broadcast celebrating young artists, collaboration, and 10 years of WFMT’s Introductions at Chicago’s Youth Arts Showcase

Keegan Morris | September 22, 2018

On Saturday, September 22, 2018, WFMT’s Introductions, the weekly program that features the Chicago area’s finest pre-college musicians, celebrated its 10th anniversary with a live radio broadcast from Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park to kick off Chicago’s first Youth Arts Showcase (YAS! Fest). The fest was a highlight event of the 2018 Year of Creative Youth, a citywide celebration of Chicago’s young artists and the mentors who inspire them...

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Civic Orchestra of Chicago, led by Riccardo Muti, performed a free “Concert for Chicago” at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park on September 20, 2018.(Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

Riccardo Muti Conducts CSO, Civic in Free ‘Concert for Chicago’

Michael San Gabino | September 21, 2018

As Chicagoans, we appreciate hot and breezy nights, especially when we think of the alternative. Despite the heat and some gusts of wind that nearly blew sheet music right off the stands, Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintained their cool as they presented a free “Concert for Chicago” at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium ...

COVID-19

See All

$32 Million to the CSO

Noel Morris | June 12, 2014

The legacy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra received a boost on Thursday with the announcement of two multimillion-dollar gifts − among the largest in the orchestra’s history according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association. Chicago-based Sam and Helen Zell acknowledged a $17 million dollar gift from the Zell Family Foundation for the endowment of the position currently held by music director Riccardo Muti. Maestro ...

Ana María Martínez: “Czech Was the Hardest”

Noel Morris | February 21, 2014

Ana María Martínez is a seasoned performer on the stage of Chicago’s Civic Opera House. In the last year, she’s sung Mimì, Desdemona, and opens as Rusalka on Saturday. What is less dazzling, less conspicuous, has been her role as a role model to Chicago’s youth. The Puerto Rican-American soprano (who is fluent in Italian, English, and Spanish) frequently volunteers as a ...

Beethoven’s Smile: Yes, He Had One

Noel Morris | December 16, 2013

“After the final chord, I looked up. The Master’s darkly glowing gaze was fixed upon me penetratingly. Yet suddenly a benevolent smile broke up his gloomy features, Beethoven became quite close, bent over me, laid his hand on my head and repeatedly stroked my hair. ‘Devil of a fellow’ he whispered, ‘such a young rascal!’ I suddenly plucked up courage. ...

Through the Night with Peter van de Graaff