Stories

Killer Chops: Some Scary Celluloid Pianists for Halloween

As Halloween approaches, let’s look at a few horror films in which pianists, or at least the hands they are attached to, are the stars.

Stephen Raskauskas | May 16, 2016

How Grammy Award-Winning Jazz Singer Kurt Elling Developed His Chops Singing Motets by J.S. Bach

Michael San Gabino | May 12, 2016

5 Rising Stars in Classical Music Who Got Their Start in Chicago

Stephen Raskauskas | May 9, 2016

Chicago Fringe Opera Brings Rarely Performed Glass Opera ‘In the Penal Colony’ to the Windy City

Riccardo Muti conducts Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 9/28/07,

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Announces ’19-20 Season

Keegan Morris | January 29, 2019

It will mark Muti’s tenth-anniversary season as music director as well as the 250th birthday of Beethoven. Muti conducts all of Beethoven’s symphonies over the course of the season, culminating in the triumphant Symphony No. 9 in June 2020.

Lyric Opera of Chicago Announces 2019-2020 Season, With Wagner’s ‘Ring’ Cycle, ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘Madama Butterfly’

Keegan Morris | January 24, 2019

Lyric's 2019-2020 season will include seven mainstage operas (three of which are company premieres), three full performances of Lyric’s new Ring cycle, and the Broadway at Lyric premiere of 42nd Street.

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Maestro Mariss Jansons (Photo: Bayerischer Rundfunk)

Conductor Mariss Jansons on Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony, Music, and Politics

Michael San Gabino | April 10, 2016

Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, titled “Leningrad,” was written during one of the most horrific sieges in history. From 1941 to 1944, Hitler’s army surrounded Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and over one million civilians died. Conductor Mariss Jansons, renowned for his interpretations of Shostakovich symphonies, has a particularly interesting connection to Leningrad. Jansons was born in Soviet-controlled Latvia. Later, he would ...

Leif Ove Andsnes (Photo: Gregor Hohenberg)

Leif Ove Andsnes on Becoming Beethoven, Brahms

Stephen Raskauskas | April 8, 2016

"I just finished a four year Beethoven journey where I immersed myself in the music of this great composer, especially his five piano concertos," says Andsnes. "I basically just played Beethoven for years."

The Truth About the “Worst Singer of All Time,” Florence Foster Jenkins, Told by Her Accompanist

Stephen Raskauskas | March 30, 2016

Florence Foster Jenkins couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Yet, she made her Carnegie Hall debut to a completely sold-out house on October 25, 1944.

The Midnight Special with Marilyn Rea Beyer