Concerts, festivals, and more to celebrate Juneteenth in Chicago.

Terence Blanchard’s stirring drama returns following its landmark company premiere in 2021, with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green starring as Charles.

Armstrong is Oakland’s first music director since the unexpected death of Michael Morgan in 2021.

Marian Anderson, an acclaimed and boundary-breaking Black contralto, was born in Philadelphia in 1897.

Just a few of the Black voices from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

Anthony Parnther leads the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, and works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Valerie Coleman.

“It is rare, not only for a male singer who’s not a tenor, but especially a bass-baritone to be able to do this kind of concert with an orchestra like the Chicago Philharmonic.”

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the first Black musician to win the BBC Young Musician Award, is the soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto.

For more than 60 years, the “First Lady of Children’s Folk Music” has used music to inspire and teach children around the world.

The Gateways Brass Collective, an all–African American quintet, was founded in 2018 to inspire artists from all backgrounds.

In 1963, Watts made his national television debut performing Liszt’s First Piano Concerto with Leonard Bernstein and the NY Phil.

Concerts, festivals, and more to celebrate Juneteenth in Chicago.

The American violinist comes to WFMT to share his new album—a collaboration with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra that showcases violin concertos by Max Bruch and Florence Price.

Bumbry was among the winners of the 1958 Met National Council Auditions. She had a recital debut in Paris that same year and made her Paris Opéra debut in 1960.

Belafonte stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with his time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

The record’s nomination for best roots gospel album marks the first time a college marching band has been nominated in that category.

Sanders, who launched his career playing alongside John Coltrane in the 1960s, died in Los Angeles early Saturday.

The Chicago born and based Lewis was revered in jazz circles for hits like “The In Crowd” and “Hang on Sloopy.” He earned three Grammys and seven gold records.

“We’re celebrating the spirit of the city and taking a moment for some musical civic pride!”

After winning multiple Grammys this year, Jon Batiste is moving on after a seven-year run backing up host Stephen Colbert as bandleader of “The Late Show”.

Soprano Angel Blue will be bowing out of La Traviata because the theater recently mounted another Verdi opera using blackface.

“Every time I play a piece of music, I train my mind to look at a score fresh.”

Broadway has its groove back, said Tonys host Ariana DeBose at an exuberant ceremony seeking to illustrate just that sentiment.

Simone Leigh’s 16-foot bronze bust of a Black woman, titled Brick House, presides over the entrance.

Here are just a few Black performers who changed the course of classical music… and continue to inspire us today!