On Feb. 5, 2024, another note is going to begin playing… this one will be relatively short; it will hang around for only the next two years.

Recognizing the Chicagoans, musicians, artists, and friends of WFMT who died this past year.

Discover new music including Reena Esmail’s A Winter Breviary and Roderick Williams’s O Adonai.

Stunning renditions of contemporary works, stirring early music performances, and more.

Alan Gilbert is joined by two former Artists-in-Residence in works by Beethoven, Dvořák, and former Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg.

In an ode to the wonder of our natural world, this program ponders fate, resolve, and reverence.

A universal tale with moving colors, where the flow of music follows the flow of life; an initiatory fable on human nature and self-discovery.

Experience the exhilaration of Beethoven’s dance Symphony, his Seventh, and a new cello concerto by Gabriella Smith.

A conversation with the Grammy award-winning Argentine composer.

Josefowicz takes on Thomas Adès’ “Concentric Paths” Violin Concerto. The high-powered Elim Chan leads music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Clarice Assad.

This week features pieces from a newly released recording from the CSO Resound label. Riccardo Muti conducts the broadcast.

From Paris Opera, hear a star-studded cast that includes Thomas Hampson as Richard Nixon and Renée Fleming as Pat Nixon, with John Matthew Myers as Chairman Mao.

Saariaho’s compositions melded live performance and electronics, winning recognition and securing commissions from numerous leading organizations.

Ludovic Morlot conducts Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and the world premiere of a concerto written by and starring Timothy Higgins, the orchestra’s principal trombonist.

Three mainstage operas, three additional special events, and all six titles are Chicago premieres.

The Grammy-winning, Chicago-based ensemble pays WFMT a visit.

Sakamoto was a pioneer in electronics music of the late 1970s.

The Grammy-nominated composer, record producer and eldest son of Andrew Lloyd Webber, died Saturday in England after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia.

“It’s just something you don’t often hear in classical settings. The music ends and we’re laughing. The music ends and we’re singing.”

Time once called Rorem “the world’s best composer of art songs,” and he was notable for his hundreds of compositions for the solo human voice.

“The more I studied music, the more I saw the similarities between weaving and what I do.”

Ichiyanagi studied at The Juilliard School in New York and emerged a pioneer, using compositional techniques that incorporated traditional Japanese elements and electronic music.

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.

WFMT spoke to the Chicago-born Lewis in 2015, when, at the age of 80, his music received its first CSO performance.

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