With many of the major annual fireworks displays on hold this year because of COVID-19, WFMT is bringing you the fire with a curated playlist of pyrotechnic music.
“Contrary to popular myth,” Dr. Eugenia Cheng explains, “math is not just about numbers, but about patterns, structures, and logic, and patterns and structures also pervade classical music.”
From beneath the glistening Tiffany Dome of the Chicago Cultural Center, pianist Christopher Goodpasture shared works of Beethoven, Liszt, and Debussy to a full audience.
On an overcast, early fall day, pianist Hélène Tysman shared a sensitive, illuminating performance of piano works by Bach, Debussy, Chopin, and Ravel for this Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert broadcast. Watch the full program here!
Audience members, listeners, and viewers alike were treated to a sensitive, dynamic Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert when pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu took the stage at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Since there is a type of musical composition named for studying — études, for you non French-speakers — we have the perfect musical accompaniment while you hit the books.
Just because the school year is right around the corner doesn’t mean that you have to stop playing (or writing) music. As proof, here are 16 pieces from composers written when they were still students!
Cellist Hee-Young Lim and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang performed in a WFMT Facebook Live from the Brennan Family Recital Hall at the DePaul University School of Music.
The history of music is full of friendships and feuds. These composers certainly had complicated relationships. What are your favorite composer clashes?
What makes a piece popular? How does a piece survive its first few performances? What makes something a warhorse, played over and over again, easily marketed from decade to decade? Who decides what’s good, anyway? Here are 18 underrated concertos – ones that don’t get played all that much, but maybe should be more widely known.
Russian-born Spanish pianist Marianna Prjevalskaya performs live in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center during a Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert.
Composers have been inspired by all aspects of nature, and the changing of the seasons is no exception. As the weather warms up and the birds begin to chirp, here are some classical works to put a little spring in your step.
All Grant Park Music Festival concerts are free. WFMT will have several live broadcasts from the festival, including opening night and the Beethoven Ninth concerts. See a full listing of performances.
Tonight’s full moon will be the biggest in 68 years since it will be at its closest point in relation to Earth’s orbit – 221,524 miles away. Why is it closer to Earth now? NASA’s website explains: “The moon’s orbit around Earth is slightly elliptical so sometimes it is closer and sometimes it’s farther away. When the moon is full as …
“We could have made a program with only pieces by Ravel, Debussy, and Liszt,” Grimaud said. “But I wanted to represent as many composers as possible, which meant only one piece per composer…”
Soprano Kate Royal has made her name singing in some of the oldest and most beloved operas in the repertoire by Monteverdi and Mozart, but the London native is also drawn to and sought-after to perform in more modern operas.
