As we look forward to the festivities, we have compiled some of Chicago’s most enticing holiday offerings!

The 2024 Grammy nominations were announced on November 10, 2023.

Charles Henry Pace was one of the first African American gospel music composers in the US and owned of one of the first independent, Black gospel music publishing companies.

Humble. Thoughtful. Legendary. After more than 70 years, Mavis Staples’ career is greater than any single word.

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

Grammy-winning conductor, pianist, and composer Charles Floyd and award-winning baritone Robert Sims reflect on the importance that Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass placed on spirituals as a beacon for freedom.

Eight-time Grammy-winning singer Gladys Knight and acclaimed Cuban-born American composer Tania León are also among the honorees.

WFMT presenter LaRob K. Rafael interviews Dr. C. Charles Clency, music educator, author, and the last accompanist of Mahalia Jackson.

The season begins on June 15 with artistic director and principal conductor Carlos Kalmar leading music of Mozart, Wagner, and Price.

A new music museum in Nashville is telling an important and often overlooked story about the roots of American popular music.

Black people have used music and singing to tell the story of hope amid pain, promise amid peril, and immovable faith amid adversity. This playlist celebrates the uniqueness of Black thought and spirituality through the years.

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s season opens this weekend in truly unprecedented fashion: with a virtual gala.

Our picture of the past is often incomplete: though long on the frontlines in the fight for racial justice, women’s stories have often been left out of history. Here are nine conversations with women to enrich our understanding.

As protests in the ongoing fight against systemic racism and police brutality continue, musicians are coming together to pay tribute and raise awareness after the death of fellow violinist, Elijah McClain.

DCASE Commissioner Mark Kelly stated that the year will highlight Chicago’s “big bold sounds” and show the world the city’s “proudly undefined” music scene.

More than two decades after a tragedy catalyzed a generation of LGBTQ activists, Matthew Shepard’s story is being shared with a new generation through music.

Sydney Pollack shot most of the footage that documented Franklin’s performance at a Los Angeles Baptist church in January 1972.

Ken Ehrlich recalls some of his favorite memories working with “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin.

DETROIT (AP) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul,” has died at age 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer.

WFMT’s long-time resident “free spirit” Studs Terkel died near a decade ago, on Halloween in 2008, but he just made his Carnegie Hall debut. What brought about this feat of artistic time travel?

Soprano Whitney Morrison began singing before she could even speak. Through her early years of singing in church, she never thought she would pursue a career in opera. Now, Morrison is one of 12 young artists selected for the 2017/2018 ensemble at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. The Ryan Opera Center is one …

Hear a rarely-heard live performance by Mahalia Jackson’s broadcast from the Morrison Hotel in 1975 courtesy of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

Elise K. Kirk, emerita director of the White House Historical Society, highlights ten US presidents who changed music in America through the music they presented at the White House.

Mahalia Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. Learn about how musicians and music historians are changing the conversation about the “Queen of Gospel.”

Handel’s Messiah has been a perennial favorite since the oratorio premiered in Dublin in 1742. Like any beloved classic, the work has also been a favorite for composers to adapt. Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah offers a contemporary, American interpretation of Handel’s original.