Without the Grant Park Music Festival, summer in Chicago simply wouldn’t be … summer in Chicago.

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

Is it luck? Preparation? Skill? David Govertsen thinks it’s a little bit of each that has guided him to some of the city’s biggest stages.

From performing in haunted buildings to leading orchestras across the country, Norman Huynh is an ascending young conductor excited to bring classical music to new audiences.

Masumi Per Rostad is an artist completely steeped in classical music. He chats with WFMT ahead of his performance at the Grant Park Music Festival this weekend.

Ahead of the season premiere of the 2021 Grant Park Music Festival, WFMT met up with chorus director Christopher Bell, who reflects on returning to live music, previews the opening Independence Day Salute, and talks about a summer of great music to come.

A fixture of the Grant Park Music Festival since 1998, Carlos Kalmar has extended his contract as the festival’s principal conductor and artistic director through 2024.

In conjunction with Chicago’s ongoing reopening, the Grant Park Music Festival will offer full-capacity seating for its entire 2021 season.

With the Grant Park Music Festival’s long-awaited return to live programming in sight, WFMT is thrilled to resume the annual series of live radio broadcasts from the Pritzker Pavilion.

The Grant Park Music Festival today announced its return to live music in a 2021 season, the festival’s first live performances since August 2019.

Originally from New Zealand, Gemma New is the music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario and the principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

What is a versatile and active musician to do during quarantine? Susan Nelson has been learning and sharing songs by female composers and songwriters across various genres.

Just because we can’t gather in person, it doesn’t mean the weekend won’t be fun and music-filled! Here are nine musical events (most of them virtual), that will provide a great soundtrack for your celebrations.

Said festival CEO and President Paul Winberg, “We are devastated about this decision not to move forward with our 2020 season.”

See what’s in store for the Grant Park Music Festival 2020 season.

In between back-to-back lessons for around 30 students at his alma mater, Keshet Eilon International Music Center in Israel, Vadim Gluzman has been preparing for his upcoming Grant Park Music Festival performances of Bernstein’s Serenade on August 2nd and 3rd. These concerts mark Gluzman’s return to Chicago after weeks of travel, and before yet another period of touring around …

A flurry of white dresses and shirts, white tablecloths and candelabras sprinkled the Great Lawn in Millennium Park as patrons celebrated the Grant Park Music Festival’s annual “Pastoral Picnic in White” on Saturday, July 27. Originally inspired by a 1988 gathering at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, the Grant Park Music Festival joins thousands of similar “Dinners in White” …

Hailing from Chicago’s South Side, flutist Demarre McGill and clarinetist Anthony McGill return home this weekend to make their Grant Park Music Festival debuts performing the works of Saint-Saëns and Joel Puckett. That’s not to say that Demarre, the principal flutist for the Seattle Symphony, and Anthony, the principal clarinetist for the New York Philharmonic, don’t get back to their …

It all started in Chicago. As a child, Yolanda Kondonassis and her family visited the Windy City. During the trip, her mother, a piano instructor, brought the family to the Lyon & Healy showroom, which was at that time sort of a “music department store,” Kondonassis recalls. “Because it was Valentine’s Day… they had a very kind of ‘dream love’ …

Each year, Christopher Bell conducts the Grant Park Music Festival’s Independence Day Salute, and each year, he finds a way to wow us with an extraordinary new star-spangled outfit.

The eighty-fifth annual season opens June 12 and will run through August 17, with most performances taking place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

The summer festival’s 2018 season of concerts runs for 10 weeks from June 13 to August 18.

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.