Andris Nelsons leads works by Carlos Simon, Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin, and Igor Stravinsky

Klaus Mäkelä makes his CSO debut in Stravinsky’s The Firebird.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performs works by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Moussa.

Music director Jaap van Zweden conducts Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Debussy’s La Mer, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major.

Joshua Bell joins the New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden in a performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

We all came to love classical music in different ways. Here are some of the musical first loves of our WFMT listeners, in their own words.

Cellist Mon-Puo Lee and Pianist Anna Han perform music by Alfred Schnittke, Igor Stravinsky, and Sulkhan Tsintsadze, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.

Whether you are looking to rev up for the race or drown out the din, this playlist of cacophonous classical music is for you.

Music director Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the SF Symphony and violinist Leila Josefowicz in music by Stravinsky and Ogonek.

Alan Gilbert conducts this performance from 2015, which features a John Adams world premiere.

Energetic and joyful works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Igor Stravinsky, and Antonín Dvořák.

Anna Rakitina makes her debut with the CSO leading an all-Tchaikovsky program.

Edo de Waart opens this program with John Adams’ The Chairman Dances, followed by Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D featuring Leila Josefowicz and Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony.

Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to the CSO podium for Ravel’s Mother Goose, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and a 2021 concerto by Bryce Dessner.

Some of the most intriguing, spine-curdling, and spirited musical events all around the Chicago area.

The Great Chicago Fire began on October 8, 1871. Here’s some music that takes inspiration from flames.

Not only are these composers’ musical works an inspiration, but their words are, too! Here are some of the most beautiful insights you’ll read all day.

Among the canceled 2021 productions are Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro; and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, as well as a concert tribute to music director Sir Andrew Davis, who concludes his 20-year tenure at the end of this season.

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.

Culminating in “The Times Are Racing” by choreographer Justin Peck, Joffrey’s mixed-rep program features “ballet, contemporary, comic, and a ‘sneaker ballet,’” artistic director Ashley Wheater describes.

We’re getting ready to share our Summer Music Guide (keep an eye out for it next week), but here are three events happening this weekend, each of which combine or reimagine classical music and dance, that we wanted to be sure to tell you about. The Rosina Project It’s Rossini like you’ve never heard him before. Chicago Fringe Opera teams …

On February 10, some of the biggest names in the music industry convened at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles. R&B and soul singer Alicia Keys hosted the ceremony, as winners were announced in 30 fields and 84 categories. Here are the nominees and winners for the classical music categories.

The season features four Chicago premieres and the return of two reimagined staples.

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.