Ken-David Masur — music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago — takes the Millennium Park stage.

It’s been a strange, difficult year for the music world, which is all the more reason to celebrate musical excellence.

The 2010s were a tumultuous decade, replete with astounding artistic highlights, superlative new voices, and watershed moments of reckoning. WFMT hosts and staff reflect on what the past decade brought for classical music, and what the new decade may have in store.

For Ken-David Masur, artistry is just one aspect of a successful career in classical music; community engagement and outreach are of equal importance in building both a thriving artist and a flourishing orchestra.

It’s just a fact: road trips are better when live music is the destination!

As the WFMT Radio Network’s series from the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival returns, we asked participants what makes this location so enchanting.