While we may not be able to gather in our communities, we’re still using music to bring our community together. Please send us your suggestions for pieces we can play for our listeners around the world.

Today, WFMT and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announce the launch of an exciting new broadcast and streaming series: From the CSO’s Archives: Maestro’s Choice—For All Music Lovers in These Difficult Times.

April is National Poetry Month, so there’s no better time to share, revisit, or discover wonderful poetry. Here are our picks.

With everyone cooped up inside, David Lee Csicsko returns with another great design. Our four avian conductors perch, waiting for an orchestra. You’ll notice that they’re also waiting for a splash of color, so print it out and paint, crayon, pencil, or marker to your heart’s content! 

“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.”

Larry Johnson, the host of WFMT’s Arias and Songs, died over the weekend in his home on Chicago’s North Side. He was 72 years old. He leaves behind a brother, Alan Johnson, and a cousin, Lynn Newhart. Larry had a business career in the textile industry but was always an avid music lover and record collector. He joined WFMT as …

Think you know a lot about classical music? Robbie Ellis, WFMT host, composer, music director, and comedy songmaker extraordinaire shares four untold musical revelations that will have your head spinning!

When Jamie Gilson came into this world there were fireworks, her website explains. She was born on the Fourth of July 1933. She died quietly at her home on February 11, 2020, with her family around her. She was known primarily as a writer of children’s books, but she also wrote for radio, magazines, and film – WFMT, WBEZ, Chicago …

Marvin Goldsmith, WTTW and WFMT Trustee, died last Thursday evening, February 6, 2020, at age 84. Elected to the Board in June of 1977, “Marv” was one of its longest-serving members. As a trustee, he dedicated valuable time, expertise, and counsel to the Development and Investment Communities, to finance and governance functions, and to the WFMT Radio Committee. He is …

Beginning January 28, WFMT will broadcast Beethoven’s nine symphonies on weekdays as the 2:00 pm “Afternoon Masterwork.” The performances feature the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Its founder and conductor, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, shares his guide to these symphonic masterpieces.

WFMT has been lucky enough to share conversations and interviews with many of the 2020 Grammy-nominated artists. Here are all the features with the conductors, composers, and musicians who have been recognized by the Recording Academy.

What better way to inaugurate a program celebrating music for kids and families than by inviting a very musical family to perform — violinist Rachel Barton Pine and her 8-year-old daughter Sylvia Pine?

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.

Saturday Morning Listener’s Choice kicks off on January 4 with guests Rachel Barton Pine and daughter Sylvia, who give us their picks in the premiere episode

December 21st’s broadcast marks the 350th program of Arias and Songs. Over the seven years on WFMT, host Larry Johnson has played everything from Callas and ‘La Traviata’ to Nat King Cole and ‘The Producers.’

Listening to classical music can provide a general sense of peace and tranquility, but many great works promote pacifism as their central theme.

Every morning, host Lisa Flynn shares the best new classical recordings to share with WFMT listeners, and now, you can take her selections with you wherever you go!

“There are very few places… where people go to reflect as a community… The opera house, or the concert hall, is one of those sacred spaces…” observes composer Jake Heggie.

WFMT is deeply saddened to learn that soprano Jessye Norman has died at age 74. As a tribute to her inspiring life and career, we are re-sharing this story from when Ms. Norman herself visited WFMT.

One of the most exciting things about working at WFMT over the years has been the opportunity to travel on music-themed trips, meeting new friends who share a love of classical music. In early September, I led a group of eleven listeners on a journey to Denmark and Norway, where we saw cosmopolitan capitals and incredible natural beauty. Along the …

When this particular phone call came, it was usually trouble. What often followed was something like “I don’t believe there’s a ‘cough’ in Prokofiev. Love you madly! Goodnight.” Norman Pellegrini, WFMT’s illustrious program director of 43 years, was always listening — vigilant, protective of the station’s values, always blunt in his criticism, and usually right.

“I was thirteen years old and on a definite budget: I took some of my paltry allowance and spent the princely sum of $1 on a record.”

Using his violin and virtuosic whistle, Andrew Bird genre-jumps from indie rock to jazz, and from folk to classical. Born in Lake Forest, Bird began learning classical violin from the Suzuki Method at the age of four and recalls, “My mom would have WFMT on all the time… My dad listened to Merle Haggard.”

This month, music director Andi Lamoreaux passed a remarkable milestone — 50 years with WFMT.

“Among the eminent broadcast journalists of his generation, Studs Terkel may well stand alone in his consistent compassion for lesbian and gay people and curiosity about their lives.” Here are just a few testaments to that compassion.