With spellbinding aerial footage of Chicago, you’ll hear acclaimed artists playing wonderful, wintry classical music.

As we reflect on the year gone by, WFMT salutes the contributions of members of the arts community who died this past year.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of classical music’s most exciting and intriguing figures. Get to know him through a streaming documentary.

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

Brennan was an active and engaged leader, serving on nearly every committee of the WTTW-WFMT board.

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.

WFMT interviews conductor James Conlon, a tireless advocate for composers silenced by the Nazi regime, and musician Johnny Gandelsman, who produced the soundtrack to ‘The US and the Holocaust.’

Get a new view of summertime in Chicago… complete with some great classical music!

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

In connection with Ken Burns’ newest documentary, WFMT interviews Ellen Cohn, editor-in-chief of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin and actor and historian Mitchell Kramer, who has been portraying Franklin for more than a decade.

As we reflect on the year gone by, Classical WFMT salutes the contributions of members of the arts community who died this past year.

Never were Studs Terkel’s legendary gregariousness, curiosity, and generosity more evident on-air than when a comedian, comic actor, or humorist stopped by the studio.

Jennifer Dunnington creates emotions for a living. For Ken Burns’ latest film, Muhammad Ali, Dunnington, an Emmy-winning music producer and music editor, used music to convey emotions, introduce momentum, and ratchet up drama in the rink.

Ali was among the most important, most charismatic, most unique figures in American (not just sports) history. So how do you adapt the monumental life of the People’s Champion into an opera?

Matthew Polenzani, one of the artists performing at the Met’s Verdi Requiem commemorative concerts on the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, reflects on why music can help us heal.

“I had to think about the Roaring Twenties and music like Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and so on, that Ida B. Wells [would have been] hearing.”

A noted Chicago businessman, philanthropist and civic leader who served as a WTTW and WFMT trustee for more than 20 years, Jim Mabie died Saturday surrounded by his family.

Ernest Hemingway was, by his own account, “absolutely without talent” when it came to music, but his influential writing and extraordinary life have inspired many film and TV composers.

To coincide with exciting new additions to the WTTW slate, WFMT has compiled a playlist celebrating the pinnacles of Black and Latino artistry in vocal music.

In the hour leading up to the premiere of the Ravinia Festival recording of Bernstein‘s MASS on PBS‘s Great Performances, we invite you to join us for this free panel.

The summer season was to feature more than 120 events, including concerts featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which takes its summer residency at the venerable, Chicago-area music festival.

For many of us, the ‘L’ is more than just a means of getting around the city. It’s a social network, concert venue, observation deck, and roving reading room, uniting Chicago’s cosmopolitan mix over 224 miles of track.

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

“The goal of the show is very simple,” says the host of Now Hear This, violinist and conductor Scott Yoo. “To make sure that people try out classical music and give it a chance… If you want to get the most out of life, part of it is getting the most out of music.”

Enjoy this engaging two-part conversation between American composer Aaron Copland and John Calloway! This program of “John Calloway Interviews” aired on WFMT’s sister station, WTTW, on September 14, 1981. Copland discusses his introduction to music, his forays into composing Hollywood scores, his relationship with critics, and more in this hourlong interview.