CSO 2023-24 Season Announced: Myriad Guest Conductors as Muti Era Closes

The season will be the first following the departure of Riccardo Muti as music director. But the maestro will be close at hand as he continues his association with the CSO.

14 Chicago Film Fest Screenings Music Lovers Won’t Want To Miss

The Chicago International Film Festival is back for a 58th year, and as ever, there is an embarrassment of cinematic riches.

Playlist: Classical Music To Dance To

This ain’t your average classical music dance playlist: dance along to new pieces, old grooves, treasured tangos, and winsome waltzes.

Playlist: Classical Coffeeshop

A rich blend of music for calm, conversation, and of course, caffeine.

Grammys 2022: See All the Classical+ Nominees (And Winners)

The 64th Grammy Awards will occur on Sunday, April 3 in Las Vegas. Here are the categories, nominees, and eventually, winners, for the classical, jazz, and world music fields.

New San Francisco Center to Share Classical Music With All

Yo-Yo Ma, who spent the better part of the pandemic playing cello to an online audience, helped inaugurate the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s new campus by playing an energetic cello suite on Friday.

CSO Announces Winter/Spring 2022 Concerts

Music director Riccardo Muti will conduct music by Beethoven, Price, Glass, and Montgomery while welcoming guest artists like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Leif Ove Andsnes, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Yo-Yo Ma serenades newly-vaccinated at inoculation clinic

Newly vaccinated Massachusetts residents were treated to a mini concert over the weekend when famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought out his instrument after getting his second coronavirus shot.

Claude Bolling, popular jazz-classical musician, dead at 90

The Cannes native was a professional musician by his teens and over the following decades would perform with everyone from Lionel Hampton to Yo-Yo Ma.

Silkroad’s new face: Grammy-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens

Grammy-winning folk singer and instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens takes the baton from renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who founded the group two decades ago.

A Musical Memorial and Tribute: Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach’s Solo Cello Suites Live

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform J.S. Bach’s six cello suites live as a memorial for those we have lost in the pandemic and a tribute to the resilience of our communities.

WFMT and CSO Partner for New Broadcast and Streaming Series Amidst COVID-19 Crisis

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.

What It’s Like To Perform With Yo-Yo Ma… on a Flute Made From a Gun

This is no normal flute. Civic Orchestra’s Alexandria Hoffman explains how the gunbarrel flute was made, and how she came to play it with Yo-Yo Ma.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma Performs Bach’s Cello Suites in Free Concert for Chicago

Yo-Yo Ma shared that Bach’s cellos suites have served as “a sanctuary for [him in] good times and less good times.”

CSO Contract Ratified, Strike Ends After 7 Weeks

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra strike has ended and a new, five-year contract through September 2023 has been ratified, the CSO musicians and management have confirmed.

Playlist: Remembering Composers Suppressed By the Third Reich

James Conlon’s OREL Foundation documents scores of composers whose lives were taken—directly or indirectly—or otherwise irrevocably altered by the Nazis. Here are four who persisted, creating art in the face of peril.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Present Free Concert in Millennium Park, Shares New Music Video Celebrating Cultural and Artistic Harmony

“Culture — the way we express ourselves and understand each other — can bind us together as one world.”

Cello star Yo-Yo Ma to perform at WWI Armistice ceremonies

Cello maestro Yo-Yo Ma will perform at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe as part of the ceremonies marking the centenary of the end of the World War I next month in Paris.

Yo-Yo Ma Performs at South Side’s St. Sabina Church to Raise Awareness About Gun Violence

Yo-Yo Ma, the CSO’s creative consultant, learned about the decades-long commitment to social justice and outreach within the Faith Community of St. Sabina, and wanted to see how he could honor its work through music.

Playlist: 20 Works That Inspire CSO Composers-in-Residence Elizabeth Ogonek, Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek shared 20 modern and contemporary works that have most inspired them in celebration of 20 years of CSO’s MusicNOW series.

VIDEO | Pipa 101 with Wu Man

“Surprisingly, people will come up to me after [concerts] and say, ‘Oh that sounds like a banjo! That sounds like a harp! That sounds like a guitar!’”

Yo-Yo Ma, CSO’s ‘Concert for Peace’ Takes a Stand against Violence at South Side’s St. Sabina Church

“Yo-Yo Ma wanted to meet with me, and I thought it was a joke,” Reverend Michael L. Pfleger said to an audience of over 1,000 people at St. Sabina Church.

Yo-Yo Ma, Civic Musicians to Present Benefit ‘Concert for Peace’ at St. Sabina Church

Net proceeds from the remaining ticket sales will benefit St. Sabina’s Strong Futures employment program, which currently serves 50 young people ages 17-26 by providing training, mentorship, and other services.

From Polka to Mariachi, Discover Why Pilsen is One of Chicago’s Most Diverse Musical Melting Pots

If there’s any neighborhood in Chicago where a Czech swing orchestra and an Afro-Latin funk band can share a stage, it’s Pilsen. The neighborhood has been home to diverse music and musicians since its early history and today it remains a musical melting pot of traditions from around the world.

Harris Theater for Music and Dance Brings ‘Epic Masterworks’ to Chicago in 2017-18 Season

The newly announced season features the Monteverdi Choir, American Ballet Theatre, and the Mark Morris Dance Group performing “epic masterworks.”