Stella Chen to Step in for Robert Chen as Violin Soloist in CSO February 20-22 Concerts
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) Concertmaster Robert Chen must regrettably withdraw from his planned solo appearances with the Orchestra and conductor
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Center Celebrates the Holiday Season
This season, Chicago Symphony Center transforms into Chicago’s home for the holidays as it decks the halls for concertgoers to experience a festive array of seasonal concerts and special offerings in November and December, 2024.
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Singer-Songwriter Ben Folds to Perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on June 16, 2025
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) recently announced that singer-songwriter Ben Folds will return to Symphony Center to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke, on Monday, June 16, 2025.
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Chicago Symphony Orchestra Mead Composer-Curator Daniel Bernard Roumain Hosts Opening Program of CSO MusicNOW
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced that their acclaimed contemporary music series CSO MusicNOW will continue in the 2024/25 season with a November 24, 2024, program hosted by Mead Composer-Curator Daniel Bernard Roumain titled “Voices of Migration & Innovation.”
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CSO Reaches New Contract with the American Guild of Musical Artists for Chicago Symphony Chorus
The members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus (CSC), union members of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) recently reached an agreement on a new four-year contract.
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Grammy and Tony Award Winner Heather Headley to Perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on June, 3, 2025
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) recently announced that Grammy and Tony Award winner Heather Headley will perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
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Michael Tilson Thomas Draws From Past, Present and Future in CSO Program
Twelve-time Grammy Award winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas offers no ambiguity when he takes the podium. His tempi are exact and his approach to balance, tone and intonation are fiercely deliberate at every hearing. He’s a passionate proponent of some of classical music’s most challenging and relatively modern repertoire, but he’s also a staunch advocate of connecting the dots from past to present and even the future of the music he loves.
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Music of the Baroque to Present “The Chevalier”
Music of the Baroque will present the Midwest premiere of The Chevalier, a new concert theater work written and directed by Bill Barclay. The Chevalier is about the life and music of 18th-century Black composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a master composer, virtuoso violinist, a friend of Mozart’s, music teacher to Marie Antoinette, the finest fencer in Europe, general of Europe’s first Black regiment and a crusader for the abolishment of slavery. Taking a “concert theater” approach, featuring the interplay of four actors with orchestral and chamber music excerpts, Barclay blends Bologne’s remarkable history with his own compositions, ultimately conflating the French Revolution with the social and political unrest in society today.
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Ravinia’s Acclaimed Bernstein Mass Performance to Receive Broadcast Premiere on “Great Performances”
When Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman and Chief Conductor and Curator Marin Alsop presented Leonard Bernstein’s little-seen music theater masterwork Mass as the centerpiece of Ravinia’s 2018 celebration of the iconic conductor and composer’s centennial, the Chicago Tribune declared it one of the best concerts of 2018, and audiences clamored for a repeat performance. Ravinia obliged, reuniting more than 200 onstage artists—including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vocality, a cast of “Street Singers,” and even the local high school marching band—for a single 2019 encore that Ravinia arranged to have filmed.
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COVID-19 Closures Pause Chicago’s 2019/20 Cultural Season
Virtually all of Chicago’s stages, concert halls and museums went dark almost simultaneously last week when Governor Jim Pritzker announced state-wide closures of non-essential businesses in an effort to stem the tide of COVID-19 infection rates in Illinois. Programming for the 2019-2020 cultural season came to a screeching halt and audiences typically accustomed to an ocean of wildly diverse performance opportunities found themselves in isolation with mandatory stay-at-home orders from the state.
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