“When one is tired of London,” said Samuel Johnson, “one is tired of life. Because there is in London all that life can afford.” English composer William Boyce knew Mozart, who composed his first symphony in the city when he was only eight years old. Handel’s Water Music was composed for the “stage” of the River Thames. And Haydn wrote his Clock Symphony for a grand performance in the city’s main concert hall. Principal Guest Conductor and London resident Nicholas Kraemer directs.

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London Calling

Harris Theater

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, Chicago Philharmonic and Maestro Speck perform Eight Seasons at the Harris Theater with Chee-Yun Kim, widely regarded as one of the world’s most talented living violin soloists. The orchestra will offset movements of Antonio Vivaldi’s beloved Le Quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) with Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

Eight Seasons

Chicago Philharmonic's 22-23 Symphonic Season finishes on April 14 at the Harris Theater with award-winning multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kishi Bashi’s Improvisations on EO9066. The piece explores Executive Order 9066, which saw the incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during the Second World War. This immersive, multimedia experience with Kishi Bashi and the full Chicago Philharmonic features photography by Dorothea Lange and the filmmaking expertise of Director JJ Gerber. Critics have hailed Kishi Bashi’s work as “an uplifting documentary about a musician, but also about sympathy, compassion, and basic humanity” (Screen Zealots) and “a celebration of the diversity of America”.

Kishi Bashi: Improvisations on EO9066

In a program celebrating the 150th anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninov’s birth, Lahav Shani conducts the composer’s Symphonic Dances, which marries diabolical, jazzy melodies with plush, old-world grandeur. Italian pianist Beatrice Rana is soloist in Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody, a set of 24 variations that crackle with wit and furious energy. Prokofiev’s delightful Classical Symphony opens the program.

Explore the music in the free preconcert conversation featuring Kyle Dzapo in Orchestra Hall 75 minutes before the performance. The conversation will last approximately 30 minutes. No additional tickets are needed.

Shani Conducts Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances

Symphony Center

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

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The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

Multi-platinum selling singer, songwriter and pianist Ben Folds brings his stirring melodies, brilliant lyrics and wry humor to Symphony Center, joining forces with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Steven Reineke for one night only. Widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of his generation, Folds has created an enormous body of work that spans pop albums with Ben Folds Five, solo albums and numerous collaborative records, including hits such as “Brick,” “Rockin’ the Suburbs” and “The Luckiest.”

Ben Folds & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The thrilling grand finale of the 25th CSO MusicNOW season features works by Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, including the world premiere of a new violin duo in which she features as both composer and performer alongside virtuoso Chicago native Rachel Barton Pine. The program explores the American musical icons who influenced Montgomery from an early age; pieces by Richard Einhorn, Julia Perry, Walter Piston and Leonard Bernstein offer a sweeping exploration of the post-modern American classical music era. Shining a spotlight on the next generation of composers is a world premiere by Angel Alday — one of five promising young Chicago composers selected to receive coaching and mentorship from Montgomery this season.

CSO MusicNOW: In Context featuring Jessie Montgomery & Rachel Barton Pine

Experience the uplifting power of Antonio Vivaldi’s joyous Gloria, with its gleaming vocal fireworks and richly embroidered orchestral passages. Early-music specialist Giovanni Antonini conducts this and other Vivaldi treasures, including the Magnificat, in all its variety and invention; the luminous nobility of La Senna festeggiante, and the poignant Kyrie.

Vivaldi Gloria

Schubert's magnificent final symphony and J. Strauss Jr.'s Overture to Indigo and the Forty Thieves bookend this program with distinctive Viennese touches. CSO Principal Tuba Gene Pokorny takes the spotlight in a concerto written for him by Lalo Schifrin (best known for his Mission: Impossible theme), which incorporates Baroque and jazz influences.

Muti, Pokorny & Schubert 9

Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony marked a personal comeback after a debilitating crisis of confidence. In the spring of 2023, a century and a half after the composer’s birth, Riccardo Muti conducts this sumptuous score, along with the world premiere of Transfigure to Grace by Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, who writes with “a Technicolor brilliance and harmonic plushness perfect for the CSO’s own heart-on-its-sleeve proclivities” (Chicago Tribune).

Muti, Montgomery & Rachmaninov 2

Riccardo Muti conducts two of Respighi’s vibrant orchestral tapestries: his sumptuous homage to Rome’s iconic neighborhoods and pine groves and his masterful evocation of Renaissance lute music. The program includes the vivid First Concerto for Timpani by American composer William Kraft, featuring CSO Principal Timpani David Herbert.

Muti, Herbert & Pines of Rome

In his Gran Partita for 13 instruments, Mozart achieves a sublime combination of grandeur, complexity and sunny charm. CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen presents the composer’s stately and rustic Violin Concerto No. 4, a product of his Salzburg years. Riccardo Muti opens the concert with Cimarosa’s overture, which echoes Mozart’s comic vein and abounds in freshness and invention.

Muti, Chen & Mozart Gran Partita

CSO Artist-in-Residence Hilary Hahn returns for Sarasate’s brilliant and sultry arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen and two beguiling serenades by the late Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara. Mikko Franck frames the program with two works by Richard Strauss: his thrilling portrait of the notorious Spanish libertine and his loving and graceful tribute to the Viennese waltz

Mikko Franck & Hilary Hahn

Mahler “peacefully bids farewell to the world” is how the composer’s protégé Bruno Walter described the finale to his Ninth Symphony. This valedictory score contains the many hallmarks of Mahler’s symphonies — their grand scale, profound emotions and folk dance themes — capped by an ethereal finale that achieves a sense of transcendent rapture.

Hrůša Conducts Mahler 9  at CSO

Come along for an engrossing program of musical storytelling as Thomas Adès conducts Liszt’s swirling treatment of the Faust legend, Janáček’s depiction of a 17th-century Cossack warrior and Sibelius’ incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Kirill Gerstein presents Adès’ own Piano Concerto, “an affectionate, joyous, remarkably uncomplicated tribute to tradition” (The New York Times).

Adès Conducts Adès with Gerstein

Join us for a thrilling performance of Disney's groundbreaking marriage of symphonic music and animation, Fantasia. Magnificent repertoire from the original 1940 version and Fantasia 2000, including The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and The Nutcracker Suite, will be performed by the CSO while Disney's stunning footage is shown on the big screen. Experience iconic moments and childhood favorites as you never have before!

Fantasia in Concert

Together with guest conductor François López-Ferrer, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra embark on a musical journey around the world. Experience how orchestral music celebrates the extraordinary diversity of people, cultures and places across the globe, from Europe to the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia and beyond! Perfect for ages 5-12.

Global Perspectives

Join students from the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras and Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative in the culminating event of the 2023 Chicago Youth in Music Festival. Civic Orchestra Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur leads the Festival Orchestra in an open rehearsal of selections from William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 and Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The students are joined side-by-side by musicians from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Chicago Youth in Music Festival: Open Rehearsal

When the Three Little Pigs are sent out into the world by their father, each chooses to build a house using a different material. With the Big Bad Wolf on the prowl, the pigs are quick to learn whether straw, sticks or bricks can best withstand his ferocious strength! This story explores, through music, how the combination of courage, hard work and individual talent leads to success. Perfect for ages 3-5.

Once Upon a Symphony: The Three Little Pigs

Since its 17th director John Philip Sousa was first granted permission to tour the country by President Benjamin Harrison in 1891, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band has delivered a White House experience from Washington, D.C., to the far-reaching corners of our nation. This historic band heads to Symphony Center for a free afternoon of varied repertoire, including new works for wind ensemble, traditional concert band literature, challenging orchestral transcriptions and the patriotic marches that made it famous. 

The President's Own’ United States Marine Band

Dame Jane Glover takes the podium for a joyful evening of music written centuries ago by four friends in Vienna—and performed today by good friends in Chicago. Music of the Baroque’s principal players become the soloists in two intimate sinfonie concertanti by Haydn and Dittersdorf. A symphony by Vanhal and Mozart’s Symphony No. 34 in C Major complete the circles.

Orchestral events in Chicago, IL

London Calling

Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Eight Seasons

Chicago Philharmonic

Kishi Bashi: Improvisatio...

Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Shani Conducts Rachmanino...

Symphony Center

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Ben Folds & the Chicago S...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

CSO MusicNOW: In Context ...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Vivaldi Gloria

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Muti, Pokorny & Schubert ...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Muti, Montgomery & Rachma...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Muti, Herbert & Pines of ...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Muti, Chen & Mozart Gran ...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Mikko Franck & Hilary Hah...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Hrůša Conducts Mahler 9 ...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Adès Conducts Adès with G...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Fantasia in Concert

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Global Perspectives

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chicago Youth in Music Fe...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Once Upon a Symphony: The...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The President's Own’ Unit...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Circle of Friends

Harris Theater for Music and Dance