Howard Reich

Chicago Sinfonietta music director Mei-Ann Chen rehearses orchestra musicians at Symphony Center in Chicago on Monday, June 8, 2015.

Fall preview: Classical music goes mostly online

September 10, 2020 at 1:19 p.m.

Chicago's classical institutions mostly have made the switch to online musicmaking. Among the highlights: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. "CSO Sessions" will feature the orchestra's musicians in streamed chamber concerts, beginning with...

Jazz singer Dee Alexander at her home in Chicago on Aug. 27, 2020.

Fall preview: Singer Dee Alexander continues to spread joy via radio waves

September 9, 2020 at 7:00 a.m.

If anyone personifies Chicago jazz these days, it's singer Dee Alexander, who until the pandemic was ubiquitous on our stages and busily performing in jazz venues around the world. Fortunately,...

Renee Fleming sings a duet with John Prine, during the presentation of "Chicago Voices", at the Civic Opera House, at 20 N. Wacker Dr., in Chicago, on Saturday Feb. 4, 2017.

Renee Fleming and friends will sing for free virtual concert ‘For the Love of Lyric’

September 8, 2020 at 5:55 p.m.

Three years ago, an extraordinary range of talent convened on the Lyric Opera House stage for a marathon performance aptly titled "Chicago Voices Concert." Never before had blues diva Shemekia...

Craig Trompeter, artistic director of Haymarket Opera Company at his home in Chicago on Aug. 28, 2020. He is leading the company's fall season with filmed versions of productions that will be shown online.

Fall preview: Craig Trompeter leads Haymarket Opera into a high-def future

September 8, 2020 at 7:00 a.m.

Due to the pandemic, Haymarket Opera Company artistic director Craig Trompeter finds himself with one foot in the 18th century and another in the 21st. Specifically, a company that specializes...

A combination of book covers for "Give Us the Ballot" by Ari Berman, "Glory: Magical Visions of Black Beauty" by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt and "Nothing to See Here" by Kevin Wilson

2020 is winding down, but the drama isn’t: Read these books now to make sense of it

September 7, 2020 at 7:00 a.m.

Trainwreck. Demented. A dumpster fire of a year. We've all seen the social media memes, and most of us are ready to be done with 2020. But it isn't over...

The Green Mill Jazz Club in Uptown is re-adapting for the times.

Uptown’s Green Mill reopens on the sidewalk, with music, perhaps, through a window next door

September 5, 2020 at 12:00 a.m.

The Green Mill Jazz Club at 4802 N. Broadway is back in business – in a new way. Having received a city license on Aug. 28 to serve drinks at...

Duke Ellington was at the forefront of merging jazz and classical music, as in "The Nutcracker Suite."

Column: Why it’s OK to reinvent classics such as Holst’s ‘The Planets’ via jazz

September 9, 2020 at 8:44 p.m.

Amazing things happen when the worlds of jazz and classical music align. Think of how Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn re-invented Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" Suite, its "Dance of the Sugar Plum...

CSO’s 130th season launches with ‘CSO Sessions,’ a new digital performance series

September 3, 2020 at 4:51 p.m.

Due to the pandemic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 130th season will launch in cyberspace next month with a new venture: "CSO Sessions," a digital series of chamber music concerts played...

Frank Catalano plays what would have been Chicago Jazz Festival weekend

September 1, 2020 at 4:04 p.m.

If not for the pandemic, we would have been looking forward to the greatest weekend of the year, as far as Chicago jazz lovers are concerned. For the annual Chicago...

Conductor Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during their first concert since a strike. The performance took place at Orchestra Hall on Thursday, May 2, 2019.

Riccardo Muti, ‘a prisoner’ in Italy, on the CSO during the coronavirus pandemic: ‘We need to save the orchestra’

August 28, 2020 at 2:29 p.m.

In mid-August, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in three performances of a monumental work: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, complete with vocal soloists and chorus. The...

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