John Von Rhein

Musician Ksenija Sidorova performs live during the Night of the Proms 2014 at the O2 World on December 18, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for June 29-July 8

May 13, 2019 at 7:16 p.m.

Grant Park Music Festival: German cellist Johannes Moser plays the Dvorak Cello Concerto on a Grant Park Orchestra program that also includes Kodaly’s “Summer Evening” and Janacek’s Sinfonietta, with Carlos...

Tribune music critic John von Rhein at his home office in Chicago: "My central aim was to give the reading public an informed yardstick of opinion by which they could measure their own reactions to a given performance."

Classical music critic John von Rhein reflects on his 40 years on the Chicago aisle

December 13, 2018 at 1:10 p.m.

What’s it been like holding an aisle seat on four decades of classical music in Chicago? Exciting, challenging, illuminating, sobering, surprising, frazzling, humbling. And I’m just getting started. It was...

CSO hires new principal oboe, William Welter, one of its youngest first chairs ever

December 13, 2018 at 1:07 p.m.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has appointed William Welter, a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the holder of an artist diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory, as...

Soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Ekaterina Gubanova, Dmitry Korchak and Eric Owens, from left, are lead by Riccardo Muti alongside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus during the performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater at Symphony Center, on Friday.

Muti leads CSO and Chorus in stirring season finale, Rossini’s Stabat Mater

December 13, 2018 at 12:57 p.m.

Riccardo Muti has yet to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of any Rossini opera. If he is thinking about doing so before he steps down at...

Heartfelt ‘Pleiades’ receives a celestial premiere at Grant Park Music Festival

December 13, 2018 at 12:49 p.m.

The Grant Park Music Festival has commissioned various scores for chorus and orchestra in recent years to show off its jewel of a resident choir, the Grant Park Chorus. But...

Conductor Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in works of Debussy at Symphony Center on Thursday April 19, 2018.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for June 22-28

May 13, 2019 at 7:16 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Music director Riccardo Muti concludes the subscription season with a big, serious choral event: The Chicago Symphony Chorus and vocal soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Ekaterina Gubanova, Dmitry Korchak,...

Riccardo Muti takes a bow with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Symphony Center in March. With the weekend performances of Gioachino Rossini's Stabat Mater, Muti will become one of only three conductors, have performed this sacred masterpiece with the CSO and chorus.

Riccardo Muti weighs in on Rossini’s sacred masterpiece, the Stabat Mater

December 13, 2018 at 12:41 p.m.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra audiences are accustomed to Riccardo Muti’s signing off for the season on a grandly upbeat note, such as he did last year when he closed the subscription...

Yo-Yo Ma plays Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 alongside Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti, at Chicago Symphony Center on Thursday, June 14, 2018, in Chicago.

Riccardo Muti and Yo-Yo Ma turn up the heat in an all-Russian program

December 13, 2018 at 12:28 p.m.

There was much Russian collusion going on at Orchestra Hall on Thursday night, all of it of a strictly musical nature, and all of it rewarding in ways that directly...

Grant Park Music Festival promo on the screen of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Thursday, June 1, 2017.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for June 15-21

May 13, 2019 at 7:16 p.m.

Grant Park Music Festival: Principal conductor Carlos Kalmar is joined by violinist William Hagen for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4; the rest of the program holds overtures by Gluck and...

Grant Park Music Festival opens with a choral blockbuster under friendly skies

December 13, 2018 at 12:23 p.m.

Wednesday evening brought one of the few Grant Park Music Festival season openers that wasn’t severely compromised or canceled outright because of downpours, bone-chilling temperatures or various combinations thereof, in...

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