Concert Highlights

The first Grant Park concert took place on July 1, 1935. The orchestra performed a mix of American and European works and gave sixty-four concerts that first season.

Concerts included world-class artists, including conductor Arthur Fiedler, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and tenors Richard Tucker and Mario Lanza. In 1945, the Festival hired its first chief conductor, Nikolai Malko, a colleague of Shostakovich.

Guest artists included piano superstar Van Cliburn, soprano Beverly Sills, contralto Marian Anderson, pianist Daniel Barenboim, and violinist Itzhak Perlman.

The Festival welcomed conductors Skitch Henderson, Aaron Copland, Mitch Miller, Leonard Slatkin, and David Zinman, and narrator Coretta Scott King. The Festival’s concerts moved to the new Petrillo Music Shell in 1978.

The Festival expanded with guest artists such as choreographer George Balanchine, narrator Studs Terkel, and pianists Marian McPartland, and Jeffrey Siegel. Artists included conductors Robert Shaw, Hugh Wolff, and Zdenek Macal, trumpeter Doc Severinsen, composer John Adams, and mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. Conductor Carlos Kalmar made his Festival debut.

The Festival moved to Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion and welcomed such luminaries as Stephen Sondheim and John Corigliano and popular groups like Pink Martini, The Decemberists, and Mambo Kings. The Festival debuted its young artist fellowship program and a music day camp for Chicago youth. In 2024, the Festival celebrated its 90th year and said farewell to Maestro Carlos Kalmar, who served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for 25 years with his artistic leadership.

The Festival begins a new chapter with the appointment of Giancarlo Guerrero, the Festival’s new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor.