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June 11 - August 16, 2025

Welcome

The Grant Park Music Festival is a ten-week classical music concert series held annually in Chicago, Illinois’ Millennium Park.

It features the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, along with guest performers and conductors, and is one of the only free outdoor classical-music concert series in the US.

C8_July_Fourth_Ladies

Independence Day Salute

Program

Irving Berlin/Orchd. Sid Ramin Berlin Patriotic Overture

Arr. Charles Sayre Broadway Showstoppers

George Gershwin/Arr. Bill Holcombe Someone to Watch Over Me

Claude-Michel Schönberg/Arr. Bob Krogstad I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables

Duke Ellington/Arr. Calvin Custer Duke Ellington!

Traditional/Arr. Robert Hanson Yankee Doodle Fantasy

Peter Boyer Rolling River

Arr. Robert Wendel From Sea to Shining Sea

Arr. Robert Lowden Armed Forces Salute 

John Philip Sousa The Liberty Bell March

Irving Berlin/Arr. Bill Holcombe God Bless America

Ward, Samuel/Arr. John Morris Russel and Tim Berens America the Beautiful

John Philip Sousa Stars and Stripes Forever

Featuring

  • Grant Park Orchestra
    Grant Park Orchestra

    Grant Park Orchestra

    Orchestra

  • Christopher Bell
    Christopher_Bell

    Christopher Bell

    Chorus Director

  • Josh Jones
    A full-body photo of a Black man in a blue suit, leaning against a concrete wall.

    Josh Jones

    Marimba

  • Imara Miles
    A portrait photo of a Black woman with a pink dress and a slight smile.

    Imara Miles

    Mezzo-Soprano

Program Notes

Independence Day Salute

America’s musical heritage is as vibrant and diverse as its people. Whether explicitly patriotic or simply reflective of the American spirit, a wide variety of music has served as an expression of our national identity and values. The Great American Songbook stands as a cornerstone of this heritage. While not an actual book or collection of specific songs, The Great American Songbook encompasses the canon of show tunes, jazz standards, and popular songs that have endured through reinterpretation by artists across generations. Tonight’s concert celebrates this musical tradition alongside other folk songs, pop tunes, and military marches that make up the fabric of American music.

Irving Berlin was one of the most significant contributors to The Great American Songbook. Throughout his career, he churned out hit song after hit song, reinventing himself and popular music in the American image. Sid Ramin’s Berlin Patriotic Overture contains some of those songs, including “Oh! How I Hate to Get up in the Morning!” and “God Bless America,” which Berlin composed while stationed at Camp Upton during World War I. He revised “God Bless America” in 1938 after a trip to London, which coincided with Chamberlain’s meeting with Hitler and the beginning of the Munich Pact. Under the looming threat of fascism and war, Berlin wished to rewrite what was originally a war song into “a song of peace.” We hear more of Berlin’s melodic genius in Charles Sayre’s Broadway Showstoppers, which includes “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Berlin’s 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, as well as “Cabaret,” “Mame,” and “That’s Entertainment.”

Another towering figure of The Great American Song Book is George Gershwin. Gershwin dominated Broadway with a series of musical comedy romps that captured the energy of the Roaring Twenties with their dance rhythms and jazzy harmonies. Many of the songs from his shows have become standards in their own right, including “Someone to Watch Over Me” from Oh, Kay (1926). Similarly, Claude-Michel Schönberg’s “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables (1980) has gained a life outside its original musical setting to become a modern pop standard.

In 1957, Ella Fitzgerald solidified Duke Ellington’s place within The Great American Songbook with her landmark album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book. Calvin Custer sets four of Ellington’s iconic jazz standards in Duke Ellington!, including “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing).”

Alongside The Great American Songbook, folk songs are also a vital part of America’s musical identity, with “Yankee Doodle” as one of the oldest and most iconic. Although the song may date back to 16th-century Holland, traditional lore states the text was penned in 1755 by a British army doctor named Richard Schuckburg. Originally intended to mock the “uncouth” American colonists who fought alongside British troops during the French and Indian War, the song was embraced by the very people it set out to ridicule. Americans adopted “Yankee Doodle” with pride, and it soon gained popularity on both sides during the Revolutionary War.

“Yankee Doodle” continues to inspire new musical arrangements to this day. The Grant Park Music Festival commissioned Robert Hanson to write Yankee Doodle Fantasy as a showcase for marimbist Josh Jones. Hanson will be familiar to audiences as the Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s music director from 1985 to 2011. During his tenure, he led the ESO to become Illinois’ first professional suburban orchestra and formed it into one of the country’s premier regional orchestras. 

“My Yankee Doodle arrangement will begin softly with the marimba playing with four mallets,” Hanson explains. “It immediately transitions to the tune ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ the folk song, and then George M. Cohen’s ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’ You will also hear a bit of ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag’ in the arrangement. There are four or five virtuosic variations of ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ using both two and four mallets. The arrangement ends with a passage of impossibly fast scales on the marimba.”

Peter Boyer’s Rolling River draws its source material from another familiar American folk song, “Shenandoah.” Also of murky origins, the song likely stems from early 19th-century fur traders traveling down the Missouri River. Robert Wendel’s From Sea to Shining Sea continues our musical journey across the United States in a medley of popular songs, including “America the Beautiful,” “San Francisco,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” “Meet Me in Saint Louis,” “The Tennessee Waltz,” “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town),” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “Carolina in the Morning,” and “New York, New York.”

No concert of patriotic music would be complete without a tribute to those who have served in the military. Robert Lowden’s Armed Forces Salute pays homage to five branches of the United States Armed Forces with “The Caisson Song,” “Semper Paratus,” “The Marines’ Hymn,” “The U.S. Air Force,” and “Anchors Aweigh.”

A military man himself, John Philip Sousa began his career as an apprentice in the United States Marine Band, eventually becoming its music director. On Christmas Day, 1896, memories of his time leading the band in official ceremonies moved him to write his most famous march, Stars and Stripes Forever: “I could see the Stars and Stripes flying from the flagstaff in the grounds of the White House just as plainly as if I were back there again. I began to think of all the countries I had visited . . . and that flag of ours became glorified.” Three years earlier, in 1893, Sousa was inspired to write The Liberty Bell March after watching his son march in a special parade celebrating the return of the Liberty Bell to Philadelphia. The bell had toured the country en route to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

That same year, Katharine Lee Bates penned the lyrics to America the Beautiful. One day, while giving a series of lectures at Colorado College, she scaled Pikes Peak with some colleagues. “It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind,” she recalled. On her way to Colorado, Bates had stopped at the Chicago World’s Fair, which likely inspired the lines, “Thine alabaster cities gleam / Undimmed by human tears.” Although her poem has been sung to various tunes, it is now most associated with Samuel Ward’s hymn “Materna,” written in 1882.

—Katherine Buzard

Event Sponsors

This concert is generously supported by American Accents Series Sponsor AbelsonTaylor Group and NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race.

The appearance of Imara Miles is graciously made possible with support from the David H. Whitney and Juliana Y. Chyu Next Generation Vocalist Fund.

Artistic Leadership

  • Giancarlo Guerrero
    Welcome Letter from Giancarlo

    Giancarlo Guerrero

    Conductor

  • Christopher Bell
    Christopher_Bell

    Christopher Bell

    Chorus Director

Support The Festival

Grant Park Orchestra

* denotes leave-of-absence † one-year position

Violin I

Jeremy Black, concertmaster

Trista Wong, acting assistant concertmaster

Zulfiya Bashirova

Jennifer Cappelli

Laura Park Chen†

Injoo Choi

Dima Dimitrova

Erica Hudson

Hyewon Kim*

Matthew Lehmann

Jayna Park

Rika Seko

Karen Sinclair

Bonnie Terry

Krzysztof Zimowski

Violin II

Liba Shacht, principal

Laura Miller, assistant principal*

Ying Chai

Ran Cheng

Karl Davies

Likai He

Ann Lehmann

Cristina Muresan*

Kjersti Nostbakken

Irene Radetzky

Jeanine Wynton

Thomas Yang

Bing Jing Yu†

Viola

Terri Van Valkinburgh, principal

Yoshihiko Nakano, assistant principal

Elizabeth Breslin*

Beatrice Chen

Amy Hess

Christopher McKay†

Edwardo Rios†

Rebecca Swan

Chloé Thominet

Cello

Walter Haman, principal

Peter Szczepanek, assistant principal

Calum Cook

Larry Glazier

Steven Houser

Eric Kutz

Eran Meir

Double Bass

Colin Corner, principal

Peter Hatch, assistant principal

Andrew Anderson

Christian Luevano

Samuel Rocklin

Chunyang Wang

Chris White

Flute

Jennifer Lawson, acting principal

Jennifer Clippert†

Alyce Johnson, acting assistant principal

Piccolo

Alyce Johnson

Oboe

Mitchell Kuhn, principal

Alex Liedtke

Anne Bach, assistant principal

English Horn

Anne Bach

Clarinet

Dario Brignoli, principal

Trevor O’Riordan

Bassoon

Eric Hall, principal

Nicole Haywood Vera Tenorio, assistant principal

Contrabassoon

Juan De Gomar†

French Horn

Patrick Walle, acting principal†

Stephanie Blaha, assistant principal*

Neil Kimel

Brett Hodge

Paul Clifton

Trumpet

David Gordon, principal

Mike Brozick, acting assistant principal

William Denton*

Rebecca Oliverio†

Trombone

Daniel Cloutier, principal*

Jeremy Moeller, acting principal

Lee Rogers, acting assistant principal†

Bass Trombone

Alexander Mullins

Tuba

Andrew Smith, principal

Timpani

Daniel Karas, principal

Percussion

Josh Jones, principal

Joel Cohen, assistant principal

Doug Waddell

Harp

Kayo Ishimaru-Fleisher, principal*

Keyboards

Christopher Guzman

Orchestra Librarian

Eliza Bangert, principal

String Fellows

Javier F. Torres-Delgado, violin

Maria Gabriela Mendez Martinez, violin

Joshua Thaver, viola

Manuel Papale, cello

Grant Park Chorus

* denotes leave-of-absence † 2025 Vocal Fellow

Soprano

Laura Lynch Anderson

Kristina Bachrach

Madalynn Baez

Megan E. Bell

Alyssa Bennett

Tamara Bodnar

Kylie Buckham

Anna Joy Buegel

Laura Bumgardner

Katherine Buzard

Bethany Clearfield

Nathalie Colas

Carolyne DalMonte

Megan Fletcher

Kaitlin Foley

Saira Frank

Julia Frodyma

Katherine Gray-Noon

Kimberly Gunderson

Alexandra Ioan

Alexandra Kassouf

Darlene Kelsey

Olivia Knutsen

Marybeth Kurnat

Katelyn Lee

Kyuyim Lee+

Rosalind Lee

Veronica Mak

Hannah Dixon McConnell

Marie McManama

Kathleen Monson

Susan Nelson

Evangeline Ng

Máire O'Brien

Alexandra Olsavsky

Laura Perkett

Angela Presutti Korbitz

Alexia Rivera

Veronica Samiec

Emily Sinclair

Molly Snodgrass

Tiana Sorenson

Christine Steyer

Sarah van der Ploeg*

Lydia Walsh-Rock

Sherry Watkins

Vocal Fellows

Kyuyim Lee

Isabel Yang

Opal Clyburn-Miller

Matthew Dexter

Alto

Emily Amesquita

Melissa Arning

Christina Bernardoni

Angela Born

Bethany Brewer

Julie DeBoer

Leah Dexter

Katrina Dubbs

Stacy Eckert

Margaret Fox

Catarine Hancock

Ruth Ginelle Heald

Sophia Heinz

Miya Higashiyama

Carla Janzen

Amy Allyssa Johnson

Kathryn Kinjo Duncan

Amanda Koopman

Anna Laurenzo

Jeannette Lee

Thereza Lituma

Chelsea Lyons

Victoria Marshall

Jessica McCarthy

Quinn Middleman

Ella Peters

Sarah Ponder

Emily Price

Stephanie Schoenhofer

Suzanne A. Shields

Marissa Simmons

Cassidy Smith

Aidan Spencer

Alannah Spencer

Margaret Stoltz

Carolyn Sundlof Boudreau

Gabrielle Timofeeva López

Elizabeth Vaughan

Corinne Wallace-Crane

A.J. Wester

Debra Wilder

Isabel Yang+

Tenor

Charles Anderson

Enrico Giuseppe Bellomo

Justin Berkowitz

Madison Bolt

Hoss Brock

Steven Caldicott Wilson

Opal Clyburn-Miller+

John J. Concepción

Micah Dingler

Jared V. Esguerra

Alec Fore

Ace Gangoso

Klaus Georg

Tejas Gururaja

Paul Hunter

Garrett Johannsen

William Johnson

James Judd

Tim Lambert

Tyler Lee

Stephen D. Noon

Marcos Ochoa

Brett Potts

Nicholas Pulikowski

Peder Reiff

Samuel Rosner

Matthew W. Schlesinger

Joe Shadday

Aaron Short

Brian Skoog

Michael St. Peter

Ryan Townsend Strand

Alan Taylor*

Sean J. Watland

Nate Widelitz

Bass

Walter Aldrich

Evan Bravos

Matthew Brennan

Michael Cavalieri

Ryan J. Cox

Ed Frazier Davis

Lifan Deng

Matthew Dexter+

Chris DiMarco

Christopher Filipowicz

Dimitri German

Dominic German

David Govertsen

Spencer Greene

Brian Hupp

Jan Jarvis

Jess Koehn

Eric Miranda

Ian Morris

Ian Murrell

John E. Orduña

Wilbur Pauley

Douglas Peters

Jackson Pierzina

Martin Lowen Poock

Ian Prichard

Dan Richardson

Stephen Richardson

Benjamin D. Rivera

Scott Uddenberg

Schyler Vargas

Vince Wallace

Aaron Wardell

Ronald Watkins

Jonathon Weller

Peter Wesoloski

Jonathan Wilson

Staff and Board