Your Summer, Your Way, with a Choose Your Own Membership
Need inspiration for your Choose your Own membership? With a season chock-full of musical gems, we can't blame you! That's why we've put together a few sample packages to help get you started:
THE SUPERSTARS
If you love concertos, we’ve got you covered! Our season brings out the thrills and the poetry with stellar soloists like violinists Augustin Hadelich and Stefan Jackiw, pianist Joyce Yang and cellist Zlatomir Fung.
June 28: Beethoven's Violin Concerto featuring Stefan Jackiw
July 12: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 featuring Joyce Yang
July 26: Elgar Cello Concerto featuring Zlatomir Fung
August 11 and 12: Hadelich Plays Prokofiev featuring Augustin Hadelich
CELEBRATING BLACK VOICES
Join us for a celebration of Black voices, including emerging artist Xavier Foley; a jazz and folk-inspired violin concerto by multi-Grammy-winning jazz superstar Wynton Marsalis; an enchanting piece about freedom and unity by Valerie Coleman; and landmark 20th-century pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Dawson.
June 21: Nino Rota: Divertimento Concertante, featuring bassist Xavier Foley
June 29: Valerie Coleman: Umoja
July 7 and 8: Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring violinist Tai Murray
July 26: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: The Bamboula; William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
AUDIENCE FAVORITES
Looking for your 2023 season staples? Between Tchaikovsky’s explosive fourth symphony, Gershwin’s famous Rhapsody in Blue, the triumphant Pictures at an Exhibition and a cabaret of Broadway bangers, you won’t miss a beat.
June 29: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
July 5: An American Salute: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
July 19: Pictures at an Exhibition
July 28 and 29: Bravo Broadway
UNIQUE INSTRUMENTATION
When listening to music, have you ever heard a sound you can’t place? This collection of pieces features instruments that aren’t typically used by classical composers. This season’s unique wind instruments include alto and soprano saxophone used by Rachmaninov and Gorchakov. You might consider acoustic guitar and banjo to be staples of popular music, but Rodrigo and Still have incorporated them into their thrilling symphonic masterpieces. Rota’s Divertimento Concertante features solo double bass, an unusual choice for a solo instrument. Coleman’s Umoja utilizes the special technique of using a double bass bow on vibraphone, marimba, and glockenspiel.
June 21: Nino Rota: Divertimento Concertante (solo double bass)
June 28: William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1, Afro-American Symphony (tenor banjo)
June 29: Valerie Coleman: Umoja (bowed mallet percussion)
July 19: Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (soprano saxophone)
August 2: Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez (classical guitar)
August 18 and 19: Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (alto saxophone)
WOMEN MAKING HISTORY
Experience marvelous works by innovative composers like Vivian Fung’s Aqua, a sweeping piece inspired by Chicago's celebrated Aqua Tower by local architect Jeanne Gang; Unsuk Chin’s subito con forza, an elaboration on themes from Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture; Valerie Coleman’s enchanting Umoja: Anthem of Unity; and Anna Clyne’s roiling This Midnight Hour.
June 29: Valerie Coleman: Umoja: Anthem of Unity
July 12: Vivian Fung: Aqua
July 14 and 15: Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour
August 2: Unsuk Chin: subito con forza