Former Metropolitan Opera chorus master Donald Palumbo is set to become the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s next chorus director. Palumbo will become the third in the choir’s 67-year history and will begin his initial three-year term in July. Palumbo will prepare the Chicago Symphony Chorus for the first time as Chorus Director for its July 18 Ravinia Festival performance of Mahler’s {…}
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced the 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Orchestra Daniela Candillari conducts Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” with Giulia Semenzato and Jennifer Johnson Cano. The program includes Jennifer Gunn as a soloist and music by Simon, Barber, and Musgrave. Performance Dates: Oct. 3 & 4, 2025 Manfred Honeck conducts Mozart’s “Requiem” with Jeanine {…}
Gabriela Lara has been appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first violin section effective Jan. 27, 2025. Lara participated in preliminary auditions for a violin-section opening and won the final audition in October. She is the first CSO musician appointed by Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä. She is also the first CSO Fellow to become a member of the {…}
The TAWANI Foundation, through its founder, Colonel Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired), announces that it will be committing $10 million to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSO). In a statement, the foundation said that multi-year gift will include a $5 million challenge grant, incentivizing other donors to join the effort. The funds will help support the organization’s “SEMPRE ALWAYS: The {…}
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced that Klaus Mäkelä will be the new Music Director. Mäkelä will take over the post at the start of 2027-28 season succeeding Riccardo Muti and will be the CSO’s 11th Music Director in its 133-year history. With his new contract, he will conduct the Chicago orchestra for a minimum of 14 weeks per season {…}
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Board of Trustees has announced that the locally-based Negaunee Foundation has made a $21 million gift to the CSOA. The gift represents one of the largest commitments in the CSOA’s history and builds on a multi-decade history of giving by The Negaunee Foundation that is focused on education and community programs and strengthens the organization’s {…}
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are the vocal performances. Nicholas Kraemer conducts a program that includes the music of Händel, Beethoven, and Mozart. Soloists include Amanda Forsythe, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Josh Lovell, and Michael Sumuel. Performance Dates: Oct. 17-19, 2024 Fabien Gabel and Konstantin Krimmel team up for a program of music by Britten, Mahler, {…}
(Photo credit: 21C Media Group) Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced its 2023-24 MusicNOW series will open with the “Montgomery and the Blacknificent 7” on Dec. 3. The program is curated by CSO’s Mead Composer-in-Residence and Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year Jessie Montgomery. New and recent work by members of the Black composers’ collective known as the Blacknificent 7 {…}
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has agreed to a tentative three-year contract with its musicians union. According to the Associated Press, the orchestra said that the agreement was made before the contract expired on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023. In a statement both sides said the deal “improves working conditions and wages for the musicians,” but terms of the tentative agreement will {…}
(credit: Todd Rosenberg Photography) The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has named Riccardo Muti Music Director Emeritus for Life beginning with the 2023-4 season. The new artistic title was announced during an onstage ceremony June 23 at Orchestra Hall, after the first of three concerts of Beethoven’s “Missa solemnis,” which will mark his final subscription program as Music Director. Muti took up {…}
Riccardo Muti is stepping down as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The conductor, whose contract is ending at the end of 2022-23 season, will continue performing but less frequently and without the demands of being the orchestra’s music director. Muti became Music Director of the Chicago orchestra in 2010 and will leave after 13 years. However, next season {…}
