Review: Third Coast Percussion Premieres New Work With Joy, Magic and Mischief
If you have not listened to any Third Coast Percussion music, I highly recommend that you set aside a couple of hours and get on it. This quartet has expanded […]
Review: Hot Handel Kicks Off the Holidays at the Auditorium Theatre
I heard that there was some Grinch behavior spreading around Chicago. Even I have mandated that my office shalt not play that one station that starts with the fa-la-la business […]
Review: Countertenor Mobley Hits the High Notes as Music of the Baroque Guest Soloist
Reginald Mobley is a world-renowned countertenor. If you did not know this in advance, you might be surprised when he begins to sing in crystalline high notes, in a range […]
Review: Amy Wurtz Goes Hybrid–In an Intimate Way
The joys of live music in an intimate setting! Composer/pianist Amy Wurtz hosted American Woman, a livestream, solo recital on YouTube featuring music composed by American women on Sunday night. […]
Review: Cuarteto Latinoamericano Plays a Wide Variety of Styles from South of Rio Bravo
Cuarteto Latinoamericano gave a lively performance at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston on Saturday night. Part of the Music Institute of Chicago’s 2022-23 concert season, this ensemble from Mexico City […]
Review: Chicago Philharmonic Season Opener Swings into Diversity
The decision by Chicago Philharmonic to open its 2022-23 concert season Thursday with a program focused on diversity was well within character for the orchestra. Diversity had long been a […]
Review: Patrick Dupre Quigley Entertains at Music of the Baroque’s Baroque Heroes Concert
An entertaining evening is virtually guaranteed whenever Patrick Dupre Quigley visits Chicago to conduct the Music of the Baroque orchestra. This was again the case this week when he was […]
Review: Evren Ozel Wows with Refined Restraint
In listening to Evren Ozel’s excellent piano recital Wednesday afternoon, two words came to mind over and over: refined restraint. That is how this young artist approached each of the […]
Review: Music of the Baroque Opens Season With a Highly Polished Hidden Gem by Handel
The best-known of George Frideric Handel’s compositions—his Messiah oratorio and his Water Music suites, for example—are recognized by millions beyond the niche of classical music aficionados. But Handel wrote hundreds […]
Review: An Evening of Amazonian Beauty with Third Coast Percussion
Philip Glass is considered one of the greatest living composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. His spare and layered compositions can be interpreted in many ways other than as […]
Review: Grant Park Festival Closes with a Great Performance of Haydn’s The Creation
There are few pieces of music that satisfy me more thoroughly than Franz Josef Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation. Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus performed it for a rousing sendoff to […]
Review: Grant Park Chorus Turns 60 in Full Voice
“The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play,” said the late Austrian composer Richard Strauss. And the beauty of classical […]