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Slowly but surely, live concerts are making their way back to Chicago. For the first time in more than a year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will take to the stage of the Symphony Center in the Loop for in-person concert performances, with the first of three new programs set to debut on May 27.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announced the new programming—which was created with artistic oversight from music director Riccardo Muti—in a news release Tuesday morning. Each program will include four socially-distanced performances (with new safety guidelines called Safe and Sound in place), which will run on consecutive weekends from May 27 through June 13 on Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays at 1:30pm, Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm.
Tickets for all three programs, which run from $29–$99, go on sale to the general public on May 11. Curious about what to expect before you take the plunge on snagging tickets? Here's a brief look at each new program.
Fanfare (May 27, 28, 29 & 30)
Brass and percussion-heavy music will take center stage for this debut program conducted by CSO trombonist Michael Mulcahy. Selections include Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and a 20th-century interpretation of a Bach chorale by Samuel Barber, plus works influenced by jazz and film by Tilson Thomas, Bernstein and Schuller.
Strum (June 3, 4, 5 & 6)
Led by former CSO conducting apprentice Erina Yashima, the second program opens with two Novelettes by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and continues with Schubert's Symphony No. 5 as well as a string orchestra version of Strum by newly-appointed CSO composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery. It concludes with Kodály’s Dances of Galánta.
Overture (June 10, 11, 12 & 13)
The final program, led by conductor Edo de Waart, opens with Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni and also features Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.