WFMT-FM (Chicago, IL)

In their ninth studio album, Apollo Chamber Players present a bold musical tapestry celebrating the ideals, complexities, and evolving story of American democracy at this milestone juncture.

Christopher Bell conducting the Independence Day Salute It simply isn’t a Chicago summer until you see Christopher Bell sporting his traditional red, white, and blue at the Pritzker Pavilion. As he walks onto the stage with a smile as bright as his clothes, the conductor is a physical reminder of the magic that Grant Park Music Festival has been bringing Chicagoans since 1935.

Fifty-five years after the release of their first recording, Katia and Marielle Labèque celebrate an extraordinary artistic journey with this new triple album, bringing together new recordings and archive selections spanning more than half a century. The Labèque sisters have consistently crossed boundaries between classical, contemporary, jazz, minimalism, and popular traditions.

Celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in Chicago and in the arts with this diverse lineup of concerts, events, shows, and more! Brokeback Mountain Through 6/28: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, from $65 The Academy-Award winning movie comes to life on stage for a limited time only.

New orchestral recordings and works by performers who are also composers. Members of the world-renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass (Principal Trumpet Esteban Batallán, horn David Griffin, trumpet John Hagstrom, trombone Michael Mulcahy and Principal Tuba Gene Pokorny) combine bold transcriptions of classic works with vibrant pieces by compelling contemporary composers.

Chicago has a rich classical music scene: from superstars who call the Windy City their home town, to world-class artists who regularly perform on the city’s stages. This week we round up new releases from musicians with Chicago ties. Pianists Juho Pohjonen and Wu Qiuan – frequent performers with the Chamber Music Society at Harris Theater – release their highly-acclaimed album for piano four-hands.

Grant Park Music Festival President and CEO Anwar Nasir (Photo: Courtesy of Grant Park Music Festival). Anwar Nasir has been announced as Grant Park Music Festival’s new President and CEO. He follows in the footsteps of previous CEO Paul Winberg, who retired on April 30, 2026 after 14 years with the organization. Nasir comes to the Grant Park Music Festival with experience in various areas of Arts Administration.

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Viola Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic See this release Celebrating Gustavo Dudamel’s 17-year tenure as Music & Artistic Director, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presents one of Sergei Prokofiev’s most popular works that highlights the composer’s enormous gift for colorful storytelling: Peter and the Wolf, brilliantly narrated by EGOT winning actress and producer Viola Davis.

Cameron Carpenter (Photo: Dovile Sermokas) Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads Poulenc’s Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Strings, and Timpani and SaintSaëns’s Symphony No. 3, featuring organ soloist Cameron Carpenter. The broadcast opens with Dukas’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice and rounds out with Daniel Barenboim leading Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Boléro.

Miles Davis (Photo: Miles Davis webstie) 100 years ago, in the small town of Alton Illinois, a child was born that would change the course of jazz history. Although jazz musicians are rarely discussed alongside their classical counterparts, WFMT host Dave Schwan suggests that Miles Davis’s influence rivals that of classical music’s most defining figures.