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ILLINOIS CLASSICAL: The Evening Concert: AUG. 30 – 31 – SEP. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, 2026 Sunday, August 30, 6:00 pm: Chamber Mus. Soc.

Before or after? Should you read about a piece of music before or after you listen to it? Either way, you eventually learn something interesting about it I wasn’t looking for program notes on a famous work by Franz Schubert when I just happened to come upon an article which German composer Robert Schumann had written about a visit to Vienna in 1838. Charmed by the festive city, he remembered that the Währing cemetery was close by, with the graves of Beethoven and Schubert steps apart.

This past June, the Vienna Philharmonic gave its annual Summer Night Concert, a free, open-air performance in the landscape park and gardens of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Under the baton of Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel was featured in arias from Boito’s Mefistofele and Verdi’s Falstaff, as well as the finale from Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Tevye’s song from Fiddler on the Roof.

For more than a century, Illinois' 13th congressional district was held by Republicans, but this decade it’s been gerrymandered to elect a Democrat. It runs through the liberal urban centers of Urbana, Champaign, Decatur, Springfield, and communities in the Metro East. Republican Jeff Wilson is hoping to break through that creative map-making. Until this week — mid-August — he was a member of the Champaign County Board.

Until a few years ago, the last time a Democrat held the 13th district congressional seat was in 1895. However, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski won it easily in her two previous campaigns. She worked in the administrations of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and President Joe Biden before her first run for Congress. She’s now seeking a third term and running against Jeff Wilson, a Republican member of the Champaign County Board.

On August 13, 2021, a fire started in a coal mine in Franklin County, in southern Illinois. After 10 minutes, as the fire was still going, federal regulations say managers should have evacuated their people. Instead, federal prosecutors say they kept people working underground — for parts of three shifts. Five years later, that has led to criminal federal charges for four men — for both the failure to evacuate and for failing to notify the federal safety agency in charge of mines.

August 25, 2026 Director Barbara Kopple on location for the filming of her 1976 award-winning documentary "Harlan County, USA" Listen Download [00:00:00] Brian Mackey: It's the 21st Show. I'm Brian Mackey. [00:00:04] Singer: Come on, you poor workers, good news to you. I'll tell how the good old union has come in here to dwell. Which side are you on? On which side are you on? If you go to Harlan County, there is no neutral there.

Illinois' 16th congressional district starts near Dubuque, Iowa in the north, curves around Rockford and goes through Dixon and Princeton … ending around Peoria and Bloomington. Republican Darin LaHood is representative for the district. In 2022, he won the seat with two-thirds of the vote. In 2024, he was re-elected unopposed. This year, he faces another challenger who hopes to turn a red seat blue. Paul Nolley is a non-profit executive director from Rockford.

ILLINOIS CLASSICAL: The Evening Concert: AUGUST 23 – 24 – 25 – 26 – 27 – 28, 2026 Sunday, August 23, 6:00 pm: Chamber Mus. Soc. of Lincoln Center (CMS 26-49) Enchanté Camille Saint-Saëns: Tarantelle in A minor for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano, Op. 6 Sooyun Kim, Flute; Romie de Guise-Langlois, Clarinet; Gilbert Kalish, Piano Gabriel Fauré: Dolly Suite for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 56.

August 22, 2026 Listen (Duration: 22:34) Download // This is a machine generated transcript. Please report any transcription errors to will-help@illinois.edu. [00:00:00] Reginald Hardwick: From Illinois Soul, this is Dialogue. I'm Reginald Hardwick, news and public affairs director at Illinois Public Media. Dialogue is an exchange about culture straight from the soul. You know America's queen of soul, the late Aretha Franklin.