As summer slowly slides away, the coming of autumn brings cooler weather, falling leaves and the new classical music and opera season. There’s a wide array of diverse and exciting events on tap and this preview can only begin to scratch the surface, selecting a few highlights from some of Chicago’s major music presenters, starting here in Hyde Park.
UChicago Presents
The University of Chicago Presents is the South Side’s premier presenter of classical music. This season’s Classic Concert Series opens with a performance by the Belcea Quartet who come to Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St., on Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. They will perform works by Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. The Brentano String Quartet will play works by Haydn, Dvorak and Bartok in the Logan Center, 915 E. 60th St., on Nov. 9 at 3 p.m.
The CSO Chamber Music Series, featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, begins on Oct. 12 with Mozart’s Serenade for Winds in C Minor, as well as other works by Mozart and Prokofiev arranged for wind ensemble. The performance is at Mandel Hall at 3 p.m. The Howard Mayer Brown International Early Music Series opens on Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. in the Logan Center with a performance by Cappella Pratensis presenting Guillaume Dufay’s “Missa Ecce ancilla Domini.” For more information, visit ChicagoPresents.uChicago.edu.
The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition
The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition promises to have another exciting year supporting the work of professional and student composers in concerts given by the Grossman Ensemble at the Logan Center. The first concert of the new season takes place on Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. with conductor Micah Gleason leading premieres by composers Kay Rhie, Ryan Chase, Mikel Kuehn and Inés Thiebaut. Visit CCCC.uChicago.edu for more info.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra returns to Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., for the season opener on Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. (repeated the 19th at 1:30 p.m.) with Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conducting and also serving as violin soloist performing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante and Elgar’s Symphony No. 2.
Music director Klaus Mäkelä conducts three performances of “Harold in Italy,” and the Symphonie fantastique, both by Berlioz, Oct. 16-18 at 7:30 p.m. Riccardo Muti, music director emeritus for life, leads a program centered on Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 on Oct. 30 (7:30 p.m.), Oct. 13 (1:30 p.m.) and Nov. 1 (7:30 p.m.). Muti also leads the CSO for three performances of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with soloist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas on guitar on Nov. 6 (7:30 p.m.), Nov. 7 (1:30 p.m.) and Nov. 8 (7:30 p.m.) with music by Stravinsky and Brahms also on the program. Mäkelä conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto (Yunchan Lim, soloist) and two other works on Dec. 18 (7:30 p.m.), Dec. 19 (1:30 p.m.) and Dec. 20 (7:30 p.m.). For more information on the very large number of CSO performances, visit CSO.org.
Lyric Opera
The first opera of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new season is Cherubini’s “Medea,” starring soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. It runs Oct. 11-26 at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr. From Nov. 1-23, Lyric offers the popular double-bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” a pair of stories centered on deadly love triangles. On Nov. 14, 16 and 18, Lyric presents Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in concert. Enrique Mazzola conducts all these performances, David McVicar directs “Medea” and Peter McClintock is the revival director of “Cav/Pag,” with the original production directed by Elijah Moshinsky.
The most unusual offering by Lyric this fall is seven performances of what is being billed as “an alt-rock masterpiece reborn.” Billy Corgan and selected guests, as well as the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus will offer a new take on a massively popular 1990s album by the Smashing Pumpkins with a program entitled “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness.” It runs Nov. 21-30. For more information on Lyric performances, visit LyricOpera.org.
Chicago Opera Theater and Haymarket Opera
Chicago Opera Theater will present three performances at the Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave., of Antonio Salieri’s “Falstaff, ossia Le Tre Burle” (Falstaff, or The Three Tricks) opening Dec. 3 (7:30 p.m.) with matinees Dec. 6 and 7 (3 p.m.). Stephen Powell will sing the title role and Christine Brandes will conduct. COT’s only other staged opera this 2025–26 season will be in March. Visit COT.org.
Haymarket Opera and the Newberry Consort are joining forces to present a concert presentation of “Euridice” by Jacopo Peri, the oldest surviving opera, dating from 1600. (“Euridice” came after Peri’s “Dafne” but this latter opera’s score is lost.) It features a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. Erica Schuller will sing Euridice and Scott J. Brunscheen will sing Orfeo. There will be two performances: Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. at Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave. and Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave., in Evanston.
The Newberry Consort and Music of the Baroque
The Newberry Consort will also offer three holiday concerts entitled “A Flamenco Christmas,” with music and dance from Spain, Portugal and Latin America Dec. 5-7. For more information, visit NewberryConsort.org.
Jane Glover will lead the Orchestra and Chorus of Music of the Baroque for Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” in three performances: Sept. 14 at 3 p.m. at the North Shore Center in Skokie; Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; and Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. online. Singers include Heidi Stober, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Hannah De Priest. MOB will perform Bach’s Brandenburgs Oct. 12, 13 and 17; Handel’s Messiah Nov. 30, and Dec. 1 and 5. It will also offer holiday brass and choral concerts on Dec. 18-21 and Dec. 26. For more details, visit Baroque.org.
Dame Myra Hess and Chicago Chamber Music
Enjoy a musical lunch break with the free weekly concerts on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, every Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, 55 E. Wacker Dr. Also visit the Classical Music Chicago YouTube page to view a huge collection of archived videos of these concerts and other events presented by CMC. Visit ClassicalMusicChicago.org for more information.
The Chicago Chamber Music Society opens its 2025–26 season with a performance by Third Coast Percussion featuring music by Jessie Montgomery, Augusta Read Thomas and more on Sept. 10, and the society welcomes the Miró Quartet for an all-Beethoven program on Oct. 7. For information on times and venue, visit ChicagoChamberMusicSociety.org.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hpherald.com ’
