Some years it feels like when we get to the beginning of the new culture season, classical music hits the snooze button and doesn\u2019t really get rolling until late September or October.<\/p>\n
But not this year. The typical September lull instead brings mini festivals, outdoor performances and chamber concerts, such as the newly rechristened Art Song Chicago\u2019s Collaborative Works Festival and the opening of the new North Side venue The CheckOut.<\/u><\/a> Audiences seem ready to attend, too \u2014 already sold out at presstime is a pair of September concerts<\/u><\/a> by the Borromeo String Quartet at Guarneri Hall (waitlist<\/u><\/a> available).<\/p>\n Green Room Newsletter<\/p>\n You\u2019re subscribed!<\/b><\/p>\n Please check your inbox for your confirmation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Stay ahead of what\u2019s hitting Chicago stages, galleries, museums and more with Green Room, WBEZ\u2019s weekly arts & culture newsletter!<\/p>\n Sorry, there was an error registering your email.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/bsp-form>\n<\/div><\/div>\n And it doesn\u2019t stop there. In addition to full-swing orchestra and opera schedules, the month of October sees the return of the Ear Taxi Festival, an approximately twice-a-decade event flooding the zone with new music composed and performed by Chicago-area musicians.<\/p>\n The abundance of options doesn\u2019t mean an abundance of tickets, though. Many concerts are likely to sell out. Get planning; don\u2019t sleep on it.<\/p>\n Ganz Hall, Roosevelt University<\/p>\n Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 6 at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n These two concerts of music for solo voices and accompanists span old masters of the song form such as Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf, all the way forward in time to local premieres by living composers. It\u2019s the season-opening festival for Art Song Chicago, the organization formerly known as the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, now entering its 15th season. The Collaborative Works Festival, as the event is still called, this year bears the title \u201cSongs of War and Peace.\u201d The artistic director and clear-voiced tenor Nicholas Phan split the material into two concerts, \u201cWar\u201d and \u201cPeace,\u201d and sprinkled each with Chicago-based talent, such as Zoie Reams, a mezzo-soprano frequently in Lyric Opera of Chicago casts; Damien Geter, a member of the composer collective the Blacknificent 7; two members of the new-music ensemble Eighth Blackbird; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra\u2019s principal horn, Mark Almond. It\u2019s extra icing that Phan himself will sing in both concerts, including the Midwest premiere of Viet Cuong\u2019s \u201cSecond Shore\u201d <\/i>in the second. Tickets from $16.<\/i><\/p>\n Music of the Baroque takes \u201cWater Music\u201d literally. They\u2019ll be performing on a roving boat on the Chicago River this month.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Riverwalk East<\/p>\n Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.; attendees can listen for free<\/p>\n Georg Friedrich Handel composed the original \u201cWater Music\u201d suites to play on a boat floating in the River Thames. Last year, inspired by the pieces\u2019 riparian roots, Music of the Baroque tested the waters, so to speak, with a free public performance of much of \u201cWater Music\u201d <\/i>and other selections, from a roving boat on the Chicago River just north of the Loop. With an eye toward making it an annual tradition, the group this year returns to the boat to reprise selections from \u201cWater Music\u201d <\/i>and Vivaldi\u2019s \u201cGloria,\u201d <\/i>and invites the public to join in the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel\u2019s \u201cMessiah\u201d from dry land. <\/i>Practice parts are posted at the MoB website.<\/u><\/a> Remember there are exactly four hallelujahs at the end before the grand pause. Attendees can listen for free.<\/i><\/p>\n The CheckOut, a chamber music venue in a former 7-Eleven, will have its debut season in September.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n The CheckOut<\/p>\n Sept. 13\u201328<\/p>\n Almost certainly the only local chamber-music venue with a grease trap, the CheckOut debuts this season in a former 7-Eleven<\/u><\/a> on North Clark Street in Lake View. Now an open space for 60 or so seats, the CheckOut has slated an ambitious festival to mark its public coming-out, with 12 concerts over 16 days. A sampling, in snack-size summaries: The opener on Sept. 13 premieres seven commissions about the neighborhood across the street, Uptown, for flute-clarinet-saxophone-cello quartet. A program performed Sept. 14 and 20 wishes a happy 90th birthday to Arvo P\u00e4rt, the Estonian new-music composer beloved even by people who say they don\u2019t like new music. Two different concerts are inspired by books (Studs Terkel\u2019s \u201cWorking,\u201d <\/i>Yuval Noah Harari\u2019s \u201cSapiens\u201d). And all unfold beside a brand-new slushie machine at the bar. Tickets from $18.<\/i><\/p>\n Multiple locations<\/p>\n Oct. 3\u2013Nov. 2; ticket prices vary<\/p>\n Rarer even than blue moons, the Ear Taxi Festival presents contemporary classical music across a slate of Chicago venues, throwing a spotlight on the often-marginalized Chicago-area ensembles in the new-music niche. Landing on the Chicago arts calendar this fall for the first time since 2021, this year\u2019s program titled \u201cThe Composer\u2019s Voice\u201d focuses on works with vocalists, and will world premiere some 20 commissioned pieces for chamber ensemble and solo voice in its four Composer Showcases (full disclosure: this contributor has a piece for string quartet and mezzo-soprano in the October 10 concert.) Vocal music is not frequently central in new-music concerts, so this degree of concentration of adventurous, Chicago-based, never-before-heard music for voices isn\u2019t likely to happen again for a while. Ticket prices vary.<\/i><\/p>\n Lyric Opera will present \u201cMedea\u201d for the first time in the company\u2019s history. The opera will be directed by David McVicar.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Courtesy of Michael Cooper<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Lyric Opera of Chicago<\/p>\n Oct. 11\u201326<\/p>\n Opera buffs will recognize Luigi Cherubini\u2019s \u201cMedea\u201d as a star vehicle for Maria Callas at the height of her fame. But even if you don\u2019t know opera, you may recognize Medea from mythology as the vengeful sorceress dripping with melodrama, among other dripping things. For its first grand opera of the season, Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the first \u201cMedea\u201d in the company\u2019s history, its turn in a multi-year co-production plan involving a handful of companies including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Met opened its 2022-23 season with the same stars: Sondra Radvanovsky as Callas \u2014 ahem, as Medea \u2014 and Matthew Polenzani as Giasone. The production\u2019s director is David McVicar, known for extreme visuals and dialed-up drama, i.e., exactly what this opera calls for. Tickets from $47.<\/i><\/p>\n Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 will lead two pieces by oddball French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in October. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Chicago Sun-Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Symphony Center<\/p>\n Oct. 16\u201318<\/p>\n Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 is returning to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, making his first of four visits to lead the CSO this season. The youthful music director, not yet 30, still has two seasons before he officially assumes the directorship in fall 2027. At this concert he leads two pieces by oddball French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz, the symphony-like \u201cHarold in Italy\u201d <\/i>and the definitely-a-symphony \u201cSymphonie Fantastique.\u201d <\/i>Each is likely to shine with M\u00e4kel\u00e4\u2019s talent for clarifying and underscoring the unique elements of orchestral music \u2014 after all, Berlioz is a composer who provides plenty of uniquenesses to highlight. M\u00e4kel\u00e4 appearances are hot tickets, so it\u2019s worth planning ahead for this one \u2014 as well as for his stints here in December, February and March. Tickets from $65.<\/i><\/p>\n Constellation<\/p>\n Oct. 19<\/p>\n This year, contemporary classical upstarts Ensemble Dal Niente reach their milestone 20th season, meaning they now are the old guard of new music in Chicago. For the round-number anniversary, the Nientes have dusted off some of their most successful programming conceits, including Hard Music, Hard Liquor, a concert of virtuosic music in a barlike atmosphere. The program includes the rhythmically intricate skittering sextet Siphonophorae<\/i> and the advanced-technique clarinet showcase Dal Niente (Int\u00e9rieur III), <\/i>the piece from which the group drew its name. Like past Hard Musics, this one will have cocktail specials themed to the program. There will also be mocktails available, now that the Millennial and Gen Z crowds drink so much less than their elders. Tickets from $10.<\/i><\/p>\n Stefan Asbury will conduct \u201cA Soldier\u2019s Tale\u201d at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Courtesy of Eric Richmond<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Symphony Center<\/p>\n Oct. 23\u201325<\/p>\n Igor Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cThe Soldier\u2019s Tale,\u201d in its original form, intersperses narration with neo-classical chamber music, telling the story of a soldier making deals with the devil (pro tip: don\u2019t make deals with the devil). Most often, the piece gets a concert-style presentation, with the narrator or narrators positioned behind stand microphones, or the text gets stripped out altogether and the audience hears only the jazz- and folk-inflected music. Here, in an all-Stravinsky chamber-orchestra concert put on by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, \u201cThe Soldier\u2019s Tale\u201d will receive a semi-staging in collaboration with the Goodman Theater, which has some classical cred from putting on a \u201cMagic Flute\u201d in its home theater in February 2024. The libretto, originally in French, will be a decade-old vernacular American translation by Yale director Liz Diamond. Tickets from $49.<\/i><\/p>\n Art Institute of Chicago, Music Institute of Chicago<\/p>\n Oct. 24\u201325<\/p>\n Haymarket Opera Company presents operas from the Baroque period, meaning the group dependably stages works that are older than any other operas on offer during the Chicago concert season. Jacopo Peri\u2019s \u201cEuridice,\u201d whose 1600 premiere makes it Western music\u2019s oldest surviving opera, tells the myth of Orpheus through a 10-singer cast and a 16-piece orchestra drawn from both Haymarket and the Newberry Consort, using an edition prepared from an original print at the Newberry Library by legendary University of Chicago musicologist Howard Mayer Brown. As with most Haymarket repertoire selections, performances of \u201cEuridice\u201d are exceedingly rare \u2014 the time between measured in decades. Availability warning: Haymarket\u2019s performances almost always sell out. Tickets from $10.<\/i><\/p>\n Riccardo Muti will spend four weeks in Chicago in the 2025-26 season in two two-week residencies.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n Courtesy of Todd Rosenberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n Oct. 30\u2013Nov. 1 Dvorak New World and Hindemith<\/u><\/a><\/p>\nArt Song Chicago\u2019s War and Peace<\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"MoB](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/783cbee\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5472x3648+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fbd%2Fb0%2F7e24d4f3436ea67b7d90164ec09c%2Fmob-9-18-24-by-elliotmandel-18.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nMoB Water Music<\/u><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Palomar](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/65710f3\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1667+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F02%2F50%2F2e7ed8a1478793e7c51d76c3dbbf%2F20250807-wbez-the-checkout-lf-014.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nCheckOut New Music opening festival<\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
Ear Taxi Festival<\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Canadian](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8ec97f2\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2000x1333+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fd8%2Fd7%2F3465ce8747df92fa34199f13b85e%2F3-medea-c-michael-cooper-canadian-opera-company.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nLuigi Cherubini\u2019s Medea <\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Klaus](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9e4747f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2000x1333+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F86%2F53%2F4d834d3a477a98912b3df26f5853%2Fmakela-040524-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nKlaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 conducts the CSO in Symphonie Fantastique<\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
Hard Music, Hard Liquor<\/u><\/b><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Stefan](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/14095ab\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3000x2000+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fa0%2Ff9%2F0312ad9749f6908883e55243fb10%2Fstefan-asbury-high-res-2-credit-eric-richmond.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nThe Soldier\u2019s Tale, a co-production of CSO and Goodman<\/u><\/a><\/h3>\n
Haymarket\u2019s Euridice<\/u><\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"Riccardo](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/aa1e3e2\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fb5%2F96%2F4ad0e1374a2b9802280a5ff0ee2b%2Frmi20171016-concert-cso20171016-3290f.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\nMuti returns to the CSO<\/h3>\n
![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9a2d3c7\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2000x1334+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F61%2Fc3%2F47353b324893921a9320b178bee4%2Fbilly-corgan-c-john-shaw-lyric-opera-of-chicago.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n