Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival | |
---|---|
Genre | Classical music festival |
Dates | Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, June–August |
Location(s) | Jay Pritzker Pavilion, 201 E. Randolph Street Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, United States (July 16, 2004-2019, 2021–present) Petrillo Music Shell 235 S. Columbus Drive Grant Park, Chicago, IL, United States (1978–2004) Petrillo Music Shell Grant Park, Chicago, IL, United States (1935–1977) |
Years active | July 1, 1935-2019, 2021–present |
Website | www.grantparkmusicfestival.com |
The Grant Park Music Festival (formerly the Grant Park Concerts) is a ten-week
The Festival was previously held at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park,[6] but moved to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in the Millennium Park section of Grant Park for its 70th season, in 2004.[7] It has occasionally been held at the Harris Theater.[8][9] Over time, the Festival has had various financial supporters, three primary locations, and one name change. It has sometimes been nationally broadcast and has consistently enjoyed the efforts of many of the world's leading classical musicians. Recently, its organizers have agreed to release some of the Festival's concerts to the public on CD.
Funding
The series was almost completely funded by the Park District, originally.[1] The District was responsible for performer payrolls, concert advertising and marketing, administered orchestra auditions, and coordinated the scheduling for each season list of guest artists.[3] Advertising costs for printed media designed by Park District graphic designers were funded through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Arts Program. The tradition of posters for Chicago Transit Authority buses, Chicago "L" trains and stations and field houses continued even after WPA relief funding ended.[10]
In 1977, the Grant Park Concerts Society evolved to coordinate all
At the end of the 1990s, the Festival was recognized as a
History
The first concert occurred after the completion of the original Petrillo Music Shell on July 1, 1935 with a march from
In addition to lifting spirits, the Grant Park Music Festival has been able to provide musicians a living wage. In 1938, when the
Between the scheduling of
In the 1960s, the Festival took a more adventurous direction featuring works by the likes of Arnold Schoenberg, Sergei Prokofiev, Gustav Mahler and Anton Werbern who highlighted the 1964 schedule under the new direction of Edward Gordon. In 1962, Thomas Peck became the leader of the newly formed Grant Park Chorus,[22] which he directed until his death in 1994.[23] In 1963, the Festival introduced the interactive daytime Young People's Concerts led by Irwin Hoffman and at times by youth audience members.[24] Gordon also introduced opera in concert as part of the Festival in 1964.[25]
The 1970s saw declining attendance at the Festival.
The 1990s saw wide-ranging performances such as the Russian opera Prince Igor, a narration of Casey at the Bat by Jack Brickhouse with orchestral accompaniment, six Chicago Bulls National Basketball Association championship celebrations and a celebrated return visit of Van Cliburn for the sixtieth season. The Van Cliburn visit rivaled the Pons attendance figures with estimates exceeding 300,000.[30] In 1992, the Grant Park Concerts officially became the Grant Park Music Festival.[3] From 1994 to 1997, Hugh Wolff served as principal conductor of the Festival and it took until 2000 for an elaborate search to yield Kalmar as his successor.[3]
In 2000, the Festival reached an agreement with
The festival went into hiatus in 2020 resulting from COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed the next year.
Performances
The performance schedule includes ten consecutive weeks of performances on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from mid June to mid August.
In the 1930s, the concerts lured some of the most prominent performers and conductors in the world: Pons,
The 1940s saw a broad spectrum of performers including
Beginning in the 1950s, Chicago Mayor
The 1960s upheld the tradition of diverse audiences and performers such as contralto Marian Anderson, pianists Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, Leon Fleisher, Lorin Hollander and Christoph Eschenbach, violinists Itzhak Perlman, Ruggiero Ricci, Charles Treger, Jaime Laredo, cellist Leonard Rose, conductor Leonard Bernstein, tenor Plácido Domingo, mezzo-sopranos Maryilyn Horne and Tatiana Troyanos, soprano Martina Arroyo and Roberta Peters, as well as a host of dance companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet and Maria Alba Spanish Dance Company.[22][47] The Joffrey Ballet performed Gerald Arpino and George Balanchine works.[47]
In the 1970s, the Festival hosted soprano June Anderson, vocalist Gordon MacRae, pianists Dave Brubeck, Alicia de Larrocha, Jerome Lowenthal and Sheldon Shkolnik and violinists Elaine Skorodin. Dancers from both the Chicago City Ballet and New York City Ballet were also featured.[48] Conductors included Mitch Miller, Leonard Slatkin, Aaron Copland and David Zinman. Dancer Edward Villella and soprano Kathleen Battle also made appearances.[49]
In the 1980s, featured performers included pianists Walter Klein, Hollander, André Watts and Garrick Ohlsson, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the Vermeer Quartet, baritone Merrill, bass Paul Plishka, soprano Arleen Auger and harmonica player Corky Siegel.[50] Conductors included Macal, Slatkin, Wolff, Zinman and Shaw.[28]
Performers in the 1990s included Van Cliburn, mezzo-soprano
In the new millennium's first decade the Festival welcomed sopranos Battle, Dawn Upshaw, Karina Gauvin and Erin Wall, tenor Vittorio Grigolo, pianist Stephen Hough, violinists Rachel Barton Pine, James Ehnes, Roby Lakatos, Christian Tetzlaff and Pinchas Zukerman, vocalists Otis Clay, Mariza and Maria del Mar Bonet and rock band The Decemberists.[51] Other performers include pianist Valentina Lisitsa, soprano Jonita Lattimore, baritone Nathan Gunn and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore.[52] The Joffrey Ballet also performed with the Festival.[36]
The principal conductor is Carlos Kalmar. Guests in the 2007 season included
The 2010s included a scheduled Grant Park's screening of the BBC's nature documentary Planet Earth Live on July 21, with live orchestral accompaniment featuring the composer George Fenton, who served as conductor.[11][53][54]
Reception
Frommer's describes the Festival as "One of the city's greatest bargains",[55] and it notes that the series is popular.[56] One of the special editions notes that the Festival is continuing to uphold its Depression era mission of lifting Chicagoans' hearts and suggests that you arrive at the Festival an hour early to get good lawn seats.[57] It also notes that the daytime rehearsals are a good substitute for the evening performances.[41]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Macaluso, p. viii
- ^ a b "Grant Park Music Festival". City of Chicago. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g Macaluso, p. 168
- ISBN 978-0-470-12481-9, p.263.
- ^ a b c Knox, p. 15
- ^ Delacoma, Wynne. "The Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion Sounds as Good as it Looks". Archived from the original on September 19, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ "Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park". Metormix Chicago. metromix.com. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ^ a b "Harris Theater: Current Season: Grant Park Music Festival". Harris Theater. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
- ^ a b von Rhein, John (March 18, 2009). "Grant Park Music Festival promises big 'Plans'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
- ^ Macaluso, pp. 4-5
- ^ a b c von Rhein, John (February 17, 2010). "New director looks to partnerships with Grant Park Music Festival this summer and beyond". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Macaluso, p. 60
- ^ Macaluso, p. 62
- ^ Macaluso, p. 69
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 63
- ^ Macaluso, p. 64
- ^ Macaluso, p. 67
- ^ Macaluso, p. 87
- ^ Macaluso, p. 77
- ^ Macaluso, p. 86
- ^ Macaluso, p. 96
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 114
- ^ Macaluso, p. 127
- ^ Macaluso, p. 120
- ^ Macaluso, p. 126
- ^ Macaluso, p. 131
- ^ Macaluso, p. 139
- ^ a b c d Macaluso, p. 149
- ^ Macaluso, p. 147
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 165
- ^ Macaluso, p. 204
- ^ "About The Orchestra". Landmarksorchestra.org. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
- ^ Von Rhein, John (July 15, 2004). "Fest kicks off with showcase of favorites: Something for almost everyone, from classical music to Latin jazz". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 182
- ^ Macaluso, p. 215
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 211
- ^ Macaluso, p. 212
- ^ a b "Grant Park Music Festival 2007". grantparkmusicfestival.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-7627-5023-8.
- ^ Macaluso, p. 216
- ^ a b Tiebert, Laura, Frommer's free & dirt cheap, pp. 103–4
- ^ Macaluso, p. 68
- ^ Macaluso, p. 78
- ^ Macaluso, p. 88
- ^ Macaluso, p. 100
- ^ Macaluso, p. 104
- ^ a b Macaluso, p. 122
- ^ Macaluso, p. 138
- ^ Macaluso, pp. 138-43
- ^ Macaluso, p. 158
- ^ Macaluso, p. 206
- ^ Macaluso, pp. 206-09
- ^ "BBC brings Planet Earth Live to U.S. with emmy-winning composer George Fenton". BBC. January 3, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ "Planet Earth Live". Grant Park Music Festival. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
- ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning, Frommer's Chicago 2010, p. 32
- ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning, Frommer's Chicago 2010, p. 156
- ^ Tiebert, Laura, Frommer's free & dirt cheap, pp. 8–9
References
- Knox, Janice A.; Heather Olivia Belcher (2002). Then & Now: Chicago's Loop. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-1968-5.
- Macaluso, Tony, Julia S. Bachrach and Neal Samors (2009). Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: A Celebration Of The Grant Park Music Festival. Chicago's Book Press. ISBN 978-0-9797892-6-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning (2010). Achauer, Hilary with Anuja Madar (ed.). ISBN 978-0-470-50468-0.
- Tiebert, Laura (2010). Shannon, Gene (ed.). ISBN 978-0-470-73650-0.
External links