Hannah Edgar

Review: Berlin Philharmonic returns to Symphony Center at last — with a concert that was everything you’d dream it would be

November 17, 2022 at 11:50 a.m.

Perhaps you'll take it as an admission of naiveté if I begin this review with a confession: Until this week, I've never heard the Berlin Philharmonic live. And yet. I...

Tyrone Chambers sings during a rehearsal for Chicago Opera Theater's production of King Roger on Nov. 7, 2022.

For ‘King Roger,’ Chicago Opera Theater goes big at home, with the help of the Polish musical community

November 14, 2022 at 11:38 a.m.

Like so many artists during the COVID-19 lockdown, Lidiya Yankovskaya fantasized about how her company, Chicago Opera Theater, would reemerge from the pandemic. "The plan was to come back out...

Review: Lyric Opera’s ‘Don Carlos’ gains momentum as it goes on — all five acts of it

November 11, 2022 at 2:47 p.m.

Some things are worth the wait. Count Lyric Opera's "Don Carlos" among them. Wednesday night marked the first time in the company's nearly 70-year history that Lyric Opera presented not...

Pianist and composer Fred Hersch has earned his place in jazz. He talks living ‘Breath by Breath.’

November 7, 2022 at 9:59 a.m.

Fred Hersch probably couldn't imagine a worse time for an interview. When I called the eminent jazz pianist at home in Manhattan, he'd just found out that the trumpeter and...

Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés on the religious underpinnings of his new ‘Creación’

October 14, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

In 1970, at a jazz festival in Poland, pianist Chucho Valdés' life would change practically overnight. At that festival, he and his quintet unveiled an ambitious new work, "Misa Negra,"...

Drummer Dana Hall leads his sextet as actor Malcom Banks dances as the group presents "Hypocrisy of Justice: Sights and Sounds from the Black Metropolis" at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts on Oct. 7, 2022.

Review: ‘Hypocrisy of Justice’ is a musical riff on Richard Wright’s ‘Native Son’

October 9, 2022 at 12:20 p.m.

Transplant Richard Wright's "Native Son" to today and one will find much more to retain than to update. In "Hypocrisy of Justice: Sights and Sounds from the Black Metropolis," however...

Piano soloist Eric Lu performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 at the Chicago Symphony Center on Oct. 6, 2022.

Review: Muti conducts ‘Pictures from an Exhibition’ at the CSO — with all the bittersweet reminders of time’s forward march

October 7, 2022 at 12:22 p.m.

Sunrise, sunset. Yes, OK, many of us have Lyric Opera's "Fiddler on the Roof" on the mind, which closes this week. But 'tis the twilit season, and the season of...

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