Summer and fall have long been peak festival season here in Chicago. But this year takes things even further. Multi-day extravaganzas are everywhere this autumn: You have your time-honored jazz festivals, your upstarts and even your once-in-a-blue-moon returnees, like the Ear Taxi Festival.
The hardest thing about this fall, I wager, will be figuring out how to avoid double-booking yourself. A few gentle suggestions below:
Anchors away (again)
With such a musical bounty in this city, I try to spread the love as best I can in these fall previews. But Music of the Baroque’s “Chicago Water Music”—the ensemble’s amplified, floating concert up and down the Riverwalk — merits a repeat mention. Last year’s maiden voyage was one of the most special evenings I’ve experienced in Chicago to date, riverside strollers’ faces brightening with childlike wonder. Mark your calendars and pack your walking shoes — or paddles — for this encore on Sept. 10.
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 10 on Riverwalk East to Merchandise Mart; free, more information at baroque.org
Music, for your convenience
Starting Sept. 13, music will pour out of a former 7-Eleven near Southport and Clark. Welcome to The CheckOut, the latest project from the nonprofit Access Contemporary Music. The offerings skew classical, often with a twist—like its tape-cutting concert, featuring a jazz/classical crossover quartet led by saxophonist Amos Gillespie (Sept. 13). Other acts in the CheckOut’s “grand opening festival” include 90th birthday celebrations for the influential Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (Sept. 14 and 20); Love Call, a new trio from saxophonist Max Bessesen, bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Devin Drobka (Sept. 25); and Wicked Drawl, serving up classical/country/folk fusion (Sept. 28).
“The Checkout: Grand Opening Festival,” Sept. 13-28 at The CheckOut, 4116 N. Clark St.; tickets $18-$30 at thecheckout.org
Green ears
In 1976, composer Mort Garson released “Mother Earth’s Plantasia,” an album for Moog synthesizer devised as a promotion for a Los Angeles plant store. After gathering dust in record-store discount bins for decades, the album gained a cult following, inspiring a 2019 reissue. The Garfield Park Conservatory hosted a celebration of the reissue, with musicians offering contemporary spins on Garson’s compositions; it’s since become a tradition. The stacked lineup spans from Suzanne Ciani, an early electronic music pioneer in her own right, to singer Arooj Aftab, who received a Grammy nod for her 2021 album “Vulture Prince.”
“Plantasia” runs Sept. 14-15 at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Park Ave.; $71 day passes or $104 both days, emptybottle.com
A new chamber series
For a great music city, Chicago has a vexing dearth of great chamber music venues. Hidden in an Adams Street office building and maxing out at a 60-seat capacity, Guarneri Hall is one hyper-exclusive option. The second season of Nova Linea Musica, its chamber music series, kicks off with piano marvel Conrad Tao (Sept. 10). It continues with Owls, a two-cello string quartet (Oct. 29), and the Catalyst Quartet, whose program features a work by Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century renaissance woman and nun (Dec. 3).
All 6:30 p.m. at Guarneri Hall, 11 E. Adams St., Floor 3; tickets $40 ($10 students) at novalineamusica.org
Long may the jazz festival thrive
The climate for live music isn’t getting any easier. So hats off to the Englewood Jazz Festival (Sept. 16-20), Hyde Park Jazz Festival (Sept. 27-28) and Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival (Nov. 7-10), which have been at it for 26, 19 and 30 years, respectively. The Englewood fest doubles as a tribute to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, turning 60 this year. The Asian American Jazz Festival likewise nods to local musical history: It closes with bassist/shamisen player Tatsu Aoki’s long-running MIYUMI Project, which upended Chicago music in the ’90s by blending experimental jazz with traditional Japanese instruments. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival’s programming embraces both milestones, plus the customary Saturday night sendoff in Rockefeller Chapel. This time it’s big-thinking pianist Jason Moran, who’s sure to wend fresh new routes through Duke Ellington’s catalog.
- Englewood Jazz Festival, Sept. 18-20 at Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St.; free more at englewoodjazzfestival.org
- Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Sept. 27 and 28, various venues; free with suggested donation, full lineup and donation page at hydeparkjazzfestival.org
- Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, Nov. 7-10 at Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey Ave.; tickets $20 ($10 for students) and more information at airmw.org and elasticarts.org
Ear Taxi pulls up again
The massive Ear Taxi Festival returns from Oct. 3 to Nov. 2. The festival is billing its commissioning push as the largest in Illinois history, which seems plausible: At the time of writing, the festival plans to present 42 new works, 27 of which are commissions or partial commissions, thanks to a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Vocal music, often on the periphery of previous Ear Taxis, also comes to the fore this year, accounting for nearly all the festival’s commissions.
Oct. 3 to Nov. 2 at various venues and times; full lineup and tickets at eartaxifestival.com
The anti-rush hour
For a tight hour, Harris Theater’s Mix at Six turns over one of downtown’s biggest stages to artists whose bookings tend to be more intimate — like Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble, opening the series on Oct. 24. Locks’ encyclopedic sound collages enmesh with the city’s finest improvising musicians and dancers in this can’t-miss billing. For a sampler, spin the ensemble’s 2021 EP, “Now” — one of the defining albums to come out of Chicago during the pandemic, if not the past decade.
6 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $23 and more information at harristheaterchicago.org
The earliest opera, in your ears
We may never know for certain what the “first” opera truly was. Jacopo Peri’s “Dafne,” from 1598, hasn’t survived, but his follow-up from two years later, “Euridice,” has. Haymarket Opera Company and the Newberry Consort give a concert presentation of the work for local audiences — the first since its American revival by University of Chicago musicologist Howard Mayer Brown in the 1980s.
7 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., and 3 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston; tickets $25-$80 at newberryconsort.org and haymarketopera.org
COT dusts off another B-side
For centuries, Antonio Salieri’s “Falstaff” (1799) has smarted from the same one-two punch that bruised Ferdinando Paër’s “Leonora”: Their respective composers have descended into obscurity, and both operas had the misfortune of getting overshadowed by later takes on the same tale — one by Verdi, the other by Beethoven. Like last year’s “Leonora,” Chicago Opera Theater will make a valiant case for Salieri’s opus on Dec. 3 and 5. Before that, on Oct. 19, a COT recital explores musical Shakespeare interpretations over time, roving from Adès to Vaughan Williams.
“Shakespeare Sings,” 3 p.m. Oct. 19, tickets $25-$65; “Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 and 3 p.m. Dec. 7, tickets $50-$150. Both at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave; more information at chicagooperatheater.org
Going out with a bang
December is usually a sleepy spot on the arts calendar, flooded as it is by “Messiahs” and other holiday programming. But this year, the Chicago Symphony saves some of its very best billings for last. Soprano Julia Bullock performs a CSO-commissioned song cycle by Matt Aucoin, once the organization’s Solti conducting apprentice (Dec. 4-7). After that, two wunderkinds unite for Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto: pianist Yunchan Lim and music director designate Klaus Mäkelä (Dec. 18-20). The two will barely miss each other in Chicago for separate billings in October: Mäkelä conducting Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique” (Oct. 16-18) and Lim playing Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” in recital (Oct. 19).
“Till Eulenspiegel & Bullock Sings Aucoin,” Dec. 4-7, tickets $49-$225; “Klaus Mäkelä & Yunchan Lim,” Dec. 18-20, tickets $89-$399; both at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., cso.org
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.