Grant Park Music Festival (formerly Grant Park Concerts) is an annual ten-week classical music concert series held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus along with featured guest performers and conductors. The Festival has earned non-profit organization status. It claims to be the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series. The Grant Park Music Festival has been a Chicago tradition since 1931 when Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak suggested free concerts to lift spirits of Chicagoans during the Great Depression. The tradition of symphonic Grant Park Music Festival concerts began in 1935.
The Festival is housed in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park section of Grant Park in the Loop community area of Chicago. The 2004 season, during which the Festival moved to the Pritzker Pavilion, was the 70th season for the Festival. On occasion, the Festival has been held at the Harris Theater instead of the Pritzker Pavilion. Formerly, the Grant Park Music Festival was held at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park. The Festival began when the music shell was located in its original location and moved when it was relocated.
Over time the Festival has had various financial supporters, three primary locations and one name change. The Festival has at times been nationally broadcast and has consistently enjoyed the efforts of many of the worlds leading classical musicians. Recently, the Festival organizers have agreed to release some of the concerts to the public via compact disk recordings.
Read more about Grant Park Music Festival: Funding, History, Performances, Reception
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