Grant Park Music Festival - Performances

Performances

The performance schedule includes ten consecutive weeks of performances on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from mid June to mid August. Currently, performances usually begin at 6:30 on Wednesday and Friday and 7:30 on Saturday with band shell seats reserved for subscribers. Unclaimed seats are released to the public 15 minutes before each performance. The lawn seating is free and commonly adorned with blankets and families. Harris Theater hosts occasional Grant Park Music Festival events. The orchestra and chorus have open rehearsals at the Pritzker Pavilion during performance season with sessions usually running from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm and approximately 2:30 or 3:00 pm until 5:00 pm. The Festival is represented by a staff of trained guides, called docents, that field questions and provide educational talks during the rehearsals. The rehearsals have programs available.

1930s performers included (left to right) Rudy Vallee, Helen Morgan, Mischa Elman, Moriz Rosenthal and John Charles Thomas

In the 1930s, the concerts lured some of the most prominent performers and conductors in the world: Pons, Jascha Heifetz, Bobby Breen, Rudy Vallee, Helen Morgan, conductor Andre Kostelanetz, violinists David Rubinoff, Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist and Albert Spalding, pianist Moriz Rosenthal, sopranos Marion Claire, Edith Mason and Vivian Della Chiesa, tenors Tito Schipa, John Carter, Lawrence Tibbett and baritone John Charles Thomas.

1940s performers included (left to right) Mario Lanza, Paul Robeson, Grace Moore, Mischa Mischakoff and Frederick Stock

The 1940s saw a broad spectrum of performers including Mario Lanza, clarinetist Benny Goodman, soprano Kirsten Flagstad and actor-singer Paul Robeson. Other performers included sopranos Claire, Eileen Farrell, Grace Moore and Della Chiesa, tenors Giovanni Martinelli, Richard Tucker and Jan Peerce, baritone Robert Merrill, violinist Mischa Mischakoff and conductors Frederick Stock, Leo Kopp, Arthur Fiedler and Antal Doráti.

Beginning in the 1950s Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley greeted the opening night crowds nearly every year during his 21-year tenure. Among the performers of the 1950s were sopranos Beverly Sills and Farrell, tenor Peerce, pianists, Van Cliburn, Jorge Bolet, Gary Graffman and Earl Wild, violinists Elman and Michael Rabin and cellist Janos Starker.

1950s and 1960s performers included (left to right) Beverly Sills, Marian Anderson, Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman and Leonard Bernstein

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. The Joffrey Ballet performed Gerald Arpino and George Balanchine works.

1970s performers included (left to right) Dave Brubeck, Leonard Slatkin, Aaron Copland and Kathleen Battle

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. Conductors included Mitch Miller, Leonard Slatkin, Aaron Copland and David Zinman. Dancer Edward Villella and soprano Kathleen Battle also made appearances.

1980s and 1990s performers included (left to right) Rosemary Clooney, Joshua Bell and Doc Severinsen

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. Conductors included Macal, Slatkin, Wolff, Zinman and Shaw.

Performers in the 1990s included Van Cliburn, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, Rosemary Clooney, violinist Joshua Bell, conductor Maxim Shostakovich (who led works by his father Dmitry Shostakovich), trumpeter Doc Severinsen and soprano Deborah Voigt.

2000s (decade) performers included (left to right) Vittorio Grigolo, Otis Clay, Mariza, The Decemberists and Jonita Lattimore

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. Other performers include pianist Valentina Lisitsa, soprano Jonita Lattimore, baritone Nathan Gunn and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore. The Joffrey Ballet also performed with the Festival.

The principal conductor is Carlos Kalmar. Guests in the 2007 season included Marc-André Hamelin, Russell Braun, Erin Wall, Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus and many more performing the works of composers such as Brahms, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Leo Brouwer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Tan Dun and Ferruccio Busoni.

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 score by five-time Academy Award-winning composer George Fenton, who served as conductor.