RECOMMENDED It isn’t often that you get to see an orchestra performing all dressed up in elaborately ghoulish costumes, but the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, i.e., the superb training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, does exactly that in what has become an annual Halloween tradition called “Hallowed Haunts,” in which Orchestra Hall is transformed into a gigantic haunted house and performs “spooky” music. The audience for this family-friendly event is also encouraged to come in costume as well, so that shy orchestra members won’t feel too self-conscious (actually, most of them really get into this) and there are pre-concert family activities starting at 1:30pm. This year’s program is conducted by Edwin Outwater and is called “The Composer is Dead,” written and narrated by popular children’s character Lemony Snicket with music by composer Nathaniel Stookey, a kind of musical “whodunnit?” murder mystery that introduces the audience members to the various instruments of the orchestra as possible suspects. The irony is that, more often than not, an orchestra concert is “Night of the Living Dead” all year long in that most of the composers heard have long departed. (Dennis Polkow) Saturday, October 27 at Symphony Center
Brutal Finesse: A Preview of King Crimson at Ravinia There have been few new compositions from King Crimson these past two decades, but the live arrangements of songs from its catalog are often strikingly different than the recorded versions.
Cooling It: A Preview of Colleen Green at Cole’s Bar When Green strums power chords or chiming notes on top of her backing track, you might think you’re at Ramones karaoke night and Madonna is taking her turn.
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens. And much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is fully scored. But when Wainwright hits the Pavilion stage at Ravinia tonight, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be behind him.
Can’t-Miss Music Events (Fall Arts Preview 2023) This fall we get new albums and tours from iconic acts like Wilco and Kurt Elling, plus a Corrine Bailey Rae project inspired by Theaster Gates' Stony Island Arts Bank.
