RECOMMENDED The brainchild of Chicago Symphony Chorus director Duain Wolfe—who also serves as conductor—“Welcome, Yule!” spotlights the multiple Grammy Award-winning chorus that ranks among the world’s finest in seasonal repertoire accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Holiday songs, musical productions and colorfully costumed characters dominate the proceedings in a festively decorated Orchestra Hall that this year includes the new Welcome Yule! Dance Ensemble and the Welcome Yule! Children’s Ensemble (Midwest Young Artists Voices Rising). This year’s program includes Leroy Anderson’s “A Christmas Festival” and “Sleigh Ride,” the rarely performed Polonaise from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Christmas Eve” and carols arranged by Chicago composer Gary Fry including “Another Wonderful Christmas,” “The Hall Bedecked,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?” as well as his “Christmas in Chicago” which references many Chicago holiday traditions and which has become a staple of these concerts, and Gene Scheer’s “Christmas Once More” makes a return after having been premiered at these concerts in 2000. Local community and school choirs will perform holiday carols throughout the lobby spaces of Symphony Center before each concert and during intermission. (Dennis Polkow) $20-$84. 7 p.m., December 14, 3 p.m., December 15, 1 & 4:30 p.m. December 16, (next week:) 7 p.m. December 21, 1 & 4:30 p.m. December 23, Symphony Center’s Orchestra Hall, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; (312) 294-3000.
Scenes From A Season: An Inside Look at a Year with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Walking out onto the stage last September, Muti was receiving his first applause at Orchestra Hall in over nineteen months. The celebrated Italian-born music director of the CSO, who had turned eighty two months earlier, was clearly moved. What made the acclamation unusual was that the hall was empty. The orchestra itself was providing heartfelt and sustained applause, greeting Muti…
A Positive Light: The Soul Children of Chicago Sing "O-o-h Child" at Chicago Live! The Chicago Live! concerts coincide with the last weekend of “State of Sound: A World of Music from Illinois” music exhibit. As a sendoff, the Soul Children of Chicago will sing “O-o-h Child” in tribute to this socially significant Chicago song. The thirty-piece choir has been rehearsing the song for a month and the pier audience will be encouraged to…
