Photo: Klaus Mäkelä
Haymarket Opera, Ester
Haymarket Opera opens its fifteenth-anniversary season with the Chicago premiere of Alessandro Stradella’s 1673 oratorio, “Ester, liberatrice del popolo ebreo” (Esther, the liberator of the Hebrew people) as part of its Lenten oratorio series. Soprano Kimberly McCord sings the title role of the defiant Jewish queen with a cast that includes bass-baritone Christian Pursell, countertenor Ryan Belongie, soprano Emily Birsan and bass Anthony Reed. Haymarket founder and artistic director Craig Trompeter leads an orchestra of period instruments that makes use of ritornello composed in the style of Stradella by Jory Vinikour to fill in the gaps left in the surviving manuscript.
Friday, March 28, 7:30pm, at Gannon Concert Hall in Holtschneider Performance Center at DePaul University, 2330 North Halsted. Tickets start at $33 plus fees, available at haymarketopera.org.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Third Symphony
It was a year ago in April since the announcement of Finnish conductor and cellist Klaus Mäkelä as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s youngest-ever music director, starting with the 2027-28 season. Although his upcoming two weeks of programs in late April and early May are Mäkelä’s first concerts since his single week here in April of 2024, he was in Chicago to audition violinists and cellists last fall. (Only one hire, Venezuelan violinist Gabriela Lara—the CSO’s first-ever Latina—was made.) Mäkelä’s return spotlights the Mahler Third Symphony, not insignificant given it was after his memorable Mahler Fifth Symphony in 2023 that he was asked to become music director. The Fifth is an instrumental work, while the Third includes a vocalist, German contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, and two choruses, the Chicago Symphony Chorus under guest director James Bass and the children’s chorus Uniting Voices Chicago under artistic director Josephine Lee—uncharted territory for Mäkelä in Chicago. Mahler’s unpublished program for the monumental six-movement work suggests that its thirty-minute opening movement portrays the awakening of Pan prior to summer, with subsequent movements conveying flowers, animals, man, angels and love.
April 24-26, 7:30pm, at Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, 220 South Michigan. Tickets start at $55, available at cso.org.
Music of the Baroque, Celestial Voices
Music of the Baroque’s principal guest conductor since 2003, Nicholas Kraemer turns eighty on March 7. The milestone birthday is being celebrated with MOB’s first performances of Handel’s “Theodora” since 1985 on March 2-3. Kraemer also returns in May to conduct a program that looks back to the origins of MOB, which began as an ensemble that presented choral works in resplendent area churches under founder Thomas S. Wikman. “Celestial Voices” refreshingly returns to that template of presenting great choral masterpieces in sacred spaces with resonant acoustics. The Bach double-choir motet “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” (Sing to the Lord a new song) is the culmination of a program that spotlights the range of repertoire of the Music of the Baroque Chorus, from Palestrina, William Byrd and Monteverdi to Rameau and Henry Purcell.
Handel’s “Theodora” on Sunday, March 2, 7:30pm, at North Shore Center, 9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie; and Monday, March 3, 7:30pm, at Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph. “Celestial Voices” on Sunday, May 11, 7:30pm, at Faith, Hope & Charity Catholic Church, 191 Linden Street, Winnetka; and Monday, May 12, 7:30pm, at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 East Chestnut. For both events, tickets start at $33, available via baroque.org.
Dal Niente, Chicago Season Closing Concert
Now in its twentieth year, Ensemble Dal Niente performs new and experimental chamber music regularly in Chicago as well as domestically and internationally. Dal niente—“from nothing” in Italian—is both a reference to Helmut Lachenmann’s “Dal niente (Interieur)” and to the group’s humble origins. Its 2024-25 season concludes with a program that includes the world premiere of a new work for mixed ensemble by Brazilian-Chicago composer Igor Santos along with three major works receiving U.S. premieres: Columbian composer Luis Fernando Rizo-Salom’s “Quatre Pantomimes” (2013) for flute, clarinet, horn, violin, viola and cello; Australian composer Liza Lim’s “Ochred String” (2008) for oboe, viola, cello and double bass; and Italian composer Fausto Romitelli’s “Have Your Trip” (1988-89) for guitar, mandolin and harp.
Friday, May 30, 6:30pm, at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. More information at dalniente.com.
Dennis Polkow is an award-winning veteran journalist, critic, author, broadcaster and educator. He made his stage debut at age five, was a child art prodigy and began playing keyboards in clubs at the age of fourteen. He holds degrees in music theory, composition, religious studies and philosophy from DePaul University in Chicago. Polkow spent his early years performing and recording in rock and jazz bands while concertizing as a classical pianist, organist and harpsichordist and composing, arranging and producing for other artists. As a scholar, Polkow has published and lectured extensively and taught at several colleges and universities in various departments. As an actor, narrator and consultant, Polkow has been involved with numerous films, plays, broadcasts and documentaries. As a journalist, Polkow helped co-create the experiential Chicago Musicale and Spotlight, the award-winning tabloid arts and entertainment section of the Press Publications chain of newspapers, which he later edited. He also created and ran the nationally recognized journalism program at Oakton College and was faculty advisor to its award-winning student newspaper; many former students went on to major media careers, including Channel Awesome’s the Nostalgia Critic. Polkow’s research, interviews, features, reviews and commentaries have appeared across national and international media and he has corresponded from the Middle East, Asia and Africa for the Chicago Tribune. Contact: dpolkow25@aol.com
