Music 45 2025: Introduction
Music 45 2025: Musicians

Here are Chicago’s Music 45 Producers.

Troy Anderson/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Troy Anderson
Executive Director/CEO, Old Town School of Folk Music

Troy Anderson’s father was a high-school band director who offered him a deep exposure to concerts and musical festivals. “Experiencing and playing music became my safe space and a place of freedom,” says Anderson. And “when I discovered the work of community music organizations, I saw a pathway to foster that same spirit, connectivity, and place for others.” Ensuring access to music has been at the core of Anderson’s work for decades. In addition to providing classes for all ages and abilities, the Old Town School of Folk Music programs free concerts and classes annually to more than ten thousand people in disinvested South and West Side neighborhoods. “Music has an innate ability to bring people together, regardless of our differences,” Anderson says. “And that’s what the world needs.” (Billy Lombardo)

Alejandro Zerah and Joe Carsello/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Joe Carsello and Alejandro Zerah
Senior Talent Buyer, Metro, Smartbar, Gman and Talent Buyer, Smartbar

Since 1982, Metro and Smartbar have served as Chicago institutions making and preserving local, national and international music history. From early shows with Ministry and Naked Raygun to Horsegirl’s tour kickoff earlier this year, Metro has always supported local talent, creating opportunities for audiences to see up-and-coming as well as established acts up close. Smartbar remains an essential Chicago dance club, continuously introducing new performers while highlighting the history of house, techno and dark wave that have defined Chicago’s sound and influenced the world. Carsello has worked at both for seventeen years, and is currently the senior talent buyer for the block of venues. As Chicago’s music landscape continues to shift, he rides the waves to ensure these spaces continue to create sonic memories for lifetimes. Zerah, the Smartbar talent buyer, books diverse programming that reveres the venue’s legacy while maintaining relevance, with cutting-edge DJs both new and veteran providing a soundtrack for the present and future of dance music. (Bart A. Lazar)

Carlos Cuauhtémoc Tortolero and David Chávez/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

David Chávez and Carlos Cuauhtémoc Tortolero
Artistic Director/Festival Curator and Program Coordinator, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events

Anyone whose life is connected to the arts is aware that massive federal funding cuts threaten to disrupt the level of cultural programming we’ve seen in the past. The team at DCASE (Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) is working to allocate resources to sustain the artistic landscape of our city, and to put the tools to create art into the hands of the creators. Carlos Cuauhtémoc Tortolero and David Chávez manage the programming for the music team at DCASE, which includes deputy commissioner Frayne Lewis and music programmer Rey Irizarry. Together they bring a wealth of music events to the city, including the Millennium Park Summer Music series, the Chicago Blues Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Chicago House Music Festival + Conference, SummerDance, Chicago Made and more. (Aaron Hunt)

Kori Coleman/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Kori Coleman
Founder and Executive/Artistic Director, D-Composed

At every turn, D-Composed is building roots and making waves. Coleman, who’s been described as a “visionary figure” in Chicago’s music landscape, leads the Black chamber music collective, which she started in 2017 with yelley taylor. D-Composed’s mission is “to uplift and empower society through the music of Black composers,” inspiring the next generation of musicians with community-centered programming and experiences. The organization is an inaugural creative partner-in-residence of Theaster Gates’ new space The Land School, and they’re making the South Side location home, giving them a new physical space to host partnerships, workshops and open rehearsals. Coleman’s commitment to Chicago is carving the foundation for others to get involved and connected to resources in the classical music world and beyond. See her leadership at work in D-Composed’s upcoming programs, including a residency at Steppenwolf Theatre’s LookOut Series this November and a program at Symphony Center next March. (Teddy Sandler)

Kelly Deasy/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Kelly Deasy
Founder, outer/most agency

Kelly Deasy didn’t know what would happen to the world of live music soon after co-founding the independent booking agency outer/most in January 2020. While our nation’s overall economy suffered that year, the arts and culture sector was hit particularly hard: The performing-arts industry saw its revenue drop by seventy-three percent. Nevertheless, Deasy and the team have managed to grow the company in the years since, with outer/most now representing an impressive roster numbering over eighty artists. outer/most is growing a global presence—about a third of its roster is comprised of international artists, and the company has staff around the world—but the agency’s Rockwell on the River office acts as its central hub. The Columbia College graduate notes that “having a Chicago-based company is something [she] will always remain passionate about.” (Aaron Hunt)

Lori Dimun/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Lori Dimun
President/CEO, Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Harris Theater president and CEO Lori Dimun describes the twenty-two-year-old arts center just north of Millennium Park as “one of Chicago’s most vibrant and versatile homes for music.” Dimun says that the theater’s simple, contemporary architecture allows each performance to transform the space, while “impeccable acoustics” as well as the flexibility to move from intimate chamber music to amplified sound make it a worthy hall for any genre of performance. This season will include Steve Hackman’s “Beethoven X Beyoncé,” the Silk Road Ensemble, the Black Monument Ensemble, Angel Bat Dawid, the Ear Taxi Festival, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Philharmonic, the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus and Chicago Sinfonietta. “Harris has become a creative playground where artists and audiences connect in a vibrant, welcoming environment—a place where music of all kinds comes alive,” Dimun says. (Mary Wisniewski)

Kate Dumbleton/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Kate Dumbleton
Artistic/Executive Director, Hyde Park Jazz Festival

The Hyde Park Jazz Festival is a neighborhood event that rivals the jazz festivals of major cities. Part of it may be the tradition of the neighborhood, as Hyde Park has long been a center for new ideas in music as well as politics and literature. As artistic and executive director, Kate Dumbleton carries on this tradition. A professor at the School of the Art Institute, Dumbleton has a history of performing and promoting music nationwide, including work with the Intersection for the Arts and Bruno’s Jazz Club in San Francisco, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Jazz Institute of Chicago and the Logan Center for the Arts. A member of the jazz festival staff since 2012, she has seen the festival grow in what has become a rough fiscal environment for the arts. The 2025 festival, which took place in September, included artists as diverse as local legends Maggie and Africa Brown, AACM stalwart Ari Brown, and blues harmonica virtuoso Billy Branch. Staff including Leah Duval, Sidney Garrett, Sam Lewis, Dave Rempis and Mashaune Hardy are also instrumental in making Dumbleton’s job possible. (David Witter)

Jessica King and Will Duncan/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Will Duncan and Jessica King
Owners, FitzGerald’s

For decades, FitzGerald’s at 6615 West Roosevelt Road in Berwyn has been an essential showcase for both local talent and nationally known musicians. Since taking over ownership five years ago, just before the start of the pandemic, married couple Will Duncan and Jessica King have kept the club’s intimate, friendly atmosphere while continuing to attract world-class performers. The summer four-day American Music Festival draws audiences from around the country. Local musician Jenny Bienemann praises “their dedication to supporting musicians, promoting creativity, and providing an authentic live experience which enriches the city’s artistic landscape.” (Mary Wisniewski)

Robert Gomez/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Robert Gomez
Owner, Subterranean and Beat Kitchen

Robert Gomez, owner of iconic music venues Subterranean and Beat Kitchen, has championed emerging artists for decades. Since opening in 1994, Subterranean’s two stages have hosted countless local emcees and hip-hop acts, including Chance the Rapper’s first headlining show. Beat Kitchen—known for showcasing punk, bluegrass, indie and other genres —is celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary this year. Gomez takes pride in seeing artists like Lizzo, The Lumineers, Fall Out Boy and Chappell Roan credit his venues for early opportunities. When asked about the significance of his work, he says, “music lifts our spirits. It’s how we communicate and find our souls—and if ever we needed soul-searching, it’s now.” (Amy Danzer)

Giancarlo Guerrero
Artistic Director/Principal Conductor, Grant Park Music Festival

It’s not easy to follow a predecessor like Carlos Kalmar, who led the Grant Park Music Festival for twenty-five years before stepping down in 2024. But from the get-go, there was a palpable connection between Giancarlo Guerrero and the Grant Park Orchestra. “We hit it off right away,” says Guerrero. “We clicked. It was apparent to them—and to me—that there was something special there.” Guerrero made his own mark in his 2025 inaugural season with energetic and innovative programs that skillfully juxtaposed new and rarely performed work with the familiar. Guerrero is already looking ahead to next summer, the 250th anniversary of America, when the Grant Park spotlight will be on American music. “And a big focus on, ‘What is an American composer?’” Immigrants, for sure, Guerrero agrees. “Some more recent than others. Rachmaninoff was a U.S. passport holder, but we don’t think of him as American. Why not? So was Stravinsky. So was Schoenberg. Most would say American symphonic music really began in the late nineteenth century, as there weren’t many orchestras much earlier. If you ask to name an American composer before Gershwin, a few may be able to say Amy Beach or Edward MacDowell, but there’s not really a lot. We think of American music as largely a twentieth-century invention, post-Gershwin. And something to be celebrated.” (Dennis Polkow)

Jeffrey P. Haydon/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Jeffrey P. Haydon
President/CEO, Ravinia Festival

Jeffrey P. Haydon was giving Ravinia a once-over as the venue was about to reopen in 2021 when he noticed the Pavilion was showing its age. “All of Ravinia’s stages are anywhere from forty to 120 years old, and they needed a lot of upgrading and attention,” says Haydon. It became clear that a $75 million gut renovation—where the iconic roof, pillars and envelope of the building would stay, but the stage, seats and backstage areas would be replaced—was necessary, as Haydon puts it, to achieve “what Ravinia needs to look like and how it needs to function to succeed for now and future generations.” The bulk of the renovation will be underway during the 2025-26 off-season and the Pavilion should be ready for a delayed July 2026 season opening, coinciding with the start of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual residency. “A large part of the expense is directly to benefit the CSO: the new orchestra shell, the new dressing rooms, the reconfigured sound design. If we were just a rock venue, we would be spending probably thirty percent less on this whole project.” Haydon sees the Pavilion renovation as the largest piece of an overall vision to renovate all of Ravinia’s stages in time for the Festival’s 125th anniversary in 2029. (Dennis Polkow)

Stefan Hersh
Artistic Director, Guarneri Hall

For Stefan Hersh, every concert at Guarneri Hall is an event. “Where else do you go and hang out with fifty of your best friends, hear a great concert with really world-class talents, and then go party next door with them in a really familiar kind of setting? It’s like throwing a really fun party every time.” As the co-founder of Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, which opened downtown in 2002, Hersh wanted to showcase the finest talent close by. “I’m a violinist, and I’m still active as a violinist. But I rarely play in Guarneri Hall because I didn’t want it to become my plaything that way. I wanted it to be about these younger artists. The joke I make is, why would I subject the audience to me when I can get people so much better than me?” Guarneri Hall began as a downtown recording space in the same office building as what Hersh refers to as his “for-profit business”—Guarneri is not-for-profit— that could also offer concerts. But its strength as a live venue quickly became evident. “I couldn’t have imagined a space that small being that fabulous for live music, so we ended up leaning in on that. I learn so much and everybody who comes to Guarneri Hall gets a chance to learn. To hear that much detail in a performance, even pieces you know well, is such a gift. I feel like I hear things I couldn’t otherwise hear when I’m in that space.” Hersh emphasizes that he has an incredible team, and that Guarneri Hall is “really unique in what we present and how we present it” because of that teamwork. (Dennis Polkow)

Brent Heyl and Jake Samuels/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Brent Heyl and Jake Samuels
Directors of Music, 16” on Center

The dynamic music directors began their work within different venues in the 16” on Center collective but joined forces just over a decade ago at Thalia Hall. Thanks to their programming prowess, emerging artists can chart their entire careers through the increasingly large venues they oversee, from the originals, Empty Bottle and Space, to the newer and bigger Salt Shed. Their boundaryless booking mindset offers room for artists of all genres and styles, helping keep Chicago an essential stop for touring musicians of all kinds. It’s impossible for avid audiophiles to miss their stellar production in this city, whether at their shows in the aforementioned venues or at Empty Bottle Presents productions like Beyond the Gate and Plantasia. Brent Heyl and Jake Samuels are champions of the Third Coast’s independent music venues, instrumental in warding off conglomerates from exploiting the local scenes. Their passion—and most importantly, curation—shines through in their work, keeping 16” on Center events sustainable and exciting. (Teddy Sandler)

Sidney P. Jackson, Jr./Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Sidney P. Jackson, Jr.
President/CEO, Chicago Sinfonietta

Sidney Jackson is the new CEO of Chicago Sinfonietta, a social-impact orchestra founded by conductor Paul Freeman in 1987 to champion equity and representation onstage and off. Jackson, who had served as vice president for development of the New Jersey Symphony, calls Chicago “one of the most vibrant cultural cities in the world.” He says that leading Chicago Sinfonietta is more than a professional milestone: “It’s the perfect convergence of purpose, place and possibility. Chicago is a city where art and activism live side by side, and the Sinfonietta is proof of what’s possible when both are taken seriously.” Jackson says that under the leadership of music director Mei-Ann Chen, the Sinfonietta legacy has not only endured, but grown, inspiring a new generation of artists, audiences and advocates. Coming up for the Sinfonietta are the “Holidays of Hope” concerts December 19-20 and the Martin Luther King Jr. concerts January 18-19. (Mary Wisniewski)

Scott Speck and Terell Johnson/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Terell Johnson and Scott Speck
Executive Director and Artistic Director/Principal Conductor, Chicago Philharmonic

“We’ve been called ‘Chicago’s Ferrari of orchestras’ by Chicago Classical Review, and that is kind of the way I see us,” says Terell Johnson. “I see us like a small speedboat amongst cruise liners. It’s a little bit harder for the larger institutions in the city to turn, but we’ve been able to be very nimble. We have six professional orchestras within a two-mile radius downtown—with Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Sinfonietta and Grant Park—so it’s important that we’ve created a way forward by being flexible.” The Chicago Philharmonic has doubled its operating budget from two to four million dollars since Johnson’s arrival four years ago, largely by doing away with the subscription season model. “By not putting our artistic dollars into venue rental but instead partnering with venues, our money goes further, which allows us to do more performances. Over the last four years we’ve expanded our ticket revenue by nineteen times.” Among the venues the Chicago Philharmonic performs at are the Auditorium, Harris Theater, Ravinia Festival (“our thirtieth year there”) and last year, even Carnegie Hall and Lollapalooza. “What we’re trying to do is fill a niche that isn’t otherwise being filled in the city of Chicago,” says Scott Speck. “We started playing all around the city, not just downtown. And we started to attract audiences all over the place doing concerts with traveling rock groups, performances with traveling ballet or dance companies, the Joffrey Ballet on occasion [Speck is also music director of the Joffrey Ballet, which uses the Lyric Opera Orchestra], and playing for movies. We’re also very interested in reaching out to specific communities. For several years now, we’ve done a Chinese New Year’s concert that really has made inroads in the Chinese community. We were heavily active in the one-hundredth anniversary of Polish independence and have a really warm relationship with the Polish community. In October at the Ear Taxi Festival, we did ‘An African American Requiem.’ I love working with Terell and I love that our musicians are one of the greatest resources that our city has. And I love that the Chicago Philharmonic has made a niche for itself by trying to make itself relevant to every community in Chicago.” (Dennis Polkow)

Klaus Mäkelä
Music Director Designate, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

When then-twenty-six-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä performed a magnificent Mahler Fifth Symphony in early 2023—his second-ever appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—he was asked virtually on the spot if he would become the CSO’s next music director. Mäkelä was already chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and music director of the Orchestre de Paris, so his availability was over four-and-a-half years away. And even then, he is to enter into the second half of a ten-year contract with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra when he becomes its chief conductor in 2027-28, the same season his five-year contract as CSO music director will begin. While that is still two years away, Mäkelä’s influence is already being felt. His concerts have been memorable, critical acclaim has been far and wide, audience reaction wildly enthusiastic, his rapport with the Orchestra extraordinary and his two announced hires thus far significant. “From the first moment, I was extremely impressed with what they could do,” says Mäkelä of the CSO. “I started immediately searching: what can we do together? What kind of sound can we get? What kind of balance? I truly enjoy that they play with such passion, such excellence, such brilliance. It’s really a great honor to start our journey together. I can’t wait.” (Dennis Polkow)

Liza Malamut and Ben David Aronson
Artistic Director and Executive Director, Newberry Consort

In today’s instantaneous information cycle, a song that dropped last month might be considered “old.” So what about music from the sixteenth century? Will it disappear? Liza Malamut and Ben David Aronson of the Newberry Consort want to make sure it doesn’t. The Consort performs works from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque periods and beyond. All concerts are performed on period instruments in historical styles appropriate for the repertoire. Malamut and Aronson are continuing in this tradition, having recently staged Jacopo Peri’s 1600 opera “Euridice.” Malamut is a trombonist with a doctorate in historical performance from Boston University. “My research areas are primarily historical trombone and historical brass, as well as Jewish music in early modern Italy,” Malamut says. “My most recent published work is an article on the musician Europa Rossi, who performed at the Mantua court toward the end of the sixteenth century.” Formerly an instructor at SUNY, Aronson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music, and has worked with Pegasus Early Music, Publick Musick, Piffaro, Dark Horse Consort, Tenet, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Opera Lafayette, among others. Besides working side by side as directors, Malamut and Aronson also perform together. “He [Aronson] has implemented an infrastructure that is transforming the Consort and allowing us to look much further forward than we were able to in the past,” Malamut says. “That, in turn, has allowed our artistic programming to really grow. He’s also a fabulous trombonist, both historical and modern.” (David Witter)

Tony Mangiullo
Founder, Rosa’s Lounge and Rosa’s Lounge Records

In August 1978, Tony Mangiullo made his way by train, ferry and bus from Italy to Theresa’s Lounge down on East 48th and Indiana. He was welcomed by the proprietor Theresa Needham herself, and heard Junior Wells sing and play harp. Fast-forward to 1984: Mangiullo opened Rosa’s Lounge on West Armitage as an homage to Theresa’s and other great family-owned and operated South Side Chicago blues clubs like Buddy Guy’s and L.C. Thurman’s Checkerboard Lounge. People still come to Rosa’s from around the world (and around the block) to see legendary Chicago blues hall-of-famers like John Primer, whom he first heard at Theresa’s, as well as performers from the generations that have followed. Not content with merely keeping the Chicago blues flame alive through the lounge, Mangiullo makes his presence felt at the annual Chicago Blues Festival, where he’s sponsored the Rosa’s Lounge Stage. He recently started Rosa’s Lounge Records, a label with an initial release by Willie Dixon-alum and Chicago blues ambassador Billy Branch. Though Chicago is the world’s capital of blues, it has fewer and fewer supporters of the art like Mangiullo. (Bart A. Lazar)

Declan McGovern/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Declan McGovern and Dame Jane Glover
Executive Director and Music Director, Music of the Baroque

“Hello, Chicago!” called out Dame Jane Glover from the top level of a boat on the Chicago River stopped near the Merchandise Mart, where she was conducting the Music of the Baroque orchestra and chorus in September. Hundreds of Chicagoans cheered from bridges and down along the shore, gathered to experience the second-ever Chicago Water Music. “Her energy and her ideas are amazing,” says Declan McGovern. “The way she embraces the Chicago Water Music and the open-air Baroque in the Park we do annually in Millennium Park, it’s great. She’s incredibly driven, energetic and open-minded. I love that about her, because it means that we’re able to do so many exciting things.” “Declan is a fabulous collaborator,” says Glover. “He’s brilliant and a true impresario. We’ve expanded our extracurricular activities quite a bit in his time.” McGovern is aware of Music of the Baroque’s need to reach out, which is why the organization has been doing more community outreach to city neighborhoods such as Pilsen and Austin. It also returned to its roots by expanding performances in area churches—not only during its annual Holiday Brass and Choral Concerts, but also for a new annual spring choral concert, Celestial Voices. “The music we play is the bedrock, the foundation stone of where everything then came from—whether it’s opera, concertos or the early roots of the symphony, and the whole idea of virtuosity and the concept of the soloist. I feel we’ve got so much going for us in terms of inviting people in. Our concertos are often just ten minutes long. We’re not doing Mahler symphonies here.” One of the things that attracted both McGovern and Glover to Music of the Baroque is the organization’s deep roots within Chicago culture, dating all the way back to the early 1970s. “We’re not a period instrument ensemble,” says McGovern, “so the parallel in Europe in many ways is to Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which was very similar to what [founder] Tom Wikman did here: a modern-instrument orchestra playing this earlier music in a nuanced and stylistic way that suits the period. There’s a legacy there. And with Jane as well.” “I feel so at home in Chicago,” says Glover. (Dennis Polkow)

Andrew Mitchell/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Andrew Mitchell
Founder, 606 Records

A little more than ten years ago, Andrew (Drew) Mitchell left the corporate world to follow the dream, with a partner, of building a unique, independent, local, safe, accessible, community record store in Pilsen. 606 Records has achieved tremendous success, surviving everything from COVID to tariffs, and thriving to the benefit of vinyl lovers, Thalia Hall patrons and the local artists and record companies it champions. Most recently, 606 released its third compilation and fourth record, “Balance,” which was manufactured at Smashed Plastic and pools unique Chicago talent. Prior compilations “Unity” and “Transition” affirm the themes and mantra Drew supports. On top of being a father of two and running a record shop and label, Drew’s self-described beautiful journey expands as the “sonic curator” at Charis Listening Bar in Bridgeport—he regularly DJs, and, as the moniker suggests, frames the vibe of another Chicago community institution in the making. (Bart A. Lazar)

Aria Pedraza/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Aria Pedraza
Founder, Midwest Rave Culture Archive

Born and raised in a family of heavyweight disc jockeys and promoters, Aria Pedraza understands the richness of Midwest rave culture—and the challenges of preserving its many histories. In 2021, she began to envision a collective effort to preserve and care for audio, visual and print ephemera related to rave culture across the region. After spending time gauging community interest and laying the groundwork, Pedraza released the zine “1438: Midwest Jungle, Techno, & Rave Culture” in 2024, which led to the grand launch of the Midwest Rave Culture Archive (MWRCA) this summer, with a kickoff party at Ping Tom Memorial Park and a fundraising campaign. The archive stewards hundreds of flyers from parties across the Midwest and to the coasts, as well as printed magazines or zines, cassettes, DATs, VHS videos and digital files. They’ve even acquired production notes and planning docs, as well as handwritten nitrous tank refill receipts. “Our culture as a verb is to be experienced in real time—parties are here tonight and gone by the next afternoon. I believe our collective memories to be paramount in how we can exercise preservation,” Pedraza says. What’s next? She hopes to produce a biannual regional publication and is thrilled to present archival materials at an artists’ retreat, Sonic Resonance, in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. (Nicky Ni)

Heather Ireland Robinson and John Foster/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Heather Ireland Robinson and John Foster
Executive Director and Managing Director of Programs and Education Initiatives, Jazz Institute of Chicago

Driven by their love for jazz, community and a belief that music can change lives, Heather Ireland Robinson and John Foster work tirelessly to preserve the legacy of jazz in Chicago, to make the art form accessible to anyone, and to cultivate new generations of performers. Through their work at the Jazz Institute of Chicago they offer programs like Front Row—a series of intimate jazz concerts, masterclasses and panel discussions—International Jazz Day, the world-famous Chicago Jazz Festival and the revived Winter Jazz Fair. The Institute also offers educational initiatives like Jazz Links Jam Sessions, Let Freedom Swing and the Jazz Masters Residency Program. Robinson notes that the impact of musicians is multiplied by thousands when working with young people. Foster regards it as the highest calling “if you can help make someone the next Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Herbie Hancock.” (Amy Danzer)

Marco Salvi
CEO, Lyon & Healy

Lyon & Healy was founded in 1864 by two young Bostonians, George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy, who sold sheet music. The business expanded to the sale and manufacture of instruments, surviving the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. The business began building its own harps around 1890, and sold them around the world. Victor Salvi of Italy’s Salvi Harps added Lyon & Healy Harps to his business group in 1987, and his son Marco Salvi took over as president in 2015. After 161 years, Lyon and Healy still makes orchestral, folk and electric harps in its factory just west of the Loop at 168 North Ogden—schedule a tour at the company website. (Mary Wisniewski)

Barbara Schubert and Sarah Curran/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Barbara Schubert and Sarah Curran
Music Director/Conductor, UChicago Symphony Orchestra and Executive Director, UChicago Presents

For half a century, Barbara Schubert has served as an esteemed anchor of Chicago’s orchestral tradition. She leads the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the DuPage Symphony Orchestra and the Park Ridge Fine Arts Symphony—an output that spans canon from Berlioz to Tchaikovsky alongside premieres by local composers like Daniel Pesca and Shawn Okbebpholo. “The scene in Chicago is incredibly rich,” she says. “Listeners can hear exciting performances of music from around the world and through the centuries, all over Chicagoland.” Celebrating her fiftieth year on the podium, Schubert says, “I’ve learned so much from collaborating with hundreds of musicians and performing thousands of works. It’s been challenging, inspiring, and enormously rewarding.” Meanwhile, Sarah Curran represents the city’s forward-facing curatorial impetus. Named executive director of UChicago Presents in 2023, she also served as consulting curator for the Experimental Performance Initiative (eXp) at the University of Chicago. With prior curatorial leadership at Stanford, Wesleyan and the Tribeca Film Festival, Curran offers a broad interdisciplinary vision. “The Chicago music scene continually reinvents itself—whether it’s site-specific concerts in unexpected places or collaborations between vastly different disciplines.” She is especially excited to spotlight Indigenous artists in the months ahead, with a planned performance of Raven Chacon’s “American Ledger, No. 3” and a performance from Julia Keefe’s Indigenous jazz ensemble early next year. For Curran, UChicago Presents is a chance to provide “accessible, innovative, world-class performances to audiences on campus, in the community and beyond.” (Dylan Weinert)

Chris Bauman and Jimalita Tillman/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Jimalita Tillman and Chris Bauman
Co-Chairs, Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL)

In an environment where giant corporations continue to expand and our federal government dismantles the arts with rabid fervor, smaller independent venues face more challenges than ever. Yet there is strength in numbers, which is the impetus behind the Chicago Independent Venue League. With membership of over fifty Chicago venues, the league “nurtures creativity, diversity and community, championing these essential spaces, recognizing their dual role as cultural powerhouses and economic engines.” The non-profit was vital in helping small venues stay afloat through lockdown and battle taxpayer-subsidized corporate music venues in the proposed Lincoln Yards Project. The organization is currently led by co-chairs Chris Bauman and Jimalita Tillman. Tillman, the daughter of former alder Dorothy Tillman and blues musician Dr. Jimmy Tillman, grew up in an arts-filled household where figures like Lou Rawls or Donnell Jones would regularly drop by. Tillman is also a trained musician and the global director of the Harold Washington Cultural Center. Bauman is the owner of the Zenith Music Group, whose plans outside CIVL include expanding to open two new venues, launching a new technology to help venues fill up their rooms and starting two new music festivals. At CIVL, Tillman, Bauman and other league leadership are working to support a recent lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission. “We strongly support [their] lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster for their deceptive ticket resale practices,” Tillman says. “We believe that ensuring accountability in ticketing will keep more funds within Chicago, boosting support for musicians, venue staff and our vibrant creative communities. As we unite as a country, it’s essential that music and venues play a pivotal role, allowing artists to express themselves without infringing on the liberties of others.” (David Witter)

Christopher Den Uijl and Aaron Ampudia
Co-Founders, Sueños Music Festival

While the recent narrative around music festivals has mostly centered on the decline of bigger events, the massive success of Sueños, launched in just 2022, stands out as an anomaly. Over a hundred-thousand attendees sang and danced their way through the 2025 festival, thanks to the musical magic-making of festival co-founders Aaron Ampudia and Christopher Den Uijl. Their mutual affection for reggaeton and Latin music led them to join forces to create festivals around these musical styles, with a growing portfolio of events that also includes Baja Beach and Coca-Cola. Thanks to an agreement with the Chicago Park District reached last summer, they’ll have at least a few more years in Grant Park to see how the festival might develop. And you will too—the 2026 Sueños Music Festival returns to Grant Park on May 23 and 24. (Aaron Hunt)

Adam Vida, Olivia Junell and Alex Inglizian/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Adam Vida, Olivia Junell and Alex Inglizian
Co-Directors, Experimental Sound Studio

Experimental Sound Studio may call Edgewater home, but its programming extends across the city. Just this year, ESS produced concerts at Union Station and the May Chapel at Rosehill Cemetery, and continued its collaboration with the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the Pritzker Pavilion. Adam Vida, Olivia Junell and Alex Inglizian lead the small but mighty organization under a co-directorship model, proposed in 2016—“which the board agreed to on a trial basis,” explains Junell, who not only oversees fundraising and public engagement, but also works on projects directly with the artists. “That model remains ten years later,” and the trust, transparency and collaboration it provides have opened up possibilities for bigger ideas and projects. “We designed this model to tailor to the needs of our audiences and artistic communities, embrace equitable decision-making, and acknowledge interdependency,” says Vida. “It also reflects ESS’ ethos: We have always been about experimentation, dialogue and shared authorship,” adds Inglizian, whose responsibilities have grown to include technical direction for programming as well as curatorial and administrative leadership. Next year marks four decades of ESS, and besides celebrating it through parties, the organization will launch several major new programs, including a free studio access pilot initiative for Chicago-area artists. There’ll also be a streaming series in the vein of “The Quarantine Concert,” the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Florasonic” at the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the twelfth season of their signature Option concert series. (Nicky Ni)

Andy Weber, John Lombardo and Steve Polutnik/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

Andy Weber, John Lombardo, Matt Bradford and Steve Polutnik
Founders, Smashed Plastic

The production of culture often requires literal, physical, production—like making vinyl records. While once viewed as dead, vinyl records saw revenues grow seven percent to $1.4 billion in 2024, according to the RIAA—the eighteenth consecutive year of growth. Back in 2016-17, when the co-founders of Smashed Plastic concocted the idea of opening the first vinyl record-pressing plant in Chicago since 1980, they saw a clear need in the United States and Chicago in particular. Securing the means of production helps the massive supply of bands without major connections who aren’t pressing tens of thousands of records, giving them a place to have their records produced with the same care and respect as any other artist. While pressing vinyl alone would be enough, the team has presented concerts, festivals and other events at its West Diversey location to strengthen their community ties. Smashed Plastic considers itself part of the fabric of Chicago’s music community and the greater independent movement nationwide. As Weber notes, the physical production of records is a key part of an ecosystem that helps employ musicians, audio engineers and other scenesters that support the independent culture of the artists they work with. Even with their tremendous success and the continuing demand for pressing vinyl, Smashed Plastic maintains a solid twelve-week turnaround, preserving its status as the number-one partner for local artists’ recordmaking needs—whether that artist is unknown or Jeff Tweedy. (Bart A. Lazar)

Producers
Hall of Fame

Jeff Alexander
President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

Andrew Barber
Founder, Fake Shore Drive and Governor, The Recording Academy, Chicago Chapter

Seth Boustead
Founder/Executive Director, Access Contemporary Music and the CheckOut and Host, “Relevant Tones”

Shawn Campbell
Founder/GM, CHIRP Radio

Mei-Ann Chen
Music Director, Chicago Sinfonietta

John Corbett
Writer/Producer/Co-Founder, Corbett vs. Dempsey

Scott Fetters
Director/Co-Founder, Fort Knox Studios / 2112 Chicago

Bruce Finkelman and Craig Golden
Co-Owners, 16” on Center, including Empty Bottle, Promontory, Salt Shed, Space, Thalia Hall

James Ginsburg
Founder/President, Cedille Records

Robby Glick
Founder, Reggies Rock Club and Music Joint

Bruce Iglauer
Founder, Alligator Records

Lawrence Johnson
Founder, Chicago Classical Review and American Music Project

Alan King
Co-Founder, Chosen Few DJs

Lucas King
Partner, Collectiv Presents

Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn
Co-Founders, Drag City

Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis
Co-Hosts, “Sound Opinions”

Josephine Lee
President/Artistic Director, Uniting Voices Chicago

Jeff McClusky
Founder/CEO, Jeff McClusky and Associates

Scottie McNiece
Co-Founder, International Anthem Recording Company and Founder, Uncanned Music

Jerry Mickelson
CEO/President, Jam Productions

Riccardo Muti
Music Director Emeritus for Life, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Mike “Riot Mike” Petryshyn
Co-Founder, Riot Fest

Mike Reed
Founder, Constellation and Owner, Hungry Brain

Bettina Richards
Founder, Thrill Jockey

Matt Rucins
Senior Talent Buyer, Auditorium Theatre

Wayne Segal
Owner, Jazz Showcase

Rob Sevier
 Co-Founder, Numero Group

Joe Shanahan
Founder, Metro, smartbar and Gman Tavern

Tim & Katie Tuten, Mike & Jim Hinchsliff
Owners, The Hideout

David “Boche” Viecelli
President, Billions Corporation