Members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago perform Jeff Scott’s Startin’ Sumthin’, an ingenious reimagining of ragtime music scored for woodwind quintet.

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The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.
Major funding for the Civ...

String Quartet in E-flat Major highlights Fanny Hensel’s (née Mendelssohn) raw and exploratory approach to the string quartet, a distinct departure from the composition style traditional of the time. Her musical genius demonstrated here was severely undervalued during her lifetime, with no record...

Members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago perform Martinů’s mysterious and thoughtful Piano Quintet No. 2. Composed in 1944, this work displays the tension and uneasiness Martinů felt before emigrating to the United States in 1941 to avoid the German invasion of France.

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The 2020/21 Civ...

LIgNEouS, meaning “made, consisting of, or resembling wood”, titles this energetic and percussive piece for marimba and string quartet by Andy Akiho, performed by members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

SPONSORS
The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Eliz...

A nod to both John Adams and Duke Ellington, members of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago perform Tyshawn Sorey’s atmospheric Sentimental Shards.

SPONSORS
The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra of Chicago season is generously sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.
Major funding for the Civic Orchest...

Fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago perform Nicole Mitchell’s improvisational and experimental Symbology #3 for open instrumentation. The Fellows rehearsed the piece entirely over Zoom and were joined by the composer for one session before finally meeting in person to record this video.

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Composed in 2020, figgis-vizueta’s Form the Fabric weaves together strands of improvised material in a mixed ensemble. The title is inspired by an archaeologist’s phrase describing the Inca Road as “threads interwoven to form the fabric of the physical and spiritual world.”

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The 2020/21 ...

Born out of a global call for scores by the Fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2020/21, Nina Shekhar’s compelling string quartet Above the Fray unspools familiar melodic threads and questions uniqueness and identity in the world of classical music.

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The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra...

Born out of a global call for scores by the Fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2020/21, Tonia Ko’s Escape-Landscape depicts the transformation of an image when it is viewed from a distance versus up-close, like looking through the threads of woven material.

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The 2020/21 Civic O...

Born out of a global call for scores by the Fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2020/21, Kyle Krause’s Recycled Effervescence connects real world sounds with the concert hall through the inclusion of glass bottles as percussive instruments.

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The 2020/21 Civic Orchestra of Chicag...

Led by Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, 44 musicians of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago come together to play former CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), a bright and energetic piece evoking the image of a solar system being flung recklessly into spac...

To continue our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we honor Colombian American conductor Lina González-Granados, who made her Civic debut in February 2022 at Kenwood Academy High School conducting the orchestra in Rimsky- Korsakov’s Sheherazade and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Three Latin American ...