Livestream Concerts & Events

March 9, 2025 | 3:00PM

Logan Center Penthouse 901

In its winter performance, the New Music Ensemble premieres a new work by visiting composer-performer fellow Jacqui Armbruster. The program also includes works by graduate students Darlene Castro and Justin Weiss, and the premieres of new pieces by undergraduate students Leo Mehring-Keller and Cory Turnbaugh.

new piece (composer fellow premiere)…….Jacqui Armbruster
new piece for pierrot quintet (premiere)…….Cory Turnbaugh
new piece for string quintet (premiere)…….Leo Mehring-Keller
neither together nor apart for violin and piano…….Justin Weiss
Desire Paths for soprano, flute, clarinet, percussion, guitar, bass…….Darlene Castro

Free admission

March 1, 2025 | 8:00PM

Mandel Hall

Russian Monuments

The University Symphony Orchestra welcomes internationally acclaimed violinist William Hagen back to the Mandel Hall stage for a performance of the mesmerizing Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor by Sergei Prokofiev with the USO. Also on the program: Alexander Glazunov’s From the Middle Ages Suite, a symphonic tableau from 1902 that is elaborately constructed, richly scored, and nationalistic in character, plus Igor Stravinsky’s Danse Russe from the ballet Petrushka.

Free Admission. Donations at door: $10 / $5 students

February 21, 2025 | 7:30PM

Bond Chapel

The University of Chicago Motet Choir sings music by living women composers including UC Alumna Katherine Pukinskis, Reena Esmail, Rosephanye Powell, and more. The concert also features Bob Chilcott’s The Making of the Drum. 

Free admission

February 1, 2025 | 8:00PM

Mandel Hall

Mediterranean Travels

Chase away the winter doldrums with a musical journey around the Mediterranean! The University Symphony Orchestra serves as your guide, with colorful depictions of lands to the south crafted by well-known composers from northern Europe. The Englishman Edward Elgar wrote his concert overture Alassio, or In the South, while on a family holiday in Italy during the winter of 1904. The Frenchman Jacques Ibert compiled his three-movement suite Escales, or Ports of Call, following several Mediterranean voyages he made in the years after World War I, after winning the prestigious Prix de Rome. And the Russian master Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov fashioned his Capriccio Espagnol, “a brilliant composition for orchestra,” in 1887 as an exuberant representation of his fond memories of his brief visit to Spain some 25 years earlier. All three works are masterful musical embodiments of the culture and climate of these Mediterranean lands. 

Free admission. Donations appreciated: $10 / $5 students

Saturday, October 26 | 7 PM

Annual Halloween Concert: Spooky Storms, Haunted Seas

The incredible power of nature, portrayed with the dramatic intensity of a full symphony orchestra! This captivating program — enhanced by costumes, storytelling, and special effects — includes Tchaikovsky’s early tone poem The Storm, plus excerpts from Debussy’s magnificent La Mer, Grofé’s pictorial Grand Canyon Suite, Borodin’s fanciful opera-ballet Mlada, Wagner’s monumental Die Walküre, and John Williams’ celebrated Jurassic Park: Lost World. The Hyde Park School of Dance enlivens the evening with its creative choreography, brilliant costumes, and skillful dancing. Come in costume and join in the fun

Saturday, December 7, 2024 | 8 PM

Spotlight Dvořák

Guest conductor and USO member Zachary Glick leads the orchestra in Antonín Dvořák’s evocative tone poem The Wood Dove, Op. 110, one of four works inspired by Karel Erben’s collection of folk ballads. Music Director Barbara Schubert frames the concert with Claude Debussy’s exquisite Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, an exemplar of Impressionist style, and Dvořák’s skillfully crafted Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60, a work that displays echoes of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 as well as hallmarks of Dvořák’s newly-solidified mature style.

Watch the livestream.