Grant Park Music Festival To Return To Pritzker Pavilion This Year With Some Restrictions
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Grant Park Music Festival will be back this year, featuring 20 concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park beginning July 2.
The events won't be quite what we were used to before the coronavirus pandemic. The festival will operate under strict safety protocols – including a mandatory mask requirement, social distancing, and reserved seating for all concertgoers who will gather in pods on the Great Lawn to accommodate small groups.
The eight-week season will be held from July 2 through Aug. 21 at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, with other events around the city. Acting Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar will lead the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus.
The concerts will be held each Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. They will be under an hour and a half in length and will be presented without intermission.
Due to the capacity restrictions, reservations will be required for both the seating bowl and the Great Lawn at the pavilion. Free passes for the Independence Day Salute on July 2 and 3 will be available beginning 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, while free passes for the other concerts in the series will be available at 10 a.m. the Monday before the event.
Passes can be obtained by going to gpmf.org or calling (312) 742-7647. They will be contactless and will involve a bar code that can be printed at home or displayed on a smartphone.
If you want to listen from home, the concerts will be broadcast on 98.7 WFMT radio, and through its website at wfmt.com/listen.
The full schedule is below, as shared verbatim from the Grant Park Music Festival:
INDEPENDENCE DAY SALUTE
Friday, July 2 and Saturday, July 3, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar and Christopher Bell, conductors
John Williams – Summon the HeroesScott Joplin– Overture to Treemonisha
Arr. Robert Lowden – Armed Forces Salute
Florence Price – Dances in the Canebrakes
Leonard Bernstein – Selections from West Side Story
George Walker – Lyric for Strings
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky –1812 Overture
John Philip Sousa – Stars and Stripes Forever
WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE
Wednesday, July 7, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Joyce Yang, piano
Julia Perry – Short Piece for Orchestra
Georges Bizet – Suite from L'Arlésienne
Edvard Grieg – Piano Concerto
Gioachino Rossini – Overture to William Tell
BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO. 3
Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Christopher Bell, chorus director
Antonio Vivaldi – Gloria
Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings
Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 3
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 1
Wednesday, July 14, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Christopher Bell, chorus director
Anna Clyne - Sound and Fury
Franz Joseph Haydn – Nicolai Mass
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 1
SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO. 5
Friday, July 16 and Saturday, July 17, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Masumi Per Rostad, viola
Leonard Bernstein – Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
Jessie Montgomery – L.E.S. Characters (World Premiere)
Jean Sibelius – Symphony No. 5
BRUCKNER E MINOR MASS
Wednesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Christopher Bell, chorus director
Lili Boulanger – Psalm 24
Jonathan Dove – The Passing of the Year
Anton Bruckner – Mass No. 2
DVOŘÁK NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Friday, July 23 and Saturday, July 24, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Eun Sun Kim, conductor | Natasha Paremski, piano
Texu Kim – Blow, Fly, Pop!!
Dmitri Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 1
Antonín Dvořák – Symphony No. 9, From the New World
PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAUN
Wednesday, July 28, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Anthony Trionfo, flute
Claude Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Saverio Mercadante – Flute Concerto in E Minor
Camille Saint-Saëns – Symphony No. 2
FROM IRELAND WITH LOVE
Wednesday, August 4, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Chorus
Christopher Bell, conductor
Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Chorus salute Chicago's vibrant Irish community with an a cappella choral program from the Emerald Isle.
SIBELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTO
Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Augustin Hadelich, violin
Jean Sibelius – Violin Concerto
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 1, Winter Daydreams
FAMILY NIGHT: CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
Wednesday, August 11, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Norman Huynh, conductorAshley Kim, piano
Colin Song, piano
Jacques Offenbach – Overture to Orpheus in the Underworld
Camille Saint-Saëns – Carnival of the Animals
Edvard Grieg – Suite from Peer Gynt
CLASSIC BROADWAY
Friday, August 13 and Saturday, August 14, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra
Lawrence Loh, conductor
Mamie Parris, Madison Claire Parks, Bronson Norris Murphy, vocals
Stars from Broadway join the orchestra in an evening that revisits classic songs we know and love along with hits from some of today's most exciting shows.
SCHUBERT MASS IN G MAJOR
Wednesday, August 18, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Christopher Bell, chorus director
Felix Mendelssohn – Sinfonia No. 8
Franz Schubert – Mass in G Major
Benjamin Britten – Rejoice in the Lamb
MOZART VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 3
Friday, August 20 and Saturday, August 21, 6:30 p.m.
Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus
Carlos Kalmar, conductor | Christopher Bell, chorus directorVadim Gluzman, violin
Gabriela Lena Frank – Elegía Andina
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Violin Concerto No. 3
George Frideric Handel – Dettingen Te Deum
In addition to the Millennium Park events, the Grant Park Music Festival will also present "Night Out in the Park" initiatives. The concerts will feature the festival's "Project Inclusion" string fellows and will celebrate the music of BIPOC and women composers.
These concerts will take place at Harrison Park, 1824 S. Wood St. (July 15), Chicago Women's Park, 1801 S. Indiana Ave. (July 22), Indian Boundary Park, 2500 W. Lunt Ave. (July 29), Eleanor Boathouse, 2828 S. Eleanor St. (Aug. 5), Nichols Park, 1355 E. 53rd St. (Aug. 12), and Lake Shore Park, 808 N. Lake Shore Dr. (Aug. 19). All will begin at 6:30 p.m.
