The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park, home of the Grant Park Music Festival and the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus.
In Tuesday’s (1/7) Chicago Tribune, Hannah Edgar writes, “The Grant Park Music Festival announced its 2025 season—one that already carries the stamp of Giancarlo Guerrero, its new music director. This summer, the free music festival runs June 11 to Aug. 16 … All concerts will be held at Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, with the exception of two chorus concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center and a few in Harris Theater … The season reflects Guerrero’s interest in contemporary American fare—and, broadly, the festival’s, as a longtime programming plank of director Carlos Kalmar’s before him. Chicago composer Stacy Garrop has been commissioned to write a new work for the festival’s String Fellow Quartet … The orchestra also gives the Midwest premiere of Chelsea Komschilies’ ‘Mycelialore’ … Other recently written works [are] regional and city premieres. Those include Rockford-born Jake Runestad’s ‘Earth Symphony,’ Chicago-based Clarice Assad’s ‘Baião N’ Blues,’ Arturo Márquez’s ‘Concierto de Otoño’ for Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores, Henry Dorn’s ‘Transitions’ and Brian Nabors’ ‘Pulse,’ originally commissioned by Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony. Also included are pieces from the 21st century canon that have evaded Illinois, until now…. Guerrero conducts eight of the 20 planned festival programs.” “Mycelialore” was commissioned by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra.
