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What does the Mahler hammer actually sound like? 🤔 You asked, we answered! Recorded live in Orchestra Hall on Friday, May 9, 2025, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conductor @jaapvanzweden and CSO Principal Percussion Cynthia Yeh @csomusicians Amsterdam, we’re coming for you next! T-4 days until the CSO performs at the #mahlerfestival! @concertgebouw #mahler #mahler6

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra continued its Mahler Festival preview in Chicago on Thursday with a vivacious performance of the composer’s Sixth Symphony, a dark and impassioned panorama of life. @jaapvanzweden led the masterpiece, including the famous hammer blows of fate in the finale — which Mahler claimed were a premonition of the tragedies that struck him in 1902. Before the concert, audience members gathered in Grainger Ballroom for Classic Encounter, where WXRT’s Terri Hemmert and special guest Cynthia Yeh, CSO Principal Percussion, got them excited about the evening’s program and its connection to pop culture. 📷: @toddrphoto

It’s hammer time for CSO Principal Percussion Cynthia Yeh! 🔨 Catch two performances of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony — featuring these iconic blows of fate — in Orchestra Hall this Thursday and Friday, May 8 and 9, before the @csomusicians take off for Europe, kickstarting a five-city, eight-concert tour next week at the @concertgebouw in Amsterdam for the prestigious Mahler Festival.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family wishes all the best to longtime CSO Harp Lynne Turner, who joined the ensemble in 1962. Turner shares the distinction of being the longest-serving musician in the orchestra’s history and one of the longest-serving musicians in any American orchestra with her colleague and CSO Principal Trombone Jay Friedman. “Being a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for more than six decades has truly been the honor of a lifetime,” Turner reflected. “I’m filled with deep joy and pride — along with appreciation to the people of Chicago, who made every performance an occasion to remember.” @csomusicians

3 days to go until Mahler Festival 2025! 💫 11 days, 10 symphonies, 6 orchestras and lots of (free!) events across the city. Check out our website for the full programme: mahler-festival.com

On Friday, conductor Thomas Wilkins and members of the CSO helped students from across Chicagoland understand the importance of community and working together — just like an orchestra. Pairing well-known classics with contemporary masterpieces, the program showcased the joy, power, and beauty of coming together in service of something bigger than ourselves. Illinois native and 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition winner @jadenteaguenunez joined the CSO musicians and dazzled the audience with a performance of a steelpan concerto written by his father, a fellow steelpan player. 📷: @toddrphoto

“I find it always so interesting going back to the personal lives of composers, and their friends and their connections,” says Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial. This week’s program of works by Brahms, Boulez and Dvořák with CSO Artist-in-Residence @daniiltrifonov is “in a way about friendship,” he continues.

The second week of concerts in Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial’s spring residency in Chicago kicked off on Thursday, with electrifying performances of music by Brahms, Boulez and Dvořák. The audience heard an outstanding rendition of Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto by @daniiltrifonov in his final concert run as this season’s CSO Artist-in-Residence, before Mäkelä led the Orchestra with fervor in Boulez’s short fanfare for brass, Initiale, and Dvořák’s determined and spirited Seventh Symphony. Surrounding the concert, CSO viola Max Raimi gave an engaging preconcert lecture in Grainger Ballroom, and fans lined up to meet Trifonov at a postconcert CD signing in the Symphony Center Rotunda and thank him for his time and impact as Artist-in-Residence. Program: Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Encore: Chopin 24 Preludes, No. 10 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 28 - Molto Allegro Boulez Initiale Dvořák Symphony No. 7 The concert will be repeated Friday and Saturday at 7:30 and Sunday at 3:00. 📷: @toddrphoto

On Wednesday, the four finalists of the 2025 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition participated in a special masterclass with @daniiltrifonov, the CSO’s current Artist-in-Residence, in front of a small live audience in Orchestra Hall. In each one-on-one coaching session, Trifonov discussed and demonstrated a range of physical techniques and musical elements with the young pianist. Participants: Jeremy Liu, Tong-Bai Deng, Joseph Gallwas and Evangeline Wang 📷: @toddrphoto

Audience members were treated to an insightful open rehearsal with the CSO and Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial yesterday in advance of four performances of Dvořák’s stormy Seventh Symphony and Pierre Boulez’s Initiale for 7 brass instruments. CSO Artist-in-Residence @daniiltrifonov will join them for Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto to complete the program. First performance is tonight, May 1, at 7:30 pm! Limited tickets are still available at cso.org — hope to see you there! 📷: @toddrphoto

Throughout the month of April, Symphony Center served as the home base for the 2025 Chicago Youth in Music Festival. Over 350 young musicians participated in this monthlong celebration of music education — co-hosted by the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which transforms lives through education and community engagement. The festival included five main events: the @equityarc Convening, a @civicorchestra concert featuring musicians from professional orchestra fellowships, the Community Youth Orchestra Convening and two Chicago Public Schools Convenings. Prior to each performance, the young musicians participated in masterclasses and rehearsals led by over a dozen members of the CSO and Civic Orchestra, providing unique opportunities for mentorship and collaboration. 📷 @toddrphoto, @anneryanpix & @elliot.mandel.photo

As a part of his spring residency with the @chicagosymphony, Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial led the Civic Orchestra in a reading session of Dvořák’s 7th Symphony last weekend, continuing the great tradition of CSO music directors nurturing the CSO’s training orchestra. Hear Civic perform another masterpiece by Dvořák — the folk-inspired Eighth — in concert on Monday at Symphony Center. Get tickets via the link in our bio. 📸: @toddrphoto

A palpable sense of energy filled Orchestra Hall on Thursday evening as Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial made his first of two appearances this season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducting Mahler’s epic Third Symphony. Their collective artistry — showcasing several CSO principal soloists — brought a profound depth to this sprawling, idiosyncratic work, considered one of Mahler’s most comprehensive musical expressions of his worldview. Adding to the artistic tapestry were the vocal powerhouses of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, @unitingvoicesorg and contralto @wiebkalto, who further illuminated Mahler’s ode to the vastness of nature. 📷: @toddrphoto

What does it mean to be a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus? Get to know Soprano I section leader Cari Plachy (@carisinglasan) and Alto II section leader Emily Price (@elimyp) as they detail some of their favorite memories as Chorus members, the process of working with different guest conductors and much more. Don’t miss the sopranos and altos of the Chicago Symphony Chorus in performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Orchestra and Zell Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial this week!

Music Director Designate @klausmakelaofficial, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and @unitingvoicesorg are hard at work preparing for this week’s performances of Mahler’s mammoth Third Symphony. We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a series of three electrifying concerts April 24-26! 🎶 Tickets are selling fast — learn more and get yours at cso.org/ps/24541 📷: @toddrphoto

On Thursday night in Orchestra Hall, audience members got a first listen to some of the repertoire that the CSO and conductor @jaapvanzweden will take on tour to the esteemed Mahler Festival in Amsterdam, witnessing a stunning performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. This “roller-coaster of emotions,” in the words of van Zweden, musically depicts a journey out of one of the darkest times of the composer’s life and into the dawn of a new day beyond — with its haunting horn calls, expansive nocturnes and triumphant final-movement timpani. Chicago audiences can hear the work performed again this Friday at 1:30 and Saturday at 7:30 — don’t miss it! 📷: @toddrphoto

Conductor @jaapvanzweden considers the music of Mahler to be “in my DNA.” Hear about his history with the great composer’s works — from his time as concertmaster at the @concertgebouw in Amsterdam to his many guest appearances in Chicago — before he brings the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the world-famous Mahler Festival in Amsterdam as the first American orchestra ever to be invited. Preceding these historic appearances in May, Chicago audiences can hear van Zweden and the CSO perform their festival repertoire — Mahler’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies — in Orchestra Hall in concerts April 17-19 and May 8-9.

The @ukuleleorchestra of Great Britain brought a jovial energy to Symphony Center in a long-awaited performance on Tuesday night, which fell towards the end of the North American leg of the ensemble’s 40th anniversary tour. The group’s seven virtuosos delivered ukulele renditions of both classical and popular works in a tactful balance of musical brilliance and comedy, where audience members quickly came to expect the unexpected. 📷: @toddrphoto