25 26 SEASON
We’ve
always put clients fi rst.
We’re honored they’ve done the same for us.
Ranked
#1 for Advised Investor Satisfaction. Most Trusted.
We believe the connection between you and your advisor is everything. It starts with a handshake and a simple conversation, then grows as your advisor takes the time to learn what matters most–your needs, your concerns, your life’s ambitions. By investing in relationships, Raymond James has built a firm where simple beginnings can lead to boundless potential.
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIFTH SEASON
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
KLAUS MÄKELÄ Zell Music Director Designate | RICCARDO MUTI Music Director Emeritus for Life
Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 7:30
Friday, September 26, 2025, at 1:30
Saturday, September 27, 2025, at 7:30
Sunday, September 28, 2025, at 3:00
Mikko Franck Conductor
Alice Sara Ott Piano
PÉPIN
Les Eaux célestes
Tisser les nuages—
La séparation—
Les Larmes perlées—
Le Pont des ailes
First Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (In one movement)
ALICE SARA OTT
INTERMISSION
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major
Allegramente
Adagio assai
Presto
ALICE SARA OTT
BIZET
Suite from Carmen (arr. Hoffman)
Les Toréadors
Prélude
La garde montante
Intermezzo
Chanson du Toréador
Danse Bohème
These concerts are generously sponsored by United Airlines.
The appearance of Mikko Franck is made possible by the Juli Plant Grainger Fund for Artistic Excellence. The appearance of Alice Sara Ott is made possible by the Grainger Fund for Excellence.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra thanks United Airlines for sponsoring these performances.
COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher
CAMILLE PÉPIN
Born November 17, 1990; Amiens, France
Les Eaux célestes
Camille Pépin was drawn to music when she took dance classes as a child and found that she was most interested in the playing of the class pianist. She soon wanted to write her own pieces (her first composition was written at the age of thirteen for a music theory class). Pépin eventually studied at the Amiens Conservatory and at the Paris Conservatory; she has since won several important European awards, including Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2022. In recent years, her music has been performed by major orchestras from London to Los Angeles and Berlin to Sydney. In addition to her orchestral scores, Pépin has composed for many varied chamber ensembles, as well as concertos for violin, cello and clarinet, and harp and marimba.
Pépin is a composer grounded in the music of the past but very much alive to the current world around her, particularly in the “climatic trilogy” of orchestral pieces she has composed recently. The first, Inlandsis, was inspired by the melting of sea ice in the Antarctic and global environmental concerns. Pépin’s second panel, Un Monde nouveau draws on musical ideas in the second movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony. The final work in the trilogy, premiered last December, is a flute concerto, Ce que raconte de vent . . . (What the Wind Says). She has described her work as standing at the crossroad of French impressionism and American contemporary music. Many of her scores reveal both her debt
COMPOSED 2023
FIRST PERFORMANCE
March 10, 2023; Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, strings
APPROXIMATE
PERFORMANCE TIME
9 minutes
These are the first Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances.
from top : Camille Pépin, photo by Anne Bied Tanabata Festival in Edo, woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), 1852, which celebrates the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi. From the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji
to the French school through her teachers Guillaume Connesson, Marc-André Dalbavie, and Thierry Escaich and the influence of the repetitive rhythmic energy of the American Steve Reich.
Camille Pépin on Les Eaux célestes
Les Eaux célestes is inspired by an ancient Chinese legend and is divided into four moments.
Orihime, daughter of the sky god, weaves the clouds to create clothes for the gods of the celestial kingdom. Hikoboshi, the cowherd of the stars, takes care of the dairy cows in order to feed the kingdom. They fall madly in love and gradually abandon their respective tasks. The cows go astray and the gods wait in vain for their clothes. If this part begins with impalpable and blurred sonorities (dephasing of strings, clouds of string harmonies that move about, percussions with bow), it then becomes more mechanical (ephemeral lines of woodwinds and keyboards) as the princess weaves (Weaving the clouds).
Then the substance unravels, and the god of the sky decides to separate the two lovers by placing between them a great celestial river called the Milky Way. This moment results in a crescendo leading to a first climax symbolizing the pain shared by the two lovers (The separation).
Touched by their sadness, the god of the sky finally allows them to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month. At the time of their reunion, they do not know how to cross the celestial waters, and the princess, distraught,
begins to cry. Her tears fall delicately on the fragile and vaporous texture of the clouds (harp and celesta on a background of string harmonics), creating small pearls of light in the sky (Droplets of tears).
But a flock of birds passing by decides to help the lovers. With their wings, they form a bridge over the river, allowing the couple to reunite. The out-of-phase keyboards (vibraphone, marimba, and celesta) create the texture leading to the final climax, bursting and celebrating the love between the two lovers (The Bridge of wings).
In this work, two melodic motifs are used: the first one evokes Debussy’s Nuages (F#-EF#-D-E-C# -F#) and represents the cloudweaver goddess; the second, the pentatonic motif (E-F#-A-B-C#), features the cowherd of the stars.
To illustrate this legend, I used textures and blends of new timbres. The vibraphone, crotales, and cowbells, when played with a bow, represent the impalpable clouds. The strings move in space like a fog that one would try in vain to catch. Tuned cowbells, tubular bells, and the earthy sound of the marimba symbolize the cowherd of the stars. Gongs, a chinese cymbal, and the celesta in the low register transport us to China. The keyboards are also used in a shimmering way, like stars. The woodwind parts are fluid and virtuosic and have many spindly lines, like the rustling of wings.
If I chose this legend, it is because it inspired many orchestral colors and because if the stars speak of the universe, our stories about them reveal something about us.
Translation: Anne de Fornel
MAURICE RAVEL
Born March 7, 1875; Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France
Died December 28, 1937; Paris, France
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Ravel wrote home from his first tour of the United States in 1928, “I am seeing magnificent cities, enchanting country, but the triumphs are exhausting.” In Chicago, at the matinee concert of the Chicago Symphony that he conducted on January 20, Ravel accepted thunderous applause throughout the afternoon, a standing ovation at the end of the program, and a fanfare from the Orchestra itself. But Ravel hated the subzero temperatures here and throughout the Heartland (he shivered in Minneapolis, Omaha, and Denver, too) and was happy to move on to Los Angeles, where he had lunch with Douglas Fairbanks (who spoke French) and declined breakfast with Charlie Chaplin (who did not). The greatest thrill of his “crazy” American tour was meeting George Gershwin, who wanted to study with him. Ravel turned him down flat. “You would only lose the spontaneous quality of your melody and end up by writing bad Ravel,” he said.
Ravel returned home to France weary and famished—he found American food virtually inedible—but assured that his fame was truly international. Later, in 1928, Oxford University gave him an honorary doctorate, calling him “the glory and delight of his beloved country, a man mighty with talent both lively and tender, who persuades the learned that Pan is not dead.” But Ravel would only live to compose three more major works—a ballet, Boléro, which quickly became so popular it embarrassed him; and the two piano concertos performed on this concert.
Had Paul Wittgenstein’s career as a concert pianist gone according to plan, Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand wouldn’t exist. Wittgenstein was born into one of Vienna’s most remarkable families: his father Karl, a steel, banking, and arms magnate; and his mother Leopoldine
this page: Maurice Ravel, portrait, ca. 1925. Bibliothèque nationale de France | next spread, from left: Ravel on the balcony of his home at Montfort-l’Amaury, outside Paris, ca. 1930. Bibliothèque nationale de France | Music salon of the Palais Wittgenstein, the family’s Vienna home, which included Max Klinger’s bust of a nude Beethoven to the right
COMPOSED 1929–30
FIRST PERFORMANCE
January 17, 1930; Paris, France
INSTRUMENTATION
solo piano, 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes and english horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, side drum, cymbals, bass drum, woodblock, tam-tam, harp, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 19 minutes
FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES
February 15 and 16, 1945, Orchestra Hall. Robert Casadesus as soloist, Désiré Defauw conducting August 4, 1960, Ravinia Festival. John Browning as soloist, William Steinberg conducting
MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES August 7, 2012, Ravinia Festival. Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, James Conlon conducting
April 5, 6, 7, and 10, 2018, Orchestra Hall. Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist, Matthias Pintscher conducting
brought nine children into the world. Paul was the seventh child; the eighth was Ludwig, who became one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century.
The Wittgensteins were an obsessively musical family. Their palatial Viennese home contained seven grand pianos (including two Bösendorfer Imperials), and a grand statue of a nude Beethoven towered over their Musiksaal. Brahms, Strauss, Schoenberg, and Mahler were only a few of the famous guests who climbed the marble staircase to join the family’s celebrated gatherings. All the Wittgensteins “pursued music with an enthusiasm that, at times, bordered on the pathological,” writes Alexander Waugh in his book about the family, The House of Wittgenstein. Paul studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky and made a successful debut in 1913. Early the next year he enlisted in the Austrian army. A few months later, while serving on the Russian front, he was shot and seriously wounded; his right arm was amputated, and he was taken prisoner by the Russians.
of the pieces he commissioned—it’s questionable why, given his conservative tastes, he approached such modern-minded composers to begin with. Shortly before he died, he admitted that, of all the composers he asked, he felt closest to the Austrian postromantic Franz Schmidt.
Wittgenstein eventually came to regard Ravel’s concerto as a masterpiece, but only after living with it for some time and having words with the composer. “It always takes me a while to grow into a difficult work,” Wittgenstein said later. “I suppose Ravel was disappointed, and I was sorry, but I had never learned to pretend. Only much later, after I’d studied the concerto for months, did I become fascinated by it and realize what a great work it was.”
Being a member of a distinguished family of overachievers and survivors, and reared by a father of forceful determination, Wittgenstein didn’t intend to give up his career as a pianist. (That same oppressive upbringing led his two eldest brothers to commit suicide.) While confined to the invalid ward of a Siberian POW camp, he began to “play” a Chopin piece on a wooden box with his single hand, inventing ways for five fingers to encompass both melody and harmony.
After the war was over, Wittgenstein took what many would consider his greatest asset, family money, and commissioned more than a dozen pieces for piano left-hand from some of the world’s leading composers, including Maurice Ravel, Paul Hindemith, Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss, and Sergei Prokofiev. Wittgenstein wasn’t particularly fond of any
Ravel was already writing a piano concerto— the one in G that follows intermission on this week’s program—when Wittgenstein’s commission arrived. He was intrigued by the challenge and set aside the other concerto for this one almost at once. He studied what little music he knew for left hand, including Saint-Saëns’s six studies and Leopold Godowsky’s transcription of Chopin’s etudes (difficult music to begin with, now rendered virtually unplayable). He probably also knew Brahms’s transcription of J.S. Bach’s famous chaconne for violin and perhaps Scriabin’s Two Pieces for the Left Hand, op. 9.
Ravel’s concerto is a real tour de force filled with sounds that regularly suggest two hands at work. Although Wittgenstein criticized the way Ravel played it, it’s not clear that Wittgenstein’s interpretation was significantly better (his two recordings are not completely convincing).
Ravel admitted to his publisher that,
Planning the two piano concertos simultaneously was an interesting experience. The one in which I shall appear as the interpreter is a concerto in the truest sense of the
word: I mean that it is written very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. . . . The concerto for the left hand alone is very different. It contains many jazz effects, and the writing is not so light. In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands. For the same reason, I resorted to a style that is much nearer to that of the more solemn kind of traditional concerto.
Ravel picked up his jazz effects on his 1928 trip to the United States, where he met bandleader Paul Whiteman and spent several nights visiting jazz clubs in Harlem with George Gershwin. In a lecture he gave in Houston, he said,
May this national American music of yours embody a great deal of the rich and diverting rhythm of your jazz, a great deal of the emotional expression in your blues, and a great deal of the sentiment and spirit
characteristic of your popular melodies and songs, worthily deriving from, and in turn contributing to, a noble heritage in music.
The concerto is one long movement, with an opening slow section followed by an allegro. As Ravel promised, it’s a serious work, particularly compared to his other concerto, but hardly solemn. After much orchestral fanfare, the piano enters with a virtuosic cadenza; Ravel described it as an improvisation, although as with all things in Ravel, it’s meticulously worked out. This is followed by music recalling the nights he spent in American jazz clubs. “Only gradually,” Ravel wrote, “is one aware that the jazz episode is actually built up from the themes of the first section.” It’s clear from Ravel’s melodies that he has learned all about blue notes, just as, in La valse and the Valses nobles et sentimentales, the quintessential Frenchman wrote perfect Viennese waltzes. The final cadenza provides spectacular ripples of arpeggios and a singing melody, all with just five fingers.
Piano Concerto in G Major
Ravel originally intended to play the concerto in G major himself, but by the time he put the final touches on the score, he realized that his health was rapidly declining, and he would never perform it. (He was soon diagnosed with the brain disease that ultimately made it impossible for him even to sign his name.) For years, Ravel had contemplated writing a concerto for Marguerite Long, who had studied with him (as well as with Debussy), and it was she who played the first performance in Paris, with the composer conducting. The premiere was a triumph (although Ravel’s conducting lacked “clarity and elasticity,” in the words of one critic). Ravel subsequently ignored his doctor’s orders and went on a four-month tour with Long to introduce the concerto throughout Europe. (They also recorded it together.)
Although Ravel described the work as “a concerto in the truest sense of the word,” he had originally thought of calling it a divertissement, to emphasize its lighter qualities. The concerto makes use of long-discarded material for a “Basque fantasy” Ravel had begun around 1914. It opens with an allegro that suggests a Spanish fiesta spiked with American jazz. Occasional blue notes and trombone smears confirm how carefully Ravel had listened when he and Gershwin visited Harlem jazz spots together. A frequently repeated melodic tag recalls the opening tune of Gershwin’s own Rhapsody in Blue. The velvety slow movement, for all its lush harmonies and French sonorities, is deeply indebted to Mozart; in fact, Ravel told Marguerite Long that he wrote it slowly and painstakingly, “two
COMPOSED
1929–November 14, 1931
FIRST PERFORMANCE
January 14, 1932; Paris, France. The composer conducting
INSTRUMENTATION
solo piano, flute and piccolo, oboe and english horn, clarinet and E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, triangle, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, woodblock, whip, harp, strings
APPROXIMATE PERFORMANCE TIME 21 minutes
FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES
July 6, 1944, Ravinia Festival. Leonard Bernstein conducting from the keyboard
January 18, 19, and 23, 1951, Orchestra Hall; January 22, 1951, Pabst Theater, Milwaukee. Leonard Bernstein conducting from the keyboard
MOST RECENT
CSO PERFORMANCES
January 6, 7, and 8, 2022, Orchestra Hall. Inon Barnatan as soloist, André de Ridder conducting August 5, 2022, Ravinia Festival. Conrad Tao as soloist, Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting
this page, from top: Maurice Ravel, portrait, 1929. Photo by Archiv SetzerTschiedel/Imagno/Getty Images
Marguerite Long (1874–1966), soloist in the premiere of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major. Portrait by Boris Lipnitzki (1887–1971), 1920. Roger Viollet Agency via Getty Images
measures at a time, with frequent reference to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.” The opening, uninterrupted melody is much longer than any phrase in Mozart—an unadorned piano solo that unfolds slowly, twisting and turning in unexpected ways, all in one huge breath. The third movement was an afterthought—an exhilarating, saucy finale composed shortly before the premiere and designed to leave the audience in high spirits.
GEORGES BIZET
Born October 25, 1838; Paris, France
Died June 3, 1875; Bougival, near Paris, France
Suite from Carmen
(Arranged by Fritz Hoffman)
Georges Bizet was a remarkable young talent. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatory two weeks before his tenth birthday and won the first of many prizes only six months later. (Over the years, he was given prizes—several of them firstplace awards—in solfeggio, piano, organ, and fugue; his piano playing, in particular, won the praise of Liszt and Berlioz.) Bizet began to study counterpoint with Pierre Zimmerman, a distinguished teacher near retirement age, whose main contribution to his student’s development may have been his frequent absences from the classroom, when his substitute was Charles Gounod, then on the verge of international fame. (Gounod was married to Zimmerman’s daughter Anna.) Gounod quickly recognized Bizet’s exceptional gifts and asked him to assist with various musical projects.
Despite his abundant gifts, Bizet did not find his true calling until the 1860s. The Pearl Fishers, which premiered in 1863, was not a success with the public or the critics (except for the invariably perceptive Berlioz), but it is the work of a born opera composer, overflowing with the promise that would ultimately be fulfilled in his final work, Carmen. Bizet didn’t live to see Carmen acclaimed as one of the true classics of music theater. He fell ill shortly after the premiere and died the night of the
this page: Georges Bizet, as photographed by Étienne Carjat (1828–1906), 1875. Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France | next page: Illustration for the Journal Amusant by Lucien “Luc” Métivet (1863–1932), 1911, of the title character of Bizet’s Carmen, a Spanish Romani dancer smoking a cigarette. The French caption reads: “With all their Viennese, Neapolitan, and Muscovite music, there will soon be—caramba!—only me left who is French.”
COMPOSED
1873–74
FIRST PERFORMANCE
March 3, 1875; Paris, France
INSTRUMENTATION
2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling english horn), clarinet and E-flat clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings
APPROXIMATE
PERFORMANCE TIME 16 minutes
FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES
December 9, 1891, Auditorium Theatre. Singers from the Metropolitan Opera, Auguste Vianesi conducting (Act 3)
February 24 and 25, 1893, Auditorium Theatre. Theodore Thomas conducting (Suite no. 1)
July 21, 1940, Ravinia Festival. Artur Rodziński conducting (Suite no. 1)
MOST RECENT
CSO PERFORMANCES
July 20, 2025, Ravinia Festival. Himari as soloist, Marin Alsop conducting (Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy)
September 20, 2025, Orchestra Hall. Joyce DiDonato as soloist, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conducting (Habanera)
thirty-third performance. That night the Carmen, Célestine Galli-Marié, is said to have been so overcome with premonition in the scene where she reads death in the cards that she fainted while leaving the stage.
Although it wasn’t an immediate hit, Carmen soon found many admirers, including Brahms, who went to see the opera twenty times in 1876
alone, and Nietzsche, who thought it the ideal antidote to Wagner mania. (Wagner himself dismissed it as “much tastelessness,” according to his wife Cosima.) Eventually Carmen’s overwhelming popularity substantially elevated Bizet’s posthumous status, and he became known as a one-work composer in the process.
Carmen eventually became so popular that two suites of excerpts were made for the concert hall. The suite of selections performed at these concerts, arranged by Fritz Hoffman, includes numbers drawn from both sets. We begin with the irresistible swagger of the toreadors’ song, followed by the ominous prelude that opens the opera, dominated by the fate motive that signals the tragedy to come. “La garde montante” introduces the soldiers who stand guard outside the cigarette factory in Seville where Carmen works. The Intermezzo is a lovely, lyrical interlude launched by flute and harp that offers a moment of calm before the opera’s third act. Escamillo’s song is a dashing ode to the fame and power of life in the bullring. Bizet, a master of wildly entertaining and brilliantly colorful music, wrote nothing more intoxicating than the Bohemian dance that opens the second act and fills the air with excitement and drama.
Phillip Huscher has been the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1987.
Let music resound
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association gratefully acknowledges the Helen Zell Contemporary Music Fund for its leadership support of the presentation of contemporary music in the CSO’s 2025–26 season.
Major support is also provided by Sally Mead Hands Foundation and Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation.
Sep 25–28
PÉPIN Les Eaux célestes
Oct 3–4
SIMON Fate Now Conquers MUSGRAVE Piccolo Play
Dec 4–7
AUCOIN Song of the Reappeared
WORLD PREMIERE FORMER SIR GEORG SOLTI CONDUCTING APPRENTICE
Dec 18–20
WIDMANN Con brio
CHIN subito con forza
Feb 5–7
SMITH Lost Coast
Feb 12–15
THOMPSON To See the Sky
Apr 2–4
TÜÜR Prophecy
May 7–9
LIEBERSON Neruda Songs
May 21–23
CLYNE Sound and Fury
FORMER MEAD COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE
June 4–6
JOHN ADAMS The Rock You Stand On MARSALIS Liberty (Symphony No. 5)
June 18–21
MONTGOMERY Banner FORMER MEAD COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE
Contemporary music remains a vital thread in the CSO’s artistic legacy, and this generous support ensures that bold, innovative repertoire continues to resonate with audiences today. We are proud to carry forward this tradition by featuring compelling new works throughout the 2025–26 concert season.
Jennifer Gunn (Oct 3–4)
Julia Bullock (Dec 4–7)
PROFILES
Mikko Franck Conductor
FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES
December 19, 20, and 21, 2002, Orchestra Hall. Rautavaara’s Isle of Bliss, Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with Larry Combs, and Sibelius’s Symphony no. 7
MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES
December 7, 8, and 9, 2023, Orchestra Hall. Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Hilary Hahn, Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, and Sibelius’s Symphony no. 7
Mikko Franck was born in Helsinki, Finland. He began his conducting career early, at the age of seventeen, and he has since worked with major orchestras and opera houses across the world.
From 2002 to 2007, he was music director of the Belgian National Orchestra. In 2006 he took up the post of general music director of the Finnish National Opera and the following year was appointed its artistic director and general music director, a dual position he held until August 2013.
In 2015 Mikko Franck became music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. During his ten years at the head of the orchestra, he was deeply committed to nurturing its creative and eclectic style of programming and led several tours of Europe and Asia.
His considerable discography consists of both symphonic and operatic repertoire. The most recent recordings are with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and include works by Franck, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich.
In 2018 Mikko Franck was nominated Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF France, and in this capacity, he has made two field visits to Benin and one to Senegal. On his nomination, he stated: “Every child is unique; every life is important. Every child, regardless of their origin, should have the right to live in a safe and healthy environment, to follow their dreams, and to realize their full potential.”
Mikko Franck was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2023 by the president of the Republic of Finland.
Alice Sara Ott Piano
FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES
November 13, 14, and 15, 2014, Orchestra Hall. Bartók’s Piano Concerto no. 3, Pablo Heras-Casado conducting
Alice Sara Ott is one of today’s most forwardthinking classical musicians, with her visionary artistic projects, globally successful albums, and collaborations with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.
Alice captivates audiences worldwide with her unique interpretations and technical brilliance, and her innovative recital concepts redefine classical music for the modern era. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon for over sixteen years, leading to album streams of over half a billion.
In the 2025–26 season, Ott is artist in residence at Konzerthaus Berlin, following her acclaimed past residencies at London’s Southbank Centre, Paris’s Radio France, and Utrecht’s TivoliVredenburg. Her residency includes opening the season with Bryce Dessner’s Piano Concerto, dedicated to her, conducted by Joana Mallwitz, as well as a major European tour in the spring.
She also continues her John Field and Beethoven project recital tour across China and Europe. Other highlights of the season include a European tour with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Jaap van Zweden and the debut of her new chamber-music project, Papa Haydn, a tribute to the composer and his contemporaries that explores the ways music was shared among their friends. The pianist performs with ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
In December 2025 Alice Sara Ott will star alongside actress Isabelle Huppert in the world premiere of a conceptually staged program based on excerpts of the letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham, with music by Bryce Dessner, at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
Her next recording is an album of solo piano works by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, to be released in 2026 on Deutsche Grammophon. This follows her recent album of John Field’s nocturnes (2025), which was a global success, reaching no. 1 on the Apple Music Classical chart for six weeks.
Alice Sara Ott is represented by TEZ ARTS.
tezarts.com
PHOTO © BY HANNES CASPAR
Celebrating Black Excellence in Classical Music and Beyond
The CSO African American Network aims to engage Chicago’s culturally rich African American community through the sharing and exchanging of unforgettable musical experiences while building relationships for generations to come. The AAN seeks to serve and encourage individuals, families, educators, students, musicians, composers and businesses to discover and experience the timeless beauty of music.
Be a part of the season with concerts across musical genres highlighting world-class performances and compositions from Christian McBride, Julia Bullock, Lizz Wright, Mike Reed, Wynton Marsalis and more!
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra—consistently hailed as one of the world’s best—marks its 135th season in 2025–26. The ensemble’s history began in 1889, when Theodore Thomas, the leading conductor in America and a recognized music pioneer, was invited by Chicago businessman Charles Norman Fay to establish a symphony orchestra. Thomas’s aim to build a permanent orchestra of the highest quality was realized at the first concerts in October 1891 in the Auditorium Theatre. Thomas served as music director until his death in January 1905, just three weeks after the dedication of Orchestra Hall, the Orchestra’s permanent home designed by Daniel Burnham.
Frederick Stock, recruited by Thomas to the viola section in 1895, became assistant conductor in 1899 and succeeded the Orchestra’s founder. His tenure lasted thirty-seven years, from 1905 to 1942—the longest of the Orchestra’s music directors. Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago— the first training orchestra in the U.S. affiliated with a major orchestra—in 1919, established youth auditions, organized the first subscription concerts especially for children, and began a series of popular concerts.
Three conductors headed the Orchestra during the following decade: Désiré Defauw was music director from 1943 to 1947, Artur Rodzinski in 1947–48, and Rafael Kubelík from 1950 to 1953. The next ten years belonged to Fritz Reiner, whose recordings with the CSO are still considered hallmarks. Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to form the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1957. For five seasons from 1963 to 1968, Jean Martinon held the position of music director.
Sir Georg Solti, the Orchestra’s eighth music director, served from 1969 until 1991. His arrival launched one of the most successful musical partnerships of our time. The CSO made its first overseas tour to Europe in 1971 under his direction and released numerous award-winning recordings. Beginning in 1991, Solti held the title of music director laureate and returned to conduct the Orchestra each season until his death in September 1997.
Daniel Barenboim became ninth music director in 1991, a position he held until 2006. His tenure was distinguished by the opening of Symphony Center in 1997, appearances with the Orchestra in the dual role of pianist and conductor, and twenty-one international tours. Appointed by Barenboim in 1994 as the Chorus’s second director, Duain Wolfe served until his retirement in 2022.
In 2010, Riccardo Muti became the Orchestra’s tenth music director. During his tenure, the Orchestra deepened its engagement with the Chicago community, nurtured its legacy while supporting a new generation of musicians and composers, and collaborated with visionary artists. In September 2023, Muti became music director emeritus for life.
In April 2024, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä was announced as the Orchestra’s eleventh music director and will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director in September 2027. In July 2025, Donald Palumbo became the third director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Carlo Maria Giulini was named the Orchestra’s first principal guest conductor in 1969, serving until 1972; Claudio Abbado held the position from 1982 to 1985. Pierre Boulez was appointed as principal guest conductor in 1995 and was named Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus in 2006, a position he held until his death in January 2016. From 2006 to 2010, Bernard Haitink was the Orchestra’s first principal conductor.
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is the CSO’s Artist-in-Residence for the 2025–26 season.
The Orchestra first performed at Ravinia Park in 1905 and appeared frequently through August 1931, after which the park was closed for most of the Great Depression. In August 1936, the Orchestra helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival, and it has been in residence nearly every summer since.
Since 1916, recording has been a significant part of the Orchestra’s activities. Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus— including recent releases on CSO Resound, the Orchestra’s recording label launched in 2007— have earned sixty-five Grammy awards from the Recording Academy.
Tax-deductible donations do more than support the concerts you love — they impact more than 200,000 people through education and community engagement programs each year. Thanks to a generous matching grant, all gifts to the CSOA will be doubled. Make a difference with your gift today.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä Zell Music Director Designate
Joyce DiDonato Artist-in-Residence
VIOLINS
Robert Chen Concertmaster
The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an
anonymous benefactor
Stephanie Jeong
Associate Concertmaster
The Cathy and Bill Osborn Chair
David Taylor*
Assistant Concertmaster
The Ling Z. and Michael C.
Markovitz Chair
Yuan-Qing Yu*
Assistant Concertmaster
So Young Bae
Cornelius Chiu
Gina DiBello
Kozue Funakoshi
Russell Hershow
Qing Hou
Gabriela Lara
Matous Michal
Simon Michal
Sando Shia
Susan Synnestvedt
Rong-Yan Tang
Baird Dodge Principal
Danny Yehun Jin
Assistant Principal
Lei Hou
Ni Mei
Hermine Gagné
Rachel Goldstein
Mihaela Ionescu
Melanie Kupchynsky §
Wendy Koons Meir
Ronald Satkiewicz ‡
Florence Schwartz
VIOLAS
Teng Li Principal
The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair
Catherine Brubaker
Youming Chen
Sunghee Choi
Wei-Ting Kuo
Danny Lai
Weijing Michal
Diane Mues
Lawrence Neuman
Max Raimi
CELLOS
John Sharp Principal
The Eloise W. Martin Chair
Kenneth Olsen
Assistant Principal
The Adele Gidwitz Chair
Karen Basrak §
The Joseph A. and Cecile Renaud Gorno Chair
Richard Hirschl
Daniel Katz
Katinka Kleijn
Brant Taylor
The Ann Blickensderfer and Roger Blickensderfer Chair
BASSES
Alexander Hanna Principal
The David and Mary Winton
Green Principal Bass Chair
Alexander Horton
Assistant Principal
Daniel Carson
Ian Hallas
Robert Kassinger
Mark Kraemer
Stephen Lester
Bradley Opland
Andrew Sommer
FLUTES
Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson § Principal
The Erika and Dietrich M.
Gross Principal Flute Chair
Emma Gerstein
Jennifer Gunn
PICCOLO
Jennifer Gunn
The Dora and John Aalbregtse Piccolo Chair
OBOES
William Welter Principal
Lora Schaefer
Assistant Principal
The Gilchrist Foundation, Jocelyn Gilchrist Chair
Scott Hostetler
ENGLISH HORN
Scott Hostetler
Riccardo Muti Music Director Emeritus for Life
CLARINETS
Stephen Williamson Principal
John Bruce Yeh
Assistant Principal
The Governing
Members Chair
Gregory Smith
E-FLAT CLARINET
John Bruce Yeh
BASSOONS
Keith Buncke Principal
William Buchman
Assistant Principal
Miles Maner
HORNS
Mark Almond Principal
James Smelser
David Griffin
Oto Carrillo
Susanna Gaunt
Daniel Gingrich ‡
TRUMPETS
Esteban Batallán Principal
The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor
John Hagstrom
The Bleck Family Chair
Tage Larsen
TROMBONES
Timothy Higgins Principal
The Lisa and Paul Wiggin
Principal Trombone Chair
Michael Mulcahy
Charles Vernon
BASS TROMBONE
Charles Vernon
TUBA
Gene Pokorny Principal
The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld
* Assistant concertmasters are listed by seniority. ‡ On sabbatical § On leave
The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The Louise H. Benton Wagner chair is currently unoccupied.
TIMPANI
David Herbert Principal
The Clinton Family Fund Chair
Vadim Karpinos
Assistant Principal
PERCUSSION
Cynthia Yeh Principal
Patricia Dash
Vadim Karpinos
LIBRARIANS
Justin Vibbard Principal
Carole Keller
Mark Swanson
CSO FELLOWS
Ariel Seunghyun Lee Violin
Jesús Linárez Violin
The Michael and Kathleen Elliott Fellow
Olivia Jakyoung Huh Cello
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
John Deverman Director
Anne MacQuarrie
Manager, CSO Auditions and Orchestra Personnel
STAGE TECHNICIANS
Christopher Lewis
Stage Manager
Blair Carlson
Paul Christopher
Chris Grannen
Ryan Hartge
Peter Landry
Joshua Mondie
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra string sections utilize revolving seating. Players behind the first desk (first two desks in the violins) change seats systematically every two weeks and are listed alphabetically. Section percussionists also are listed alphabetically.
Discover more about the musicians, concerts, and generous supporters of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association online, at cso.org.
Find articles and program notes, listen to CSOradio, and watch CSOtv at Experience CSO.
Get involved with our many volunteer and affiliate groups.
Connect with us on social @chicagosymphony
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Board of Trustees
OFFICERS
Mary Louise Gorno Chair
Chester A. Gougis Vice Chair
Steven Shebik Vice Chair
Helen Zell Vice Chair
Renée Metcalf Treasurer
Jeff Alexander President
Kristine Stassen Secretary of the Board
Stacie M. Frank Assistant Treasurer
Dale Hedding Vice President for Development
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Administration
SENIOR LEADERSHIP
Jeff Alexander President
Cristina Rocca Vice President, Artistic Administration
The Richard and Mary L. Gray Chair
Vanessa Moss Vice President, Orchestra and Building Operations
Stacie Frank Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Administration
Ryan Lewis Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Dale Hedding Vice President, Development
For complete listings of our generous supporters, please visit the Richard and Helen Thomas Donor Gallery.
FOR Musıc with FALL IN LOVE
A fundraising event presented by the League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, featuring Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä and violist Antoine Tamestit.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
11:00 am | Guest Check-In
11:30 am | Luncheon
12:30 pm | Program
UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF CHICAGO
Presidents Hall | 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604
TICKETS $250
For event tickets and more information, visit cso.org/fallinlove.
HOSTED BY
Sarah Good, President
Sharon Mitchell, Vice President of Fundraising
Mimi Duginger and Margo Oberman, Co-Chairs
Contact Brent Taghap at taghapb@cso.org with event-related questions.
Discover the benefits of making a legacy gift to your Chicago Symphony Orchestra
“The symphony is a major part of my life, and I want to see it continue for generations so that others may enjoy the beauty of classical music and hear the best orchestra in the world.”
— Merle Jacob
Join the Theodore Thomas Society
Named in honor of the founding music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Theodore Thomas Society recognizes individuals who have included the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their will, trust or beneficiary designation.
Contact Brian Nelson at 312-294-3192 or visit cso.org/PlannedGiving for more information.
