If Alexi Giannoulias and Mark Kirk's debate on Chicago Tonight gets you riled up or you're just frustrated that Green Party candidate LeAlan Jones and Libertarian Mike Labno weren't involved, keep the dial tuned to WTTW and bliss out on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's performance of Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony that will run immediately after. more ›

Here are a couple reasons to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this week: more ›

On March 26 Pierre Boulez will turn 85, but the the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is celebrating a couple months early, devoting all its January performances to one of the most important musicians of the past century. Boulez's relationship with the CSO began in 1969 when he first conducted the orchestra, and he was designated the principal guest conductor from 1995 until becoming conductor emeritus in 2006. Besides his conducting accomplishments - Boulez was also the Cleveland Orchestra's principal guest conductor, as well as at one time the music director of both the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra - Boulez is also one of the foremost modernist composers, a leading purveyor and theorist of modern music, and has taught at University of Basel, Harvard University, and the Collège de France. He's had a full 85 years. more ›

Happy kinda sorta birthday, Ludwig van Beethoven! The Beethovens weren't great record-keepers, so all we know for sure is that the composer was baptized on December 17, 1770, which means, in all likelihood, he was actually born on the 16th. But whatever his exact birth date was, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is celebrating by offering a discount to select concerts during June's Beethoven Festival. more ›

This Thursday the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is presenting the latest installment of their ClassicEncounter series, where they sweeten the concert-going deal by adding book-learnin' and booze. more ›