This weekend my parents are visiting from Virginia. These are the people who didn't bat an eye when I told them I wanted to go to college to pursue a career in music - classical music, mind you - and although the performing days are behind me, my love of music has remained. I have them to thank, so I owe them a good cultural time this weekend. They're eager to have one, too, coming from Virginia and all. It's not that the state is some boorish backwater - despite what Virginia's deceptively insane governor and aggressively insane attorney general would lead you to believe - but, hey, it just ain't Chicago, you know? more ›

Leaders of several local arts organizations announced preliminary details of "The Soviet Experience," a fourteen-month-long multidisciplinary festival beginning in October, 2010, and continuing through December, 2011. Eleven different institutions will present works by visual artists, choreographers, composers, and dramatists who lived under the stifling Politburo. more ›

The Bad Plus returns to Chicago for the first time since last April's concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music, bringing their uniquely varied repertoire and top-notch musicianship to the University of Chicago Presents concert series this Friday. more ›

Lots of great, affordable stuff going on this weekend, so let's cut to the chase. more ›

January is going to be a banner month for frugal classical music fans. By now you should know about the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Chicagoist Gift Guide special, but don't overlook the huge discount being offered by the University of Chicago Presents. more ›

Gottlieb Hall at the Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria, 7:30 p.m., $20-$40, $10 students more ›

Double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer finishes his residency with the University of Chicago Presents with a series of events from Thursday through Saturday. more ›

If pianist Leon Fleisher had walked away from music when, at the age of 37, focal dystonia immobilized two fingers on his right hand and put a screeching halt to his soaring career, it would've been understandable, even expected. However, in an effort that can rightly be called heroic, Fleisher persevered and remained involved in music for the better part of the past four decades, teaching, conducting, and performing the surprisingly decent amount of piano repertoire written for left hand (much of which was written for concert pianist Paul Wittgenstein, brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I). more ›