We hope you like Dmitri Shostakovich as much as we do, folks, because Chicago's about to get a heavy dose of our favorite Russian composer. It will all be tied to the citywide festival "The Soviet Arts Experience," which got underway without much fanfare on October 1. You can forgive the quiet opening given that the inaugural event was a performance by the Tokyo String Quartet of music by Robert Schumann (German, died 61 years before the Bolshevik Revolution), Mozart (born in Salzburg, died almost 126 years before Soviet takeover), and the young Lera Auerbach (Russian! And she lived under Soviet rule until she was 18!). more ›

Chicago and New York are swapping orchestras for the night, with the CSO playing at Carnegie Hall and Lorin Maazel leading the New York Philharmonic at Symphony Center at 7:30 p.m. more ›