Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival announced its season lineup Tuesday, offering the first glimmer of hope that the city’s summer cultural season isn’t too far off.
The annual classical series features the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus and will bring 10 weeks of free music to venues such as Millennium Park from June 10-Aug. 15. The second season under Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero will feature a heavy dose of music from American composers, as the country marks its 250th birthday and programming around the semiquincentennial is expected to be widespread.
The lineup features George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” Aaron Copland’s “Symphony No. 3” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story,” as well as works from contemporary American composers, including Chicago’s own Jessie Montgomery. The season will also feature two world premieres, several Illinois and Chicago premieres and headlining concerts from singer-songwriter Ben Folds and opera star Karen Slack.
“Following my inaugural season with the Grant Park Music Festival in 2025, I look forward to
returning in 2026 to share with audiences the breadth and richness of the American musical
landscape,” Guerrero said in a statement.
This season, Guerrero will oversee a program focused heavily on American composers as the country celebrates its 250th birthday.
Courtesy of Norman Timonera
The American-made music will also appear “within a broader world context,” including works by the likes of Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart — composers who, according to the festival’s season announcement, “inspired generations of Americans and helped define the country’s place in the global artistic landscape.”
“Together, these programs form a compelling musical portrait of a nation continually reinventing itself — rooted in history, rich in diversity, and still reaching toward its highest ideals,” according to the festival.
The patriotic summer lineup will also include the festival’s annual Independence Day Salute, which will be conducted by Christopher Bell, who is celebrating his 25th season as the Grant Park Chorus director.
The season’s world premieres include a piece commissioned by the festival from Clarice Assad, who will compose a quartet for the festival’s 2026 string fellows. Additionally, composer Jasmine Barnes, whose opera “She Who Dared” premiered last year in Chicago, will create a work for the 2026 vocal fellows.
Additionally, the festival will present the Illinois premiere of “Liberty Bell” by composer Julie Wolfe on Aug. 14-15.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds, the one-time frontman of the rock trio Ben Folds Five, will make his debut at the festival on July 29.
All concerts are free to attend and take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Fridays and at 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays. The majority of the concerts happen at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, plus a performance at the South Shore Cultural Center on July 2 and a stop by the nearby Harris Theater June 26-27 and July 31-Aug. 1.
Music lovers can buy memberships to the festival beginning Tuesday, which includes reserved access to all performances, plus discounts on parking. Memberships begin at $104.
The season’s complete schedule can be found at grantparkmusicfestival.com.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.