# Classical music is hot this fall in Chicago

> Ten performances are selling out fast as the classical scene heats up this season.
- Title: Classical music is hot this fall in Chicago | Shortify
- Summary: Ten performances are selling out fast as the classical scene heats up this season. Book tickets now for Chicago's most sought-after classical performances…
- Keywords: chicago, classical music, chicago symphony orchestra, lyric opera of chicago, klaus mäkelä, fall 2026, tickets, performances, opera, chamber music, concerts, news
- Source: Chicago Sun-Times — https://chicago.suntimes.com/things-to-do/2026/09/17/classical-music-performances-chicago-tickets-concerts
- Published: 2026-09-17T10:30:00+00:00
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: chicago, classical music, chicago symphony orchestra, lyric opera of chicago, klaus mäkelä, fall 2026, tickets, performances, opera, chamber music, concerts, news
## Classical music is selling out
After decades of empty seats, Chicago's classical scene is seeing scarcity return this fall. Multiple performances are already sold out.
## Haymarket Opera's Monteverdi sold out
Haymarket Opera Company's September production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo is completely sold out.
## Yo-Yo Ma's CSO show gone
The cellist's one-night-only performance at Chicago Symphony Orchestra on November 11 is sold out.
## Other hot tickets vanished
Music of the Baroque's Mozart concert in Skokie and Northwestern's Skyline Piano Series recitals are also sold out.
## Score and Screen starts
Access Contemporary Music launches Score and Screen at the CheckOut, pairing silent films from the golden era with live chamber music and boozy slushies on Wednesdays. Tickets start at eighteen dollars.
## Fantômas series kicks off
Score and Screen opens with the Fantômas series from nineteen thirteen and nineteen fourteen, an early French take on the supervillain.
## Mäkelä's fall residency begins
Klaus Mäkelä, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's music director designate, arrives for five subscription weeks this season, with three stacked together this fall starting September twenty-fourth.
## Mäkelä's three programs
His first program features Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 7, the second is Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9, and the third brings William Walton's rarely performed oratorio Belshazzar's Feast with the Symphony Chorus for the CSO's gala.
## JACK Quartet world premieres
The avant-garde string quartet performs at Guarneri Hall on September thirtieth, world-premiering Juri Seo's Dahlia and works by Turkish composer Cenk Ergün outside Western tuning systems. Tickets from ten dollars.
## Voces8 comes to Chicago
The British vocal octet, widely considered the world's best chamber choir, performs at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on October second. Tickets from fourteen dollars.
## Don Giovanni returns to Lyric
Mozart's Don Giovanni opens Lyric Opera's season October tenth through November first, with Christian Van Horn as the rake and director Robert Falls returning to his original production.
## Jlin and Third Coast Percussion
The electronic artist and percussion ensemble premiere new collaborative material at the Museum of Contemporary Art on October fifteenth, a week before their album Vernacular drops. Tickets from ten dollars.
## Ubuntu Festival launches
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians holds its first festival October twenty-second through twenty-fourth at the Jacob H. Carruthers Center, featuring experimental music by Black composers and performers. Tickets from forty dollars.
## Omar tells a powerful story
Lyric Opera presents Omar, a new opera by Michael Abels and Rhiannon Giddens about Omar ibn Said, an Islamic scholar kidnapped by slavers in the early nineteenth century. Only three performances October twenty-third through twenty-eighth.
## Szeps-Znaider's two-week stay
Danish conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra October twenty-second through thirty-first, with the Dvořák Cello Concerto and Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem. Tickets from forty-five dollars.
## Dvořák Cello Concerto highlight
Soloist Jian Wang performs the Dvořák Cello Concerto, a terrific alternative if you missed Yo-Yo Ma's sold-out show.
## Brahms Requiem near Day of Dead
The second program offers Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, thoughtfully placed near the Day of the Dead. The fifth movement, with text about maternal comfort, is heartbreaking.
## Bach's Mass in B Minor
Music of the Baroque performs Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor November twenty-second and twenty-third under Jane Glover, featuring soloists Roderick Williams and Joélle Harvey. Tickets from thirty-six dollars.
## Bach's masterpiece explained
The Mass in B Minor is often cited by classical aficionados as one of the greatest pieces ever written, a two-hour-plus work of contrapuntal architecture from the composer who most influenced Western music.
## Key takeaway

Book tickets now for Chicago's most sought-after classical performances this fall, from Klaus Mäkelä's CSO residency to new operas and rare chamber works.