Graham School SUMMER Saturday Seminar

The Great Concertos from Mozart to Rachmaninov

Sat 10:00 am—04:00 pm, November 1, 2025
Deadline to
register online: September 23, at 5:00 PM CT
Location: IN PERSON at
University of Chicago Gleacher Center

The concerto tradition, with its exuberance, color, and great virtuosos is the most purely entertaining repertory in Classical music. This all-day seminar, through analysis, cd, and especially video (the visual is a major part of the concerto experience), examines works from Mozart and Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. Naturally, great performers such as Horowitz and Kissen, Heifetz and Menuhin, et al. are discussed as well.

Graham School SUMMER 8-Week Classes

Revolutionary Romanticism: Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt

Tuesdays 10:00 am—12:30 pm, September 30 - November 18, 2025
Deadline to
register online: September 23 at 5PM CT
Location: ONLINE

From fragmentary piano character sketches to massive oratorios, this course will analyze and contextualize the most dramatic era of change in western music history. Four composers, born at the outset of the 19th century, will lead us on this musical hero’s journey; the grandiose, ambitious, eccentric Berlioz; the poignantly intimate Schumann; the subtle and perfect Chopin; and the superhumanly energetic Liszt: pianist, composer, conductor, and promoter.

Great Performers: Tradition and Interpretation

Thursdays 10:00 am—12:30 pm, October 9 - December 4, 2025
Deadline to
register online: September 23, 2025 at 5PM CT
Location: IN PERSON at the Gleacher Center, Downtown Chicago

Why does the same piece of music sound so different when played by different performers? Why and how do Toscanini and Karajan, or Rubinstein and Horowitz project such different worlds of emotion and color? This class explores these issues in a roughly historical fashion from very early recordings up to the the present day. What sort of choices a performer makes, sociological trends, national characteristics will all be considered. Head to head comparisons will be offered, and participants will gain deeper understanding of what is meant by style and the thousands of choices a performer must make in any given piece. The ability to read notes is NOT required, just careful listening.

Too Late to Register Online? Please call 773-702-7249 to register. If space is available, you’ll be able to sign up!

Graham School COVID-19 policies:

For up-to-date guidance including vaccine requirements, please visit goforward.uchicago.edu/education-planning/.

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