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79-851: In 1890, Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago businessman, invited Theodore Thomas to establish an orchestra in Chicago. Under the name "Chicago Orchestra", the orchestra played its first concert October 16, 1891 at the Auditorium Theater . It is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States, along with the New York Philharmonic , the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra . Orchestra Hall , now

158-822: A classical music radio format. It is managed by Window to the World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW , Chicago's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station. WFMT seeks donations on the air and on its website. The studios and offices are on North Saint Louis Avenue in Chicago. WFMT has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 6,000 watts . The transmitter is atop the Willis Tower in Downtown Chicago . It broadcasts using HD Radio technology. WFMT has been broadcasting classical music since 1951. Its website says WFMT "strives to entertain, engage, and above all, respect its listeners with

237-534: A component of the Symphony Center complex, was designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1904. Maestro Thomas served as music director for thirteen years until his death shortly after Orchestra Hall was dedicated on December 14, 1904. The orchestra was renamed "Theodore Thomas Orchestra" in 1905, and today, Orchestra Hall still has "Theodore Thomas Orchestra Hall" inscribed in its façade. In 1905, Frederick Stock became music director,

316-549: A mixture of rare archival recordings and new studio recordings of poets, novelists, philosophers, scientists, actors and musicians. In addition to her extensive work with spoken arts programs, from 1972 until 2009 Lois Baum co-hosted with Norman Pellegrini nationally syndicated broadcasts from the Lyric Opera of Chicago . In August 2000, Steve Robinson was hired as general manager of WFMT. He had worked in classical music radio since 1967, and retired in 2016. Since going on

395-648: A new concert series, where they learned large portions of the city were destroyed by fire the night before, including the Crosby Opera House where he was to perform. The orchestra was ultimately dissolved in 1888. Thomas was also music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1877-78 and from 1879 to 1891; of the short-lived American Opera Company in New York in 1886; and of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Society 1862 to 1891. He

474-486: A post he held until his death in 1942. The orchestra was renamed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1913. Subsequent music directors have included Désiré Defauw , Artur Rodziński , Rafael Kubelík , Fritz Reiner , Jean Martinon , Georg Solti , and Daniel Barenboim . Reiner famously lead the orchestra, including in a series of television appearances, the first in its history. He also planned but

553-418: A quality and variety of programming found nowhere else." It is also the primary station of the nationally syndicated WFMT Radio Network and a jazz network available to other public radio stations around the U.S. Hosts on WFMT include Candice Agree, Lisa Flynn, Kerry Frumkin, LaRob K.Rafael, Jan Weller, David Schwan, Kristina Lynn, and Peter Van de Graaff . Weeknights, Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin

632-644: A radio show on WFMT in 1952, remaining on the station until 1997. The station replays Terkel's noteworthy interviews on Friday nights. Carl Grapentine, former weekday breakfast host on WFMT, has served as the voice of the University of Michigan Marching Band since 1972 and has doubled as the public-address announcer at Michigan Stadium since 2006. He retired from full-time presenting in July 2018 but still continues to contribute programming. Two-time Peabody Award -winning audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky , creator of

711-683: A series of concerts with the Chicago Symphony that were recorded for the European firm Unitel and were broadcast in the 1970s on PBS . They have subsequently been reissued by Decca Video on DVD. Frederick Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the first training orchestra in the United States affiliated with a major symphony orchestra, in 1919. Its goal is to recruit pre-professional musicians and train them as high-level orchestra players. Many alumni have gone on to play for

790-624: Is heard. Weekly broadcasts include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , New York Philharmonic , San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera . Weekends feature shows on baroque music, folk music, Latin American classical music, and chamber music. The syndicated weekly show With Heart and Voice airs Sunday mornings. On Saturday at twelve o'clock they have an opera. Programs can be heard through its satellite services and online via several streaming services. WFMT

869-589: Is the only individual radio station that is an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union . The station signed on the air on May 16, 1948 ; 76 years ago  ( 1948-05-16 ) . It originally held the call sign WOAK. The studios were in the Guyon Hotel and it operated at 98.3 MHz with an effective radiated power (ERP) of only 770 watts. The station was owned by Gale Broadcasting Company. By 1950,

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948-637: The Bayreuth Festspielhaus to the US and Canada in 1983. In 1986, WFMT launched the Beethoven Satellite Network, a satellite delivered classical music programming service. It allows public radio stations to broadcast classical music during some hours of the day or around the clock, even if their budgets don't allow for a local staff or music library. The WFMT Fine Arts Circle, a member/listener support and funding group,

1027-550: The Bush political family . He died at Chicago, Illinois , on January 4, 1905. His funeral service was held at St. James Episcopal Cathedral in Chicago and he was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Thomas is honored with a memorial monument and garden in Chicago's Grant Park , near Orchestra Hall. WFMT WFMT (98.7 MHz ) is a commercial FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring

1106-790: The Chicago Symphony Chorus have earned sixty-five Grammy Awards from the Recording Academy . These include several Classical Album of the Year awards, awards in Best Classical Performance in vocal soloist, choral, instrumental, engineering and orchestral categories. On May 1, 1916, Frederick Stock and the orchestra recorded the Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohn 's music to A Midsummer Night's Dream for Columbia Records . Stock and

1185-742: The Great Depression . The year of Ravinia Park's re-opening, the CSO helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival on July 3, 1936, and has been in residence at the Festival every summer since. The one exception to this is during the COVID-19 pandemic , when the orchestra did not perform any concerts due to Ravinia announcing that it had cancelled all concerts for the 2020 season. Many conductors have made their debut with

1264-568: The Metropolitan Opera House , New York , he conducted the U.S. premiere of Saint-Saëns 's "Organ Symphony" (Symphony No. 3). Thomas, who was never completely satisfied with the Auditorium Theatre (finding it far too cavernous and nearly impossible to sell over 4,200 tickets twice weekly), fully realized his dream of a permanent home, when Orchestra Hall , designed by the Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham ,

1343-706: The Recording Academy . Riccardo Muti , former music director, has won two Grammy Awards, both with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, for the recording of Verdi's Messa da Requiem on the CSO Resound label. Duain Wolfe , chorus director, has won two Grammy Awards for his collaboration with the Chorus, also for Verdi's Messa da Requiem on the CSO Resound label. Bernard Haitink , former principal conductor, has won two Grammy Awards, including one with

1422-782: The CSO made numerous recordings for Columbia and the Victor Talking Machine Company / RCA Victor . The Chicago Symphony's first electrical recordings were made for Victor in December 1925, including a performance of Karl Goldmark 's In Springtime overture. These early electrical recordings were made in Victor's Chicago studios; within a couple of years Victor began recording the CSO in Orchestra Hall. Stock continued recording for Columbia and RCA Victor until his death in 1942. In 1951, Rafael Kubelík made

1501-466: The CSO or other major orchestras. It is currently the only training orchestra sponsored by a major orchestra in North America. The Civic Orchestra performs half a dozen orchestral concerts and a chamber music series annually in Symphony Center and in other venues throughout the Chicago area free of charge to the public. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra was voted the best orchestra in

1580-863: The CSO, and returned for a guest-conducting appearance in February 2023. In April 2024, the CSO announced the appointment of Mäkelä as its next music director, effective with the 2027–2028 season, with an initial contract of five years. The orchestra has also hosted many distinguished guest conductors, including Thomas Beecham , Leonard Bernstein , Aaron Copland , Edward Elgar , Morton Gould , Paul Hindemith , Erich Kunzel , Erich Leinsdorf , Charles Munch , Eugene Ormandy , André Previn , Sergei Prokofiev , Sergei Rachmaninoff , Maurice Ravel , Arnold Schoenberg , Leonard Slatkin , Leopold Stokowski , James Levine , Richard Strauss , George Szell , Klaus Tennstedt , Michael Tilson Thomas , Bruno Walter , and John Williams . Many of these guests have also recorded with

1659-454: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia, and several have gone on to become music director for the festival, including Seiji Ozawa (1964–68), James Levine (1973–93), and Christoph Eschenbach (1995–2003). James Conlon held the title from 2005 until 2015. The Ravinia Festival created an honorific title for James Levine, "Conductor Laureate", and signed him to a five-year renewable contract beginning in 2018. On December 4, 2017, after Levine

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1738-492: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the recording of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony on the CSO Resound label. Pierre Boulez , former conductor emeritus and principal guest conductor, won twenty-six Grammy Awards including eight with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Boulez is the sixth all-time Grammy winner, behind Beyoncé (thirty-two), Sir Georg Solti (thirty-one), Quincy Jones (twenty-eight), Alison Krauss , and Chick Corea (twenty-seven each). Boulez also received

1817-528: The National Radio Theater of Chicago, began a decade-long association with WFMT in 1975. He is still heard periodically on The Midnight Special in his classic "Chicago Language Tape" skit. WFMT is noted for the longevity of various staff members. Norman Pellegrini joined the station as an announcer in 1952 and became program director in 1953, holding the position until disputes with the station owners forced him out in 1996. Ray Nordstrand

1896-559: The Orchestra's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma (Grammy winner); and recordings of Verdi's Requiem (Grammy winner) and Otello , under the direction of Muti. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have recorded the music for two movies: Fantasia 2000 conducted by James Levine and Lincoln conducted by John Williams. Selections from the Orchestra and Chorus's recording of Johann Sebastian Bach 's St Matthew Passion , conducted by Sir Georg Solti, were used in

1975-463: The South, giving violin concerts in little towns. He traveled on horseback. When he came into a town, he went about all day tacking up posters announcing his concert in the evening. Before the concert, he stood at the door taking in the admission money until his audience had arrived, and then he went on the platform and played. It was a lazy, hand-to-mouth existence . . . and when he got back to New York in

2054-971: The Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1864. That orchestra would in turn have a chamber music connection of its own: Joseph Zoellner, who was at least for a time its concertmaster, later went on to form the Zoellner Quartet , another pioneering promoter of classical music in the United States. In 1864, Thomas began a series of summer concerts with his orchestra, first in New York City, and later in Philadelphia , Cincinnati , St. Louis , Milwaukee , and eventually Chicago . The orchestra toured regularly and received consistent critical and popular acclaim, despite persistent financial setbacks. One such setback occurred on October 9, 1871, when he and his orchestra arrived in Chicago for

2133-883: The U.S. on the London label and include a highly acclaimed Mahler series, recorded, in part, in the historic Medinah Temple —some installments were recorded in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois (in Urbana ), as well as in the Sofiensaal in Vienna, Austria. Many of the recordings with Daniel Barenboim were released on Teldec . In 2007, the Chicago Symphony formed its own recording label, CSO Resound . After an agreement

2212-524: The United States and dozens of countries, including the Soviet Union and China. In August 1976, the FCC granted WFMT temporary authority to simulcast on AM 1450, using the former facilities of WVON , which had moved its call sign and programming to another frequency the previous year. The simulcast continued until 1979, when Midway Broadcasting and Migala Enterprises were granted licenses to share time on

2291-712: The United States and the fifth best orchestra in the world by editors of the British classical music magazine Gramophone in November, 2008. The same was said by a panel of critics polled by the classical music website bachtrack in September, 2015. In 2011, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame . Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus have earned sixty-five Grammy Awards from

2370-484: The United States premieres of works of Anton Bruckner , Dvořák, Edward Elgar , Alexander Glazunov , Edvard Grieg , Jules Massenet , Bedřich Smetana , Tchaikovsky, and his personal friend Richard Strauss who became the orchestra's first guest conductor, appearing with his wife Pauline de Ahna in April 1904 at Thomas's invitation. During this time, he also conducted in other places. For example, on 19 February 1887 at

2449-483: The Wagner union in 1872. Thomas always received an enthusiastic welcome in Chicago. In 1889, Charles Norman Fay , a Chicago businessman and devoted supporter of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, encountered Thomas in New York and inquired whether he would come to Chicago if he was given a permanent orchestra. Thomas's legendary reply was, "I would go to hell if they gave me a permanent orchestra." On December 17, 1890,

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2528-447: The academy's 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award . Sir Georg Solti , former music director and music director laureate, won thirty-one Grammy Awards. He received seven awards in addition to his twenty-four awards with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In addition, Sir Georg Solti and producer John Culshaw received the first NARAS Trustees' Award in 1967 for their "efforts, ingenuity, and artistic contributions" in connection with

2607-433: The air in 1951, WFMT has garnered a strong reputation for technological innovation and sound quality. In 1958, WFMT and public television station WTTW collaborated on a pioneering stereo music project in which WTTW broadcast a left audio channel, and WFMT broadcast the right audio channel simultaneously. ( FM stereo broadcasting was not yet available.) WFMT broadcast a live concert in 1971 using Dolby noise reduction,

2686-469: The best station in Chicago in terms of audio quality. The station's first series of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts began in 1965. WFMT has won numerous first place Major Armstrong awards for excellence and originality in radio broadcasting and special awards for engineering and technical achievement. Several noteworthy individuals have worked at WFMT in its history. Award-winning stage and film director, writer, and producer Mike Nichols , at

2765-788: The broadcasts once again resumed with a 52-week series. The broadcasts were originally sponsored by BP and air on 98.7 WFMT in Chicago and the WFMT Radio Network. They consist of 39 weeks of recordings of live concerts, as well as highlights from the CSO's vast discography. The CSO appeared in a series of telecasts on WGN-TV , beginning in 1953. The early 1960s saw the videotaped telecast series Music from Chicago , conducted by Fritz Reiner and guest conductors including Arthur Fiedler , George Szell , Pierre Monteux , and Charles Munch . Many of these televised concerts, from 1953 to 1963, have since been released to DVD by Video Artists International . Sir Georg Solti also conducted

2844-405: The country's best broadcaster in the small-station category. WFMT also aired a discussion between Frank Lloyd Wright and Carl Sandburg , which was simulcast with WTTW, marking the first collaboration between WTTW and WFMT. Another collaboration occurred the following year, as the two stations began a pioneering stereo music project in which WTTW broadcast a left audio channel, and WFMT broadcast

2923-470: The early 1990s, the only time in its history, proved unpopular with listeners. All advertising on the station would be read exclusively by WFMT's on-air hosts . In 1976, WFMT created the Fine Arts Network for broadcast syndication of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera . In 1979, WFMT became America's first radio superstation , delivered by satellite and cable systems across

3002-480: The end of the tour with a ticker-tape parade . On May 5, 2008, the CSO announced the appointment of Riccardo Muti as its 10th music director, starting with the 2010–2011 season After extending his stay several times, the CSO confirmed that Muti would conclude his active directorship of the orchestra at end of the 2022–2023 season. In September 2023, the orchestra granted Muti the title of Music Director Emeritus for life. In 2022, Klaus Mäkelä first guest-conducted

3081-695: The event, from 1986 through 2008, the orchestra released tracks from their broadcast archives on double LP/CD collections, as well as two larger sets of broadcasts and rarities (CSO: The First 100 Years, 12 CDs, 1991; CSO in the 20th Century: Collector's Choice, 10 CDs, 2000). The Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintains a summer home at the Ravinia Festival in Ravinia Park, Highland Park, Illinois . The CSO first performed there on November 20, 1905, during Ravinia Park's second year since its opening in 1904, and continued to appear there on and off through August 1931, after which Ravinia Park closed for four years due to

3160-424: The fall, he was rather torpid . . . From this adolescent drowsiness the lad was awakened by two voices, by two women who sang in New York in 1851: Jenny Lind and Henrietta Sontag. They were the first great artists he had ever heard, and he never forgot his debt to them. . . . . Night after night he went to hear them, striving to reproduce the quality of their tone upon his violin. From that time his idea about strings

3239-521: The first complete recording of Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Vienna Philharmonic . Solti also received the academy's 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award . Margaret Hillis , founder and longtime director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus , won nine Grammy Awards for her collaborations with the Orchestra and Chorus. Theodore Thomas (conductor) Theodore Thomas (October 11, 1835 – January 4, 1905)

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3318-742: The first meeting for incorporation of the Orchestral Association, organized by Fay, was held at the Chicago Club . Less than one year later on October 16 and 17, 1891, the first concerts of the Chicago Orchestra, led by Thomas, were given at the Auditorium Theatre . The concert included Wagner's Faust Overture, Tchaikovsky 's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Rafael Joseffy , Beethoven 's Symphony No. 5 , and Dvořák 's Hussite Overture . During his tenure, Thomas introduced several new works to his Chicago audiences, including

3397-619: The first modern high fidelity recordings with the orchestra, in Orchestra Hall, for Mercury . Like the first electrical recordings, these performances were made with a single microphone. Philips has reissued these performances on compact disc with the original Mercury label and liner notes. In March 1954, Fritz Reiner made the first stereophonic recordings with the CSO, again in Orchestra Hall, for RCA Victor, including performances of two symphonic poems by Richard Strauss : Ein Heldenleben and Also sprach Zarathustra . Reiner and

3476-576: The first station to do so. In 1974 it broadcast for the first time in four-channel ( quadrophonic ) sound, a live performance of the Chicago Lyric Opera's presentation of Rossini's Semiramide . In 1978, WFMT participated in the first stereo relay of a live performance via satellite, from the San Francisco Opera . In 1979, WFMT was one of the first local FM stations to re-broadcast its programming via satellite. This feed

3555-410: The frequency. In 1980, WFMT became the first U.S. radio station to join the European Broadcasting Union . A live performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was heard in the US, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, and West Germany simultaneously. Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen was broadcast live for the first time as a digital transatlantic performance from

3634-518: The intent of returning to Germany for advanced musical education; instead, he began his studies conducting in New York with Karl Eckert and Louis Antoine Jullien . He became first violin in the orchestra that accompanied Jenny Lind in that year, Henrietta Sontag in 1852, and Giulia Grisi and Giuseppe Mario in 1854. Also in 1854, at the age of nineteen, he was invited to play with the Philharmonic Society 's orchestra. He led

3713-405: The movie Casino . The Chicago Symphony first broadcast on the radio in 1925. Though often sporadic, there have been broadcasts ever since. With the 1965–1966 season, Chicago radio station WFMT began regular tape-delayed stereo broadcasts of CSO concerts, running through the 1968–1969 season. They resumed from 1976 through the 2000–2001 season before ceasing due to lack of sponsorship. In 2007,

3792-567: The only Pulitzer Prize ever awarded for the biography of a musician." Thomas also makes a brief appearance as a character in Chapter VI of Willa Cather 's The Song of the Lark (1915) in which he recounts some of the struggles of his early years and describes how listening to the singing of sopranos Jenny Lind and Henrietta Sontag influenced his violin playing: He said he had spent the summer of his fifteenth year wandering about alone in

3871-528: The orchestra continued to record for RCA Victor through 1963. These were mostly recorded in RCA Victor's triple-channel "Living Stereo" process. RCA has digitally remastered the recordings and released them on CD and SACD. Jean Martinon also recorded with the CSO for RCA Victor during the 1960s, producing performances that have been reissued on CD. Sir Georg Solti recorded with the CSO primarily for Decca Records . These Solti recordings were issued in

3950-644: The orchestra. Carlos Kleiber made his only symphonic guest appearances in America with the CSO in October 1978 and June 1983. The three principal guest conductors of the orchestra have been Carlo Maria Giulini , Claudio Abbado , and Pierre Boulez . The CSO holds an annual fundraiser, originally known as the Chicago Symphony Marathon, more recently as "Radiothon" and "Symphonython", in conjunction with Chicago radio station WFMT . As part of

4029-410: The orchestras that accompanied La Grange , Maria Piccolomini , and Thalberg through the country. Meanwhile, in 1855, with himself as first violin, Joseph Mosenthal , second violin, George Matzka , viola, Carl Bergmann , violoncello, and William Mason as pianist, he began a series of chamber music soirées which were given at Dodworth's Academy. The Mason-Thomas concerts lasted until his founding of

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4108-417: The present-day 98.7 MHz. In 1956, WFMT aired a live recording of a folk concert with Pete Seeger and Big Bill Broonzy at Northwestern University . In 1968, WFMT began around-the-clock broadcasting. That same year, Bernard Jacobs sold WFMT to WGN-TV 's Continental Broadcasting Company for $ 810,000, which in turn donated the station to WTTW two years later. In 1969, the station's transmitter

4187-403: The right audio channel simultaneously. WFMT won another Alfred I. DuPont Award in 1960, this time as the country's best broadcaster in the large-station category. In 1961, the station won its first Peabody Award . Its ERP was increased to 120,000 watts the same year. In 1962, WFMT began broadcasting a majority of its programming in stereo. In 1964, Hi Fi/Stereo Review readers voted WFMT

4266-434: The station began syndication of the program " Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin ", an informational weekday program on various themes in classical music. It was created by Steve Robinson and is now carried by over 50 stations in the U.S. and is heard by over 400,000 people each week. WFMT also launched a Fine Arts Hotline for the Chicago area that same year. In 1957, the station received an Alfred I. DuPont Award as

4345-485: The station's engineer, and Rita as the station's announcer. In 1952, WFMT began publishing a biweekly program guide, which later became Chicago magazine. In 1953, programming was expanded to 18 hours per day. In 1954, WFMT's studios and transmitter were moved to the LaSalle-Wacker Building , increasing its HAAT to 547 feet. The station's ERP was also increased and its frequency was changed to

4424-535: The station's frequency had been changed to 105.9 MHz, and its ERP was increased to 9,300 watts. WOAK generally aired pop music, but also featured classical music programs and dramas. The number of Chicago radio stations that aired classical music programs was small, but none compared to WFMT. In 1951, the station's call sign was changed to WFMT. Bernard and Rita Jacobs launched WFMT's classical music/fine arts radio format on December 13, 1951. They began with 8-hour-a-day broadcasts, with Bernard serving as

4503-449: The time a student at the University of Chicago , joined the station in 1951. Nichols started the folk music program The Midnight Special in 1953. In 1983, Rich Warren became a co-host of The Midnight Special , and later became its sole host in 1996. Rich Warren continued as host of The Midnight Special until 2020.The show still airs weekly on WFMT, with Marilyn Rea Beyer as the host. Noted author and broadcaster Studs Terkel began

4582-542: Was a German-American violinist , conductor , and orchestrator . He is considered the first renowned American orchestral conductor and was the founder and first music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1891–1905). Theodore Christian Friedrich Thomas was born in Esens , Germany, on October 11, 1835, the son of Johann August Thomas. His mother, Sophia, was the daughter of a physician from Göttingen . He received his musical education principally from his father, who

4661-589: Was a Probate Judge for Middlesex County, Massachusetts , for 35 years and served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard College for 28 years. She was the great-great granddaughter of Dr. Abel Prescott , a physician in Concord, Massachusetts and the father of two American patriots who sounded the alarm on April 19, 1775. Her first cousin was Harriet Eleanor Fay, the wife of Rev. James Smith Bush , an attorney and Episcopal priest and religious writer, and an ancestor of

4740-808: Was a better life for a respected musician in America, packed their belongings and made the six-week journey to New York City. In 1848, Thomas and his father joined the Navy Band, but in 1849 his father ceased to support him, and he set out on his own. Thomas soon became a regular member of several pit orchestras, including the Park, the Bowery, and the Niblo. He then toured the United States performing violin recitals. During this time Thomas served as his own manager, ticket sales, and press agent. He reached as far south as Mississippi. Thomas returned to New York in 1850, with

4819-697: Was a graduate and later a teacher at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut . They met at a series of chamber concerts in Farmington, Connecticut. Thomas and Minna had five children: Franz Thomas, Marion Thomas, Herman Thomas, Hector W. Thomas and Mrs. D.N.B. Sturgis. He married, his second wife in Chicago , Cook County, Illinois , at the Church of the Ascension on May 7, 1890. Rose Emily Fay

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4898-422: Was a violinist of ability, and at the age of six years he played the violin in public concerts. His father was the town Stadtpfeifer (bandleader) who also arranged music for state occasions. Thomas showed interest in the violin at an early age, and by age ten, he was practically the breadwinner of the family, performing at weddings, balls, and even in taverns. By 1845, Johann Thomas and his family, convinced there

4977-415: Was accused of sexual misconduct, the Ravinia Festival severed all ties with Levine, and terminated his five-year contract to lead the Chicago Symphony there. Marin Alsop served as the festival's first artistic curator from 2018 until 2019. She became its chief conductor and curator in 2021. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has amassed an extensive discography. Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and

5056-436: Was also the sister of businessman Charles Norman Fay, who was Thomas's chief booster and supporter in organizing a major Chicago orchestra. She was the granddaughter of John Henry Hopkins , who was the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont and was the eighth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America . She was also the granddaughter of Samuel Prescott Phillips Fay (1778–1856). He

5135-417: Was assumed by Frederick Stock , who in 1905 wrote a symphonic poem Eines Menschenlebens Morgen, Mittag, und Abend , dedicated to "Theodore Thomas and the Members of the Chicago Orchestra." The work was first performed on April 7 and 8, 1905. Music historian Judith Tick writes: "Theodore Thomas was a legend in his own time, and in 1927 the journalist Charles Edward Russell 's biography of Theodore Thomas won

5214-402: Was completed. Thomas led the dedicatory concert on December 14, 1904. He would only lead two weeks of subscription concerts in the new hall, after contracting influenza during rehearsals for the dedicatory concert. Though he continued with his customary vigor, he conducted his beloved Chicago Orchestra for the last time on Christmas Eve 1904 and died of pneumonia on January 4, 1905. His post

5293-446: Was completely changed, and on his violin he tried always for the singing, vibrating tone, instead of the loud and somewhat harsh tone then prevalent among even the best German violinists. In later years he often advised violinists to study singing, and singers to study violin. . . ." But, of course", he added, "the great thing I got from Lind and Sontag was the indefinite, not the definite, thing. For an impressionable boy, their inspiration

5372-417: Was director of the Cincinnati College of Music from 1878 to 1879, and from 1873 to 1904 the conductor of the biennial May festivals at Cincinnati. In his Wagner concerts, Thomas used the Deutscher Liederkranz der Stadt New York choir, that he directed from 1882 to 1884 and from 1887 to 1888. To Theodore Thomas is largely due the popularization of Richard Wagner 's works in America, and it was he who founded

5451-501: Was formed in 1991. In 1995, the station moved to its current location in the WTTW complex in Chicago's Northwest Side. The new facility included an all-digital path from studios to transmitter. The WFMT Jazz Satellite Network debuted two years later. In 2001, the station's transmitter was moved to the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago (now the Willis Tower ). WFMT celebrated its 50th anniversary on December 13, 2001, which Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared WFMT Day . In 2003,

5530-551: Was hired as an announcer, also in 1953. He later became the assistant of original owner Bernard Jacobs. Nordstrand moved up to the position of president and general manager in 1970. After suffering a heart attack in 1993, Nordstrand worked as a part-time consultant to the station. Don Tait , who had been called a "a seminal figure in the history of WFMT", worked as a host from June 1972 until his retirement in October 2007. His interest in archival recordings of conductors such as Willem Mengelberg , Bruno Walter , and Leopold Stokowski

5609-543: Was incalculable. They gave me my first feeling for the Italian style -- but I could never say how much they gave me. At that age, such influences are actually creative. I always think of my artistic consciousness as beginning then. All his life Thomas did his best to repay what he felt he owed to the singer's art. No man could get such singing from choruses, and no man worked harder to raise the standard of singing in schools and churches and choral societies. He married his first wife in 1864 in New York City, Minna L. Rhodes. She

5688-732: Was moved to the Prudential Building , and in 1971 its transmitter was moved to the John Hancock Center . Several classical music stations were found on the FM dial in Chicago in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They included WEFM 99.5, WXFM 105.9, WFMQ 107.5, WJJD at 104.3 and WNIB 97.1. They all changed formats by the 1990s. While WFMT was a station supported by the sales of commercials , it aired no pre-recorded (by non-station hosts) advertising. A brief attempt at introducing pre-recorded commercial advertising in

5767-601: Was often reflected in his programming. Among the programs he hosted were Collector's Item and Chicago Symphony Retrospective . Another key contributor to WFMT's success was Associate Program Director Lois Baum. Arriving at the station from KPFK in California in July 1964, Baum produced and oversaw the production of countless spoken arts programs and features. She produced the Critic's Choice series, regular broadcasts of reviews and commentary by artist Harry Bouras (whose name

5846-564: Was reached with the Orchestra's musicians, arrangements were made for new recordings to be released digitally at online outlets and on compact disc. The first CSO Resound CD, a recording of Haitink's rendition of Mahler's Third Symphony, was released in the spring of 2007. Releases that followed included Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, and Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony (Grammy winner), all conducted by Haitink; Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony led by Myung-Whun Chung ; "Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago" with

5925-414: Was received by cable companies (who transmitted WFMT's programming to their subscribers), as well as by home TVRO users. In 1982, WFMT moved into the digital era, being chosen by Sony and Philips to be the first station in the world to broadcast music from the compact disc format, thanks to the station's reputation for high audio standards. The station broadcast material from Digital Audio Tape for

6004-479: Was the daughter of Rev. Charles Fay, Harvard College 1829, an Episcopal priest and Emily Hopkins. She was born in 1853 in Burlington, Vermont , and died on April 19, 1929, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is buried next to her husband at Mount Auburn Cemetery , in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Rose was a gifted woman who contributed many of the critical notices published in the New York and Chicago Journals; Rose

6083-477: Was the inspiration for the playful Chicago art group, the "Hairy Who" ), theater critic Claudia Cassidy , and journalist and author Herman Kogan. Baum selected and programmed plays and readings produced by the BBC and by the National Radio Theater of Chicago, and created The Storytellers , a program devoted to short stories. With co-producer George Drury, she created Word of Mouth , a spoken arts program that presented

6162-406: Was unable to bring to fruition its first tour outside the United States. Later, Solti thought it was essential to raise the orchestra's international profile. He led it in a European tour in 1971, playing in ten countries. It was the first time in its 80-year history that the orchestra had played outside of North America. The orchestra received plaudits from European critics, and was welcomed home at

6241-425: Was well known in Chicago as a decorative artist. Her marriage was a society event. She was a sister of Amy Fay , a prominent pianist, and Harriet Melusina "Zina" Fay who married in 1862, Charles Sanders Peirce , an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist. The philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician". She

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