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The Chicago Jazz Ensemble has had only 3 music directors in its 47-year history.  Bill Russo, an esteemed jazz composer/arranger, who played in Stan Kenton’s orchestra in the 1950s, was the first director.

Russo founded the CJE in 1965 which,… Read more

Editor’s Note: The blogs posted this month feature lesser-known personal discoveries that can provide enjoyable holiday outings.

One evening in late October, I entered Studio 207 in the Fine Arts Building and discovered a whole new world. For several long… Read more

Editor’s Note: The blogs posted this month will feature lesser-known personal discoveries that can provide enjoyable holiday outings.

If you passed the imposing three-story brownstone at 40 East Erie in recent years, you would have found the building dark and… Read more

While riding the Brown line last month, I had a most delightful surprise. “Delightful surprise” are two words that are rarely associated with the CTA. As the train left Chicago Avenue heading south, my eyes caught a giant image of… Read more

With the 47^th edition of the Chicago Film Festival just ended, a new biography of legendary film critic, Pauline Kael, now in stores and the wave of holiday blockbusters about to break, it’s a good moment to write about movies.… Read more

The years from 1984-1990 were especially fertile for big cultural ideas in Chicago. I can’t pinpoint what was in the air at the time. But it gave rise to three festivals that have gone on to become vital, civic-boosting traditions.… Read more

The period following the Second World War was the heyday for a group of artists known as Abstract Expressionists.  They were a group of artists, different in style and personality, who came together in New York’s Greenwich… Read more

Last week, our own Chicago Symphony Orchestra ended a successful tour of six European cities, including stops in the music capitals of Salzburg, Paris and Vienna. The orchestra also paid first-time visits to Luxembourg and Dresden, Germany.… Read more

It’s been almost 50 years since I took an Art History 101 course at Fordham University. I didn’t know it at the time but that experience would shape my lifelong interest in Art ever since.

I still remember the charismatic… Read more

I landed in this lovely hillside town of Vence, France on the famed Cote d’Azur uncertain on what I’d find in terms of musical offerings. I’ve happily discovered that these lovely hillside towns are alive with the… Read more