Symphony Center Presents

25 Symphony Center Presents October 4, 2022, marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of Symphony Center.

JOSHUA BELL

DANIIL TRIFONOV After more than three years of planning, building and fine-tuning, Symphony Center — a new music complex that included a facility expansion and the beautifully restored and acoustically renovated Orchestra Hall — opened its doors to the public on October 4, 1997, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing Bruckner’s Te Deum, led by Music Director Daniel Barenboim. To match this state-of-the-art facility, the long-standing presentation series first established as Allied Arts in 1930 was renamed Symphony Center Presents (SCP). In the weeks following that opening concert, the series presented an Inaugural Festival with performances by Barenboim and Itzhak Perlman, Maurizio Pollini, and jazz legends Dave Brubeck, Joe Williams and Oscar Peterson. Adding to the series’ prestigious and legendary history, that SCP inaugural season ushered in a new era with over 70 concerts by more than 90 artists and ensembles who came to perform in “The Musical Heart of Chicago,” as the new facility was billed.

The 2022/23 Season of Symphony Center Presents welcomes the world’s leading musicians and ensembles to Chicago through the return of its world-renowned Orchestra series, intimate chamber music performances, virtuoso piano soloists and iconic jazz musicians. The series also prides itself on introducing debut artists as well as collaborations between star performers in programs that reflect the artists’ passions for repertoire of personal significance. Returning this season are series favorites who appeared during the 1997/98 reimagined SCP season: the esteemed Emerson String Quartet, jazz legend Wynton Marsalis violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

These exceptional concerts comprise thoughtfully curated series that are designed with the avid music lover in mind.

WYNTON MARSALIS

ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER