FROM IRELAND WITH LOVE

Welcome back!

We are thrilled to once again fill Millennium Park with the glorious sound of music. I know for so many people, there’s nothing quite like this concert series—the music, the architecture, the spectacular scenery, and the wonder of experiencing all these things as a community. And that’s what it’s all about. While many of us were music lovers first, we’ve all come to understand the unmatched power of experiencing music with others.

The Grant Park Music Festival is one of a kind in that respect; it’s the only annual festival of orchestral and choral music in the United States that invites the community to come together, free of charge. This is the place for Chicagoans to gather, kick off their shoes, reconnect with people and marvel at this unique city. And I don’t have to remind anyone that it’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that.

With Carlos Kalmar, Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, we jumpstart the cultural life in downtown Chicago. And what a lineup! It’s a range of musical offerings from choral masterworks to family programming to classic favorites. Meanwhile the Festival’s gifted young professionals—our Project Inclusion fellows—are bringing an inspired program of string quartet music by women and BIPOC composers to neighborhood parks. That all these concerts are the first live performances that people have been able to share in more than a year makes them especially poignant.

Thank you for joining us here on Chicago’s lakefront. If you can, please do some shopping, some dining, visit a museum and join us in helping to further our city’s reawakening.

My thanks to our members, donors, staff, musicians, and board of directors who’ve made our return to Millennium Park a reality. Enjoy tonight’s concert. Tell your friends about us. And come again.

Paul Winberg President and CEO