“Last Wednesday night was warm and enveloping as the best summer nights can be, and so you join the steady stream of people making their way into Grant Park” for a free Grant Park Music Festival concert, writes Rick Kogan in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune. “All of them, and there were thousands, had come to hear music…. Meanwhile, Carlos Kalmar was backstage with dozens of musicians, readying to play. He is the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Orchestra…. Fixed seating at the pavilion is 4,000 and the lawn has room for 10,000 more…. On this night, the Grant Park Orchestra was playing with the Mambo Kings … Kalmar has tremendous respect for his musicians … the majority … also playing for the Lyric Opera or Chicago Symphony … He is also quick to mention his colleagues with the Grant Park Chorus.” Kalmar says, “There are people who love classical, people who love American music, Broadway show tunes. It is a wonderful mix that I must provide. … Because we are free, this becomes for so many their first exposure to classical music…. We are an important part of the city’s cultural landscape.’ ”
Posted August 14, 2019
In photo: Carlos Kalmar conducts the Grant Park Orchestra in a performance with the Mambo Kings at the Pritzker Pavilion on August 7. (Charles Osgood Photography)
