Changes in classical coverage at Chicago Tribune, with new freelance critic, funded in part by Rubin Institute

“The Chicago Tribune has entered into a partnership with the San Francisco-based Rubin Institute for Music Criticism that will help support the Tribune’s continued commitment to coverage of classical music,” reads an unsigned column in Monday’s (3/29) Chicago Tribune. “Hannah Edgar, who has written about classical, jazz and experimental music for the Chicago Reader, the Miami Herald, the Classical Review and Chicago magazine, among other publications, will be the Tribune’s freelance writer for reviews and feature stories. [Edgar also has written for Symphony magazine.] Edgar, who graduated from the University of Chicago (and played violin in the student orchestra), was a Rubin Fellow in 2018. They (Edgar’s pronoun preference) wrote a bachelor’s thesis on the Tribune’s legendary arts critic Claudia Cassidy. The Tribune will continue to maintain complete editorial control over story assignments and content. The Rubin Institute began in 2012 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. Since 2014, the institute has operated within the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Rubin Institute has also supported classical music coverage for the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Seattle Times, the Houston Chronicle and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.”