Cultural Attaché

09/11/2026

NEW IN MUSIC THIS WEEK — SEPTEMBER 11

Twenty-five years later, we remember.

We remember the lives lost.
We remember the people who ran toward danger.
We remember the families changed forever.
We remember the kindness of strangers.
We remember the days, weeks and years that followed.

And we remember that music has always been one of the ways human beings make sense of what cannot easily be understood.

Today’s New in Music This Week is different.

The albums gathered here are not all explicitly about September 11. But each, in its own way, speaks to remembrance, friendship, loss, resilience, beauty and the simple human need to keep listening.

Music can’t change what happened.
But sometimes it can help us carry what happened.

Today, we listen.

Cultural Attaché's New in Music This Week: September 11th offers thoughtful music for 25th annivesary of the 9/11 attacks.

09/07/2026

🎭 BEST BETS: September 7th–September 13th

It's a good week to be a fan of plays. It's also a good week to be a fan of musicals. And then there's a telenovela play with music.

This week's Best Bets includes:

🧪 Jekyll & Hyde — Broadway In Chicago
🔥 Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy — Stratford East
💰 The Visit — Pasadena Playhouse
💃 Destiny of Desire — Denver Center for the Performing Arts
🤖 Maybe Happy Ending Musical — On tour

Five very different ways to spend your time in the theater.
And yes—I'm particularly curious to see what Kokandy Productions has done with Jekyll & Hyde, a musical I've never counted among my favorites.

Go see a play!
Go see a musical!
Go see a show!

Read this week's Best Bets at Cultural Attaché.

09/07/2026

That's a wrap on Chicago Jazz Fest with standouts Joel Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater with Bill Charlap; Isaiah Collier and Paquito D'Rivera. Thank you Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for having us!

09/06/2026

🎧 WEEKEND LISTENING

If you have an extra day this weekend, why not spend some of it discovering something new?

This week’s New in Music includes music from Kaija Saariaho, Roxanna Panufnik Jalen Baker, Linda Sikhakhane, Jamie Safir, Saehyun Kim and many others.

And if you’re in the mood for something from the jazz archives, there are new Tone Poet vinyl editions of Sam Rivers’ Dimension & Extensions and Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2.

So pour yourself something, put on a record—or open your favorite streaming service—and listen.

Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy the music.

Read this week’s New in Music at Cultural Attaché.

Cultural Attaché's New in Music This Week: September 4th is led by James Safir and includes opera, classical and two jazz masterworks

09/04/2026

🎧 **NEW IN MUSIC THIS WEEK**

It’s a holiday weekend in the U.S.—which means an extra day to listen to some great new music.

This week’s New in Music includes **11 new releases and two classic jazz vinyl reissues**, spanning jazz, classical, contemporary classical and opera.

My **Top Pick** is pianist/composer ** Jamie Safir's *Momentism***—an impressive first impression from a musician with a distinctive musical voice and plenty to say.

Also this week:

🎹 Saehyun Kim — *Chopin & Fauré*
🎼 Roxanna Panufnik — *Love Songs & Lullabies*
🎻 *Her Symphonic Voice: Live in Concert*
🌌 Kaija Saariaho — *Saarikoski Songs*
🎹 Jackie Leung — *Inside Out: Piano Music by Alvin Singleton*
🎷 Jalen Baker— *Repaved*
🎤 Kurt Ellingng & Yellowjackets— *Play Weather Report: Live in Europe*
🎷 Linda Sikhakhane— *LINDA*
🎭 Mason Bates — *The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay*
🎙️ Chávez— *Amour: Les Chansons Que J’aime*
💿 Plus new vinyl reissues of Sam Rivers and Sonny Rollins

**Eleven new releases. Two jazz classics. Plenty to discover.**

Read *New in Music This Week: September 4th* at Cultural Attaché.

09/03/2026

Tonight at Ravinia Festival: Dame Jane Glover conducts Handel and Haydn with Music of the Baroque.

Glover talks about why Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain so irresistible—and why a composer who could entertain an audience so brilliantly could also make us think.

“We all perform this music as much as possible because the public love it and we love to play it.”

Read the full Cultural Attaché conversation with Dame Jane Glover.

09/02/2026

After 50 seasons as a conductor, Dame Jane Glover of Music of the Baroque has no plans to stop.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Cultural Attaché, Glover talks about five decades on the podium, the changing landscape for women conductors, her faith, the transformative influence of Benjamin Britten, her enduring love of Handel’s Messiah—and why retirement is, for now, something she simply bats away.

“I don’t know that I think about legacy in a sense…”

Read the full conversation with Dame Jane Glover at Cultural Attaché.

See Dame Jane with Music of the Baroque at Ravinia Festival on Thursday; MOB's "Chicago Water Music on Sepember 9th and in MOB's opening concerts this season on September 27th and 28th.

08/31/2026

Summer is winding down. The fall performing arts season is gearing up. And there are plenty of reasons to get out and see something this week.

This week’s Best Bets include:

🎻 The U.S. premiere of Sarah Gibson’s "beyond the beyond" at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Anja Bihlmaier, who led its world premiere.

🎤 Thomas Bartlett’s five-concert celebration of Allen Ginsberg at Little Island NYC featuring Laurie Anderson, Davóne Tines, Anne Waldman, Taylor Mac, Rufus Wainwright and many more.

🎷 The Chicago Jazz Festival, with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bill Charlap, Robert Glasper, the M.E.B., Paquito D’Rivera and an extraordinary lineup of artists — and all of the concerts are free. (Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events)

🎭 And Begin Again, the world-premiere musical at The Old Globe based on John Carney’s 2013 film, with music and lyrics by Pat Monahan and Train.

Four cities. Four very different experiences. One week of things worth seeing.

Read this week’s Best Bets at Cultural Attaché.

08/29/2026

Can music make sense of grief?

Sara Bareilles does and I agree.

Her new album, "Good Grief," is a powerful and deeply personal exploration of grief — its horror, its wonder and, perhaps most importantly, its necessity.

It’s the kind of album that asks you to listen differently.

In this week’s New in Music, I explain why I think Good Grief belongs in the tradition of the great song cycles — and why I hope Bareilles performs the album from beginning to end on her upcoming tour.

Please listen to it.

👉 Read the rest of this week's recommendations at Cultural Attaché.

08/28/2026

Sometimes the best new music discovery is the artist you didn't know you needed to hear.

This week, that artist was Kelly Green.

I hadn't known her before hearing "Eat Your Greens." Now I've listened to the album repeatedly — and couldn't wait to share it.

She takes songs by Jerome Kern, Ray Noble and Duke Ellington and somehow makes them completely her own. And throughout, she impresses with both her piano playing and her singing.

Eat Your Greens is one of my favorite discoveries in this week's New in Music.

👉 Read the full column — and discover what else is new this week — at Cultural Attaché.