Hannah Edgar

2 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Hannah Edgar

While fielding applause at her Symphony Center show on Friday, harpist Brandee Younger made a dazed confession. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking about the music just now,” she admitted. “I remembered that the very last show I played before the pandemic was here — literally the last.”You can hardly blame her.

2 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Hannah Edgar

Let’s hear it for substitute musicians. Without subs, many a Chicago Symphony concert this year so far would have been impossible — including Thursday’s, with just one rostered musician each in the flute and trumpet sections. Considering the orchestra’s more than 20 open and soon-to-be-open seats into account, it’s no wonder the orchestra has been digging into its sub list as of late. At one time, that list included Karina Canellakis, the conductor of Thursday’s concert.

3 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Hannah Edgar

On a gray Thursday on Chicago’s Near West Side, Rev. Marshall Hatch Sr. stepped through time. Here were his five sisters, proudly donning caps and gowns in graduation portraits framed on the wall. There, the family’s World Book Encyclopedia set — a favorite of his mother, Helen Holmes Jackson. A petite pair of boxing gloves, a relic from when he was obsessed with Muhammad Ali, and the plush velvet couch that doubled as his bed.

3 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Hannah Edgar

You could recognize George Freeman’s playing anywhere. When tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons and his sextet appeared as guests on WTTW in 1970, most members of the band generally hewed to the backing progressions. Then there was Freeman, daringly traipsing around their harmonic fringes in hard-rocking, blazing solos. That was typical for the ever-adventurous Freeman, who died in Chicago on April 1. He was 97 years old. His death was confirmed by his nephew, Mark Freeman.

4 weeks ago | chicagotribune.com | Hannah Edgar

Some describe it as a giant, idling engine. Some say it’s like the whirr of a generator. Others swear it comes straight from the center of the Earth. About 2% of the global population reports hearing what researchers and conspiracy theorists alike call “the Hum.” The real-life phenomenon, which is still unexplained, inspires a new opera at Lyric Opera of Chicago from March 30 to April 11: “The Listeners,” by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek.