Graham School WINTER Saturday Seminar

Mozart: The Immortal Masterpieces

Sat 10:00 am—04:00 pm, January 24, 2026
Deadline to register online: TBD
Location: IN PERSON at University of Chicago Gleacher Center
Download Syllabus - Coming Soon

With a focus on his most timeless masterworks, this course will examine Mozart’s impressive assimilation of Italianate and Germanic musical styles, suffused with his unique sublimity. We will delve deeply into Mozart’s most exemplary creations in each genre: concerto, opera, and quintet, always placed in historical and stylistic context.

Graham School WINTER 8-Week Classes

Dvorák and the Rise of Musical Nationalism

Tuesdays 10:00 am—12:30 pm, January 6 - February 24, 2026
Deadline to register online: December 26 at 5PM CT
Location: ONLINE
Download Syllabus (PDF)

As versatile a composer as ever there was, Antonin Dvorák stands at the center of a movement beginning with Liszt, Glinka, and Smetana and extending through Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, and Bartok. This formidable array of distinctive styles continues to have a profound impact on the musical world of today. The class includes videos, recordings, and live performance.

Mahler

Thursdays 10:00 am—12:30 pm, January 8 - February 26, 2026
Deadline to register online: December 26 at 5PM CT
Location: IN PERSON at the Gleacher Center, Downtown Chicago
Download Syllabus (PDF) - coming soon

This course focuses on the career of composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, including detailed discussions of his symphonies and song cycles as well as his influence as a conductor. The course also examines fin de siècle Vienna, including musical feuds between Brahms, Bruckner, and Hugo Wolf. And how can we ignore Vienna’s most glamorous personality, Alma Mahler (née Schindler) whose diaries are Vienna’s looking glass? Providing context, such spectacular personalities as Gustav Klimt and Sigmund Freud are discussed alongside Mahler as exemplars of an emerging modernist ethos. Music literacy is not required.

Too Late to Register Online? Please call 773-702-7249 to register. If space is available, you’ll be able to sign up!

Graham School COVID-19 policies:

For up-to-date guidance including vaccine requirements, please visit goforward.uchicago.edu/education-planning/.

Blog

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Some recordings we like, and a app.

Revealed: The 8 Operas That Changed the World

Audio: John Gibbons reveals (and defends) the operas to be covered in his next Graham School course, and discusses some of the works he cosidered, but didn't make the cut. 10-minute audio file.

Celebrating Beethoven's "Greatest Concert Ever"

“On December 22, 1808, Beethoven himself rented a hall in Vienna and promoted the concert to end all concerts: the debut, over four hours, of three of his greatest works .. And yes, it was a fiasco. But imagine: It was as if Orson Welles premiered Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil on the same night — with The Lady from Shanghai thrown in for good measure.” (Greg Mitchell)

Why "The Little Drummer Boy" Is So Annoying

That’s the subtitle, amusingly similar to a complaint I recently made to an innocent conference worker at the Chicago Hilton, of a fun, light read by Daniel J. Levitin in The Wall Street Journal.

Guest Blogger "Charley in the Box" Unveils the "Island of Misfit Scores"

“We so-called “unwanted toys” may not delight boys and girls as we would like, but we solace ourselves by looking at the majestic lights of the North, the Aurora Borealis. But how many bores can you fit in Borealis? Boring works should go to the Island of Misfit Scores!”

"Cardillac" Arrest: Hindemith's Work is the Operatic "Caligari"

A delightful development in the world of opera video has occurred. Two (!) versions of Paul Hindemith’s 1926 opus Cardillac have recently appeared. I make the assumption that even serious opera fans may not be acquainted with this fascinating piece, except in Germany.