) Art Song Chicago launches its 2026-2027 season with Songs of the Earth, its annual Collaborative Works Festival. This year’s theme examines the intricate bond between humanity and the natural world across four centuries of vocal music. Historically, our perspective has oscillated between the desire to conquer the environment around us, the yearning to harmonize with its shifting cadences, and the fear of its fierce, untamable strength. Grammy Award-winning Art Song Chicago co-founder and Artistic Director, Nicholas Phan, notes:
“This year’s festival programs are musical tasting menus that meditate on a wide spectrum of our experiences with the environment: from communion with nature, to contemplation of its power, to reckoning with our impact upon it. As an art form, song offers audiences and artists alike a unique opportunity to consider the issues of our time in a broader humanistic and historical context. Our hope is to offer these programs as a chance to listen closely, to notice what has changed, and to consider what kind of relationship with the natural world we hope to leave behind."
September 23, 2026 – The Secret Garden
Opening the festival at 7:30 p.m. in historic Ganz Hall, The Secret Garden investigates how the earth’s varied flora and fauna have served as inspirational muses for creators across diverse cultures and eras. The evening is envisioned as a vivid bouquet of songs, highlighting masterworks by Schubert, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Harry Burleigh, and Chicago-based composer Stacy Garrop.
September 24, 2026 – Panel Discussion
On Thursday, September 24 at 5:00pm in Roosevelt University’s storied Sullivan Room, Artistic Director Nicholas Phan moderates a panel discussion exploring the intersection of the arts and climate activism, featuring Kirsten Hedegaard of the EcoVoice Project and Mike Bryson, author of Visions of the Land and Professor and Director of Sustainability Studies in Roosevelt University's College of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences.
September 25, 2026 – Masterclass
As part of Art Song Chicago’s robust partnership with Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts, festival artist, soprano Raquel González, presides over a masterclass at 2:00pm in Ganz Hall. A recipient of the prestigious Sphinx Organization’s Medal of Excellence, González has appeared with Houston Grand Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Sarasota Opera, to name a few. During this class, she will work with students selected from CCPA’s voice program on their interpretation of songs.
September 26, 2026 – Gods of the Earth
The festival’s second installment, presented at 2:00 p.m. in Ganz Hall, is titled Gods of the Earth. This performance considers nature as a potent, divine force—mysterious, mischievous, maniacal, and mystical. Drawing from a repertoire stretching from Monteverdi to Mahler, the program reveals the human experience of confronting a sacred world that remains untamable and far beyond our reach.
A pivotal highlight of the program is the Midwest premiere of Juno Award-winning composer Vivian Fung’s Lamenting Earth, first performed in 2023 at New York’s Kaufman Music Center. Composed for tenor, piano, and string quartet, the cycle is anchored by a poem written by award-winning climate change activist-poet, Claire Wahmanholm. This work is further enriched by the inclusion of poetry commissioned from gifted high school students at the Kaufman School, amplifying youth-driven climate perspectives that often go ignored, evolving from lament into a powerful testimony. The Festival performance will comprise the second-ever performance of the complete song cycle and features both Nicholas Phan and the Jasper String Quartet, for whom the work was written.
2026 Festival Artists
Phan is joined in performance at the 2026 Festival by Art Song Chicago’s Executive Director, tenor Eric Ferring, and Director of Education, pianist Brent Funderburk, alongside favorite Festival artists from recent seasons soprano Raquel González, mezzo-sopranos Sophia Maekawa and Zoie Reams, and baritones Hugh Russell and Leroy Davis. Making their Art Song Chicago debuts are soprano Rachel Blaustein, pianist Michael Banwarth and the Jasper String Quartet.
ABOUT ART SONG CHICAGO
Since 2010, Art Song Chicago has championed the art of song through a vibrant mix of performance and educational initiatives—including an annual song festival, public concerts, master classes, workshops, and a fellowship program for emerging artists. The organization has earned acclaim from Chicago Classical Review for “art song performances of the highest order” and has become a cornerstone of the city’s musical life, showcasing leading performers from around the globe.
Founded as Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) by pianists Nicholas Hutchinson and Shannon McGinnis alongside tenor Nicholas Phan, the organization has continually evolved to champion the art song and vocal chamber music repertoire.