Conductor and Air France pilot Daniel Harding leads the CSO in concert, Thu 9/18 @ 8pm

Classical 91.5 WXXO-FM

Published September 8, 2025 at 3:10 PM EDT

Many conductors pursue hobbies of one kind or another, but Daniel Harding might be the only one who can boast being a pilot for Air France. Harding, who earned his commercial pilot license at age 40, says that he's "learned things about myself and conducting in a year that I didn’t learn in 29 years before as a conductor.”

9/4 Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon Overture Haydn: Symphony No. 88 Weinberger: Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper Liebermann: Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Lisa Della Casa, s; Sauter-Finegan Orchestra; Fritz Reiner, cond)

9/11 Haydn: Symphony No. 48, Maria Theresa Telemann: Trumpet Concerto Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 M. Haydn: Trumpet Concerto Schubert: Symphony No. 4, Tragic Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5(Esteban Batallán, tr; Robert Chen, Stephanie Jeong, Gina DiBello, v; Max Raimi, Lawrence Neuman, Catherine Brubaker, vla; John Sharp, Brant Taylor, Daniel Katz, c; Daniel Armstrong, Bradley Opland, bs; Mark Shuldiner, hc; Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, f; Riccardo Muti, cond)

9/18 Schumann: Overture to Manfred Brahms: Schicksalslied Holst: The Planets Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (Chicago Symphony Chorus, Jenny Wong and Duain Wolfe, dir; Daniel Harding and Sir Georg Solti, cond)

9/25 Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Wiebke Lehmkuhl, a; Chicago Symphony Chorus,James Bass, dir; Uniting Voices Chicago, Josephine Lee, dir; Klaus Mäkelä, cond)