On March 12, 2020, Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot banned all public and private gatherings of more than 1,000 people, and urged that gatherings of more than 250 people be suspended for a minimum of 30 days. Following these recommendations, and in the interest of public health, the Harris Theater has canceled all planned events and performances through April 12, 2020. 

As a result, Chicago Philharmonic’s April 5 performance, Unity: Amjad Ali Khan, Shostakovich, is canceled. Ticket holders for this performance will be contacted with next steps.

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Amjad Ali Khan Samaagam | A Concerto for Sarod, Concertante Group and String Orchestra

Kamala Sankaram | Aria for Soprano from Taking Up Serpents

Dmitri Shostakovich | Chamber Symphony in C Minor, Op. 110a

Featuring Mandala Ensemble artists Ashwaty Chennat, Colin Mascarenhas and Misha Talapatra in a classical dance performance.

Samaagam means confluence – a flowing together or a gathering to celebrate. Master sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, scion of a family of sarod musicians in central India, composed Samaagam to entwine and rejoice in the classical music cultures of West and East. This stunning collaborative work creates an exhilarating bond of both traditions. Sankaram’s atmospheric aria from the opera Taking Up Serpents also brings together diverse conventions, depicting a young woman’s reunion with her estranged family at her father’s deathbed. And Shostakovich in his Chamber Symphony mourns for his kin, his countrymen, and himself at a difficult time in his life. Weaving together quotations from his previous works, the symphony “is so powerful that when I was writing it, tears flowed as freely as water…”