Clef Notes

Now in its fourth year, the Five Cities Baroque Festival returns June 16–21, bringing artists from around the region and beyond to perform in venues across central Illinois. This season features Handel’s epic oratorio Israel in Egypt, as well as a recital by renowned harpsichordist Charlotte Mattax Moersch and the festival’s first-ever collaboration with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana. We spoke with the festival’s founding director and principal conductor, Nate Widelitz, to learn more about this year’s festival.

June 11, 2026, would have been composer Carlisle Floyd’s 100th birthday. The late composer, who died on September 30, 2021, at age 95, was a defining figure of 20th-century American opera, making his mark as both a composer and a librettist with operas that champion American themes, characters, and vernacular music. Read on to learn more about the “Father of American Opera” in his centenary year and to listen to select excerpts from his operas.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we present a playlist of music inspired by mothers and centered on themes of motherhood in its various forms, from lullabies and bedtime stories to poignant remembrances of mothers who have passed.

Millikin Opera Theatre presents Pauline Viardot’s Cinderella on May 1–3, co-produced with the School of Theatre & Dance, School of Music, and Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra at the Virginia Rogers Theatre. We spoke with director Aubrey Hawkinson, Lecturer in Opera and Voice at Millikin University, to learn more about the opera and its composer.

On Saturday, May 2, the combined choruses of the University of Illinois join forces with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra for Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem. Performing in Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the concert will boast over 250 singers plus a full symphony orchestra. We spoke with Stephen Alltop, music director of the CUSO, to learn more about this powerful masterwork of the choral repertoire.

Trees have long served as a source of inspiration for the great poets and writers—from Shakespeare and Goethe to James Joyce. As a result, we have a wealth of art songs about trees in their various forms and the spectrum of emotions they can evoke. In honor of Arbor Day on April 24, we present a curated playlist of some of our favorites in the hopes that it will inspire you to get out in nature or even plant a tree yourself!

As part of its commemoration of America 250, the Peoria Riverfront Museum presents I Hear America Singing, an original performance curated by Julie and Nathan Gunn and their production company, Shot in the Dark Productions. The inaugural concerts will run on Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28, at the Peoria Riverfront Museum, with plans to tour to other locations, including the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts this fall. Read on for our interview with Julie Gunn about the project and its resonance in contemporary America.

“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’" This soundbite from Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet reverberated throughout the classical music and dance worlds this week. The statement was made during an hour-long town hall interview with Matthew McConaughey, produced by Variety and CNN. The Marty Supreme star’s statement has provoked backlash from artists and fans alike, who did not appreciate his flippant attitude and dismissiveness toward his fellow creatives. So, what was the context of this quote, and does he have a point? 

To commemorate Women’s History Month, we’re introducing you to five pieces of contemporary classical music that tell women’s stories in some way, whether commemorating women’s suffrage, meditating on the #MeToo movement, or honoring notable women. Read on to learn about these musical selections by Reena Esmail, Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe, Valerie Coleman, and Judith Weir.

On Friday, February 13, Japanese skater Yuma Kagiyama took home silver in the Men’s Figure Skating Finals at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan. The music he chose for his powerful free skate routine: opera. But it wasn’t just any opera. It was GRAMMY®-winning composer Christopher Tin’s completion of Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. The opera, about a vengeful Chinese princess who challenges her suitors to solve three riddles or face execution if they are unsuccessful, was famously left unfinished when Puccini died in 1924. Read on to learn more about Tin's completion and subsequent edit for Kagiyama.