CSO puts MusicNOW on “pause,” leaving future of new-music series in doubt
The death of MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s long-running new-music series, may no longer be exaggerated.
The orchestra has informed subscribers that the contemporary music series will be “paused” for the 2025-26 season. There was no public announcement or acknowledgement.
The CSO series presented just two MusicNOW concerts this current season, most recently in March. With the expiration of Jessie Montgomery’s term last June, the CSO is currently without a composer in residence for the first time in nearly four decades.
In an emailed statement from the CSO press office, Cristina Rocca, CSO vice-president for artistic planning, said “The CSO MusicNOW series will be paused in 2025/26 to take time to imagine new possibilities for connecting Chicago audiences with new music.”
She stated that “Conversations with the artistic planning team and Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä are underway to guide future plans” and that “subscribers . . . are invited to return to Symphony Center to explore concerts across the 2025/26 Season that feature works by living composers.”
MusicNOW was inaugurated in the 1998-99 season, early in Augusta Read Thomas’s tenure as CSO composer in residence. There was a single concert the first season, three in 1999-2000, and then a minimum of four events per season after that.
The series was a sort-of acknowledgment that the CSO was giving short shrift to contemporary composers in its mainstage programs. MusicNOW offered a way to make up the balance—at least in part—by presenting music by living composers for chamber groupings and smaller orchestral ensembles.
There is little doubt that MusicNOW has gotten a bit tired in recent seasons, a situation reflected in the series’ declining audiences since its founding 37 years ago.
Granted, new-music series tend to be a mixed bag by their very nature, reflecting the fact that music being written in any era necessarily ranges in quality. Even so, curation has sometimes been less than stellar, and in recent concerts, uninspired works have invariably outnumbered those worth hearing. At times, the series appeared more centered on extra-musical agendas rather then bringing CSO audiences a wide range of the finest contemporary music out there.
So, the CSO’s MusicNOW series can likely benefit from an overhaul and some thoughtful reconsideration.
Still, one can’t help thinking that what feels like a protracted phasing-out of the CSO series is more about saving money—by jettisoning the new-music concerts along with the post of composer in residence (who serves as the series’ curator) than it is about “reimagining” the series.
It would be ironic if the CSO ends up wholly shuttering its new-music series as the tenure of Klaus Mäkelä approaches—the first CSO music director in decades with a genuine commitment to works of contemporary composers.
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Posted Jun 17, 2025 at 8:00 am by John
How easy it would have been for the CSO to invite several Chicago-based ensembles to perform via Music NOW? Third Coast Percussion, Ensemble Dal Niente, Grossman Ensemble, ~Nois, Beyond This Point…the list goes on.
Per usual, a failure of imagination.