Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: A Celebration of the Grant Park Music Festival

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Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: A Celebration of the Grant Park Music Festival is a major book that explores the history of Chicago's downtown, outdoor classical music program, the Grant Park Music Festival. The book contains over 200 black and white and color photographs, many never before published, along with excerpts of interviews with more than 50 renowned artists and other important Chicagoans. The book is part of a celebration of the Festival's 75th season, a music program first established in 1935 as a creative response to the hardships of the Great Depression by James Petrillo, the renowned musicians' labor leader. The Festival quickly became an immensely popular Chicago tradition and enabled audiences, often as many as 10,000 or more per night, to experience free performances by legendary artists and a top caliber orchestra and chorus. Among the artists the Festival has presented are: vocalists Lily Pons, Mario Lanza, and Marian Anderson, pianists Van Cliburn, Alfred Brendel and Daniel Barenboim, violinists Jascha Heifitz and Pinchas Zuckerman, conductors Nikolai Malko, Andre Kostelanetz and Leonard Slatkin, as well as artists from other traditions like Benny Goodman, Mitch Miller, Poi Dog Pondering and the Joffrey Ballet.

The Festival has flourished under the guidance of resident artistic leaders such as current Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar, current Chorus Director Christopher Bell and out-going Artistic and General Director, James W. Palermo as well as past leaders.

The book was written by Tony Macaluso of the Festival and Chicago author and publisher Neal Samors, with a key contribution from Chicago Park District historian Julia S. Bachrach, andalsoincludes an introduction by the famous pianist Van Cliburn and a foreword by Chicago's WLS-TV broadcaster Ron Magers.