“How Chicago forgot about its blues history,” Chicago Reader, May 30, 2024
“Mars Williams’ sax was everywhere, from free jazz projects to the Psychedelic Furs. Then came cancer,” Chicago Tribune, November 15, 2023
“‘The last maestro’: Conductor Riccardo Muti steps down at the CSO and ends an era. But he’s not leaving just yet,” Chicago Tribune, June 23, 2023
“Extraordinary ability, extraordinary burden,” Chicago Reader, July 28, 2023
“Sounds reborn,” The University of Chicago Magazine, Spring 2023
- The piece was accompanied by “One perfect day at the Folk Festival,” a first-person report on the U of C Folk Festival.
“Tell Him Your Story, and He’ll Photograph Your Wedding. For Free,” New York Times, December 7, 2022.
“The remarkable life of Art Castillo and Moulin Jimmy’s,” Chicago Reader, December 8, 2020
- Nominated for a Lisagor Award in Best Arts Reporting and Criticism.
“In Review: Frequency Festival,” National Sawdust Log, March 10, 2020.
“‘Become Ocean’ will wash over Miami Beach,” Miami Herald, December 3, 2015.
Audio production & reporting
“To these Chicago Symphony players, here’s the sound of music in an era of crisis,” WBEZ, January 30, 2025
- This story led to an on-air invite on WBEZ’s Reset, alongside Chicago Symphony violinist Danny Jin.
“Indie extraordinaire Andrew Bird finds new melodic direction in jazz standards,” WBEZ, May 23, 2024
Academic publications
“Chicago On the Aisle: Claudia Cassidy’s Music Criticism and Legacy,” Chicago Studies Journal, 2018.
“Discriminating Ears: Critical Receptions of Blackness in the Music of George Gershwin and William Grant Still,” Nota Bene, Vol. 11: Iss. 1, 2018.
Selected program book materials
“Julia Wolfe Wants to Tell You a Story,” Fanfare, May Festival 2024
“By Looking Backward, the May Festival Springs Forward,” Fanfare, May Festival 2023
“We Keep Coming,” Fanfare, March & April 2022
I worked for the New York Philharmonic Archives the summer before its 2017–2018 season (which included the orchestra’s 175th anniversary as well as Leonard Bernstein centenary celebrations) and wrote “The History in This Program” features in subscription and film series program books. Program text has not been archived online, but the books themselves can be accessed electronically via the Leon Levy Digital Archives.
Hannah Edgar 