WFMT: Critical Thinking and Critic's Choice

Andrew talks about Chicago's many fine, small-budget music ensembles in this week's Critic's Choice [...]

In the first of a new two-part program, Andrew's guest is Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, who shares and discusses music that has been important to him throughout his professional and personal life [...]

In the first of a new two-part program, Andrew's guest is Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, who shares and discusses music that has been important to him throughout his professional and personal life [...]

In this encore presentation of Critical Thinking from March of 2012, Andrew's guest is Spanish opera and theatre stage director Calixto Bieito, discussing his controversial European opera stagings and his 2012 production and adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Camino Real at the Goodman Theatre [...]

Andrew recommends Robert Falls's Lyric Opera Don Giovanni [...]

Andrew shares a new conversation with Riccardo Muti.  The Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director talks about the orchestra's new recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, as well as the its upcoming European tour. &nbsp [...]

Andrew talks with Chicago author, art critic, and School of the Art Institute teacher Margaret Hawkins. Her latest novel is Lydia's Party [...]

Andrew previews an exciting weekend of events in Chicago [...]

Andrew talks with Chicago playwright and longtime disability rights activist Susan Nussbaum about her award-winning first novel Good Kings Bad Kings, recently issued in paperback [...]

Andrew outlines the must-see Chicago music events for the month of September [...]

Andrew talks with leading team members, and shares music from, Chicago Opera Theater's new production — and the Chicago premiere — of the early 20th-century Macbeth by composer Ernest Bloch. &nbsp [...]

Andrew talks the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's year-round and upcoming film viewing schedules [...]

The second of Andrew's two-part discussion about the role of economics and economists in American society with Randy Kroszner, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business of The University of Chicago and a former Governor of the Federal Reserve System [...]

The first of Andrew's two-part discussion about the role of economics and economists in American society with Randy Kroszner, Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business of The University of Chicago and a former Governor of the Federal Reserve System [...]

Andrew previews upcoming acts at Ravinia's Bennett Gordon Hall [...]

Andrew returns to the airwaves following a seven week recovery from a fall.  Andrew remembers Robin Williams and discusses matters of mental health in this week's Critic's Choice [...]

In an encore presentation from 2011, Andrew reads a favorite short story by James Alan McPherson, "A Matter of Vocabulary" from his 1969 collection Hue and Cry. A longtime faculty member at the Iowa Writers' Workshop at The University of Iowa, McPherson, born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1943, was in the first class of MacArthur Fellows more [...]

Critic's Choice is a weekly feature in which WFMT's Critic-at-Large Andrew Patner shares his observations on arts and culture, from performances at Orchestra Hall to happenings in overlooked Chicago neighborhoods to festivals around the world [...]

Andrew's guest is pianist and writer Jeremy Denk, who was in town for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Keys to the City Piano Festival.  Jeremy's new album Ligeti/Beethoven is out now on the Nonesuch label [...]

Andrew shares an article written by Gerald Stein from last year regarding greatness and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra [...]