Civic Plays Beethoven 5

Oct 27, 2025
Tickets become available on Oct 10
Remind me

Overview

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony encompasses one of the most gripping journeys in all orchestral music, from its fateful four-note opening to the triumphant coda. Ken-David Masur opens the program with Iman Habibi’s Every Tree Speaks — a powerful, Beethoven-inspired response to the current environmental crisis — and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, which brings the 19th-century sounds of Weber into the modern age.

Ticket Information: Pay what you wish, starting at $5, for this concert. By paying for your ticket, you demonstrate the value music plays in your life and help make this performance available to all. Seating is general admission.

Schedule
Program
Habibi

Every Tree Speaks

Hindemith

Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber

Beethoven

Symphony No. 5

Performers
Principal Conductor, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
The Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Chair
Sponsors & Partners

The 2025/26 Civic Orchestra season is generously sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation, which also provides major funding for the Civic Fellowship program.

The Civic Orchestra of Chicago acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.


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Iman Habibi calls his 'Every Tree Speaks' “an unsettling rhapsodic reflection on the climate catastrophe, written in dialogue with Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies."
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The Civic Orchestra of Chicago's just-announced 2025/26 schedule includes a fall-to-spring performance series at Symphony Center, community concerts around the city and suburbs and an array of other activities.
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According to founder and first music director Theodore Thomas, Beethoven's second creative period — in which he composed the Fifth Symphony — produced "works which are as nearly perfect as anything human can be."
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