Live From WFMT’s 2025-26 season opens with a special performance by the Miró Quartet.

Tonight Live From WFMT presents International Chamber Artists. One of the premier chamber ensembles from the Chicago area, ICA features the talents of musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and beyond. Join host Kerry Frumkin for a program of music by Clara Schumann, Joaquín Turina, Alyssa Morris, Robert Schumann, and ICA Composer-in-Residence, James M. Stephenson.

On this edition of Live From WFMT, Kerry Frumkin’s guests are Josefien Stoppelenburg, soprano, Stephen Alltop, keyboard and Daniel Swenberg, theorbo.

Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko is the first prize laureate of the 2024 Concours musical international de Montréal, and the winner of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition. This extraordinary young artist makes his Chicago debut with his performance on Live From WFMT.

Host Kerry Frumkin welcomes the Chicago-based Juliani Ensemble back to the Levin studio for this episode of Live From WFMT. Varied repertoire for this broadcast will include the Beethoven String Quartet No. 11 In F minor, Impresiones de la Puna for flute and string quartet by Alberto Ginastera, a Concertino by Erwin Schulhoff, and the String Quartet No. 8 in C minor by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Cultivated right here in Chicago, the Sapphire Woodwind Trio brings together three members of the Sapphire Quintet: Kim Fleuchaus, flute and piccolo; Allison Baker-Wherle, oboe and english horn; and Anna Najoom, clarinet and bass clarinet. As Kerry Frumkin’s guests on Live From WFMT, they will share a varied collection of international repertoire, including a Divertimento by Malcolm Arnold, an instrumental version of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s song, “I wander in the evening woods,” Flight of the Brave Chicken: Ode to Nina by Shulamit Ran, and the Trio in C Major , op. 87 by Beethoven.

Praised by The Strad as an “utterly dazzling” artist with “a marvelous show of superb technique,” violinist Danbi Um visits WFMT’s Levin Studio for this Live From WFMT performance. Her collaborator is the highly acclaimed Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen. The duo will share repertoire from their new album, Poème Mystique, which was released on the Avie label in February 2025.

Kerry Frumkin’s guests on this edition of Live From WFMT are the members of the Audire Quartet: violinists Rong-Yan Tang and Ni Mei, violist Youming Chen, and cellist Ken Olsen. Tune in to hear these members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform the “Lark” Quartet, Op. 64, No. 5 by Haydn, and the String Quartet No. 13 in Bb major, Op. 130, by Beethoven.

Tonight Live from WFMT presents The Lincoln Trio. Described by STRAD Magazine as “Sensational” “Bewitching” and “Models of vibrancy and control” (GRAMOPHONE Magazine), the celebrated GRAMMY nominated Chicago-based Lincoln Trio formed in 2003 and have been praised for their polished presentations of well-known chamber works and their ability to forge new paths with contemporary repertoire. The group’s reputation as a first-rate ensemble draws an eclectic audience of sophisticated music lovers, young admirers of contemporary programs and students discovering chamber music for the first time.
Bringing together performing experience spanning the globe, each member is an artist of international renown. Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat has performed throughout the US and Europe, appearing at the White House and performing on a live radio broadcast heard around the world with the Berlin Radio Orchestra; cellist David Cunliffe has performed with the BBC and Royal Scottish orchestras as well as touring as a member of the Balanescu Quartet; pianist Marta Aznavoorian has garnered critical acclaim for her engagements with orchestras and concert halls worldwide including Chicago Symphony Center, John F, Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House.

In this Live From WFMT archive broadcast from 2022, cellist Alexander Hersh and pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion play music by Debussy, Britten, Schumann, and Fazıl Say.