Top 10 Classical Music and Jazz in Chicago for Early 2022

Say it doesn’t, Spektral: Last month, the Spektral Quartet stunned fans when it announced its intention to disband at the end of this season, with its last performance in Chicago scheduled for June 11. So far, the ensemble has predicted a typically tough winter, starting with a hitherto delayed commission from former CSO composer-in-residence Samuel Adams (February 4). Then, in something like a sounding domino game, a new quartet from Pulitzer Prize winner Bernard Rands becomes the source of (count them) eight world premieres by members of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium, all performed on the same night alongside their muse (March 2). But the Spektrals call their April concerts at the Adler Planetarium the flagship event of the season, and for good reason: installed by the projected art of Sigurdur Gudjonsson at the Grainger Sky Theater, the quartet plays “Enigma” by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, recorded earlier this year in their devastating EP. “Once Again, Emotionally: With ‘Current’ by Samuel Adams,” 8:30 pm Feb. 4 at Constellation, 3111 N Western Ave. ; “The Bernard Rands Effect: Nine World Premieres,” 7:30 pm March 2 at DePaul University’s Allen Recital Hall; “Enigma: A 360-Degree Video Experience”, April 7-8 at Adler Planetarium, 1300 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, more details to come; spektralquartet.com