The Ten

Don’t-miss picks for June 21 through June 27, 2017

1 Grant Park Music Festival

Classical:A week after the free festival’s season opener, the sunny soprano Susanna Phillips (a Mozart soloist for Music of the Baroque in January and Juliet at Lyric before that) lights up one of the shortest nights of the year soloing on Aaron Copland’s Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson. Beethoven’s lesser-played Symphony No. 4 partners the Copland.
FREE 6/21 at 6:30 p.m. Jay Pritzker Pavilion. gpmf.org

2 Make Music Chicago

Music:The local maximum of the Northern Hemisphere’s tilt toward the sun coincides (more or less) with that of worldwide music density in the global Fête de la Musique (Make Music Day), always celebrated on June 21. Make Music Chicago, the local Fête bureau, fills the day with opportunities for participation: encouraged play-ins, open-air concerts, and recitals, centering on a session with the Grant Park Apprentice Chorale at the Chicago Cultural Center at 12:15 p.m.
FREE 6/21, all day. Various venues. makemusicchicago.org

3 Sculpture Around Town

Art:The year 2017 is being recognized as the year of public art. Accordingly, Chicago Sculpture International has organized trolley tours to nearly 50 works that have popped up in the city’s parks, with a special focus on a carved-tree series transforming dead trunks into surreal wonders. Pick one of three two-hour tours: north (June 21, 6 p.m.), lakefront (June 24, 10 a.m.), or south (June 25, noon).
6/21, 6/24 and 6/25. $20. Chicago Cultural Center. chicagosculpture.org

4 The Gin Game

Theater:Real-life husband and wife Paula Scrofano and John Reeger play a pair of seniors who hate each other at first sight but grudgingly agree to play cards together. Several hands of gin rummy later, a prickly romance is blooming, proving that love in the AARP years can be as enthralling as teen romance.
6/22–8/13. $43–$59. Drury Lane Theatre. drurylanetheatre.com

5 Logan Square Arts Festival

Festival:The neighborhood’s premier arts and music festival returns with a lineup that features rising local talent like Faraway Plants and Joan of Arc as well as performances from national heavy hitters like Chuck Inglish of the rap group, The Cool Kids. Revolution Brewing and The Whistler Bar serve up beer and cocktails.
6/23–25. $5 suggested donation. Logan Square. logansquareartsfestival.com

6 Marquis Hill Blacktet

Jazz:Trumpet player Marquis Hill reinforced Chicago’s reputation as a fertile ground for jazz musicians after winning the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2014. Last year, his quintet, which he calls “Blacktet,” released The Way We Play, their breakout record that showcases Hill’s refreshing and prolific take on jazz standards.
6/23–25. $20–$35. Jazz Showcase. jazzshowcase.com

7 Mamby on the Beach

Festival:The third annual music fest features the likes of MGMT, Local Natives, Flying Lotus, Saba, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Ravyn Lenae (see “How to Balance High School and Touring? Ask Ravyn Lenae” for more).
6/24–25. Oakwood Beach. $61–$200. ticketfly.com

8 Chicago Folks Operetta

Opera:This thorough company makes its mission the omissions of seasons past—operettas stranded in time by moldy translations, odd politics, or failure to catch fire. True to form, this summer CFO stages the Chicago premiere of Johnny Johnson, an antiwar satire by Kurt Weill (The Threepenny Opera). Written in English during Weill’s years in New York, the musical has the pitch-dark antic vibe of Weill’s former home in Weimar Germany.
6/24–7/9. $30–$40. Stage 773. stage773.com

9 48th Annual Pride Parade

Parade:Veterans of this perennial parade know to show up early—either to claim a choice slice of sidewalk or to snag a patio seat at a brunch spot along the route. Expect flashy floats accompanied by colorful characters in equally colorful costumes.
FREE 6/25 at noon. Montrose and Broadway. chicagopride.gopride.com

10 Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist

Art:The Art Institute possesses some of the world’s best holdings of postimpressionist Paul Gauguin, mostly known today as Van Gogh’s friend who painted in Tahiti. This summer blockbuster augments Gauguin’s famous scenes with his lesser-known works in sculpture and furniture, giving a fuller picture of the artist who pushed the limits of 19th-century art.
6/25–9/10. $14–$29. Art Institute of Chicago. artic.edu