Chamber Music Delights: An Afternoon Recital with Members of the CBA Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

The Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra is Chicagoland’s unique orchestra of attorneys, judges and law students. Growing from just a handful of musicians at its first rehearsal in 1986, the CBASO now regularly fields an orchestra of 75 musicians or more, virtually all affiliated with Chicago’s legal community.

The CBA Chorus was formed in 2006, when the CBASO celebrated its 20th Anniversary with a gala performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Navy Pier. Its membership currently stands at over 80 singers comprising accomplished musicians as well as enthusiastic amateurs who don’t know a breve from a brief.

The musical momentum initiated by a small group of lawyers has grown into a full-fledged musical organization that presents exciting and increasingly challenging musical works each season. Under the direction of David Katz, music director and principal conductor, Stephen Blackwelder, CBA Chorus Director, and Marek Rachelski, CBASO Resident Conductor, the orchestra and chorus have performed in venues ranging from Daley Center courtrooms to Chicago’s Symphony Center.