Our 128th Season is out now! ⭐ Save on tickets and select the best seats if you purchase a subscription of 4 concerts or 7 concerts. Subscriptions start at just $141 for 4 concerts and $257 for 7 concerts. Visit www.peoriasymphony.org/2025-26-season/ for more information Single tickets will be on sale in the near future! (fb)

Star Crossed Letters - Clara Schumann Clara (Wieck) Schumann is one of the most heroic and admired women of the German Romantic era in both music and love. She had almost unlimited musical insight and emotional depth and fortitude. Born in 1819 in Leipzig to musical parents, she studied piano with her father Friedrich Wieck and was considered a child prodigy. By age eleven she had given acclaimed recitals in Paris and Vienna. One of her father's other pupils, Robert Schumann, fell in love with Clara and they were married in 1840 after having to sue her father in order to marry. Robert, a failed pianist but promising composer, was, in her father's estimation, unsuitable and would distract her from her career. Nevertheless, she continued her career and influenced her era significantly. Devoted to her husband beyond his early death in 1856, she continued to promote his music, concertise, and raise her eight children. The two met the young Johannes Brahms in 1853 starting a beautiful relationship of admiration, utter respect, and affection. The love and friendship between them was beyond words, though their correspondence was prodigious, and most effectively expressed in their music. (fb)