Festival 2022—the (Un)Official Tally
September 1, 2022 | Noel Morris
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Oboists Mitchell Kuhn (principal) and Alex Liedtke estimate that their section spent a combined 150 hours making reeds during the 2022 Festival
What looks like lazy summer evenings under the stars belies the efforts of an enormous staff—stagehands, musicians, sound engineers, ushers, music librarians, music educators, and more—to pull off 300 live events in ten weeks. Here's just a glimpse of that story written in numbers.
Number of percussion instruments struck, rolled, or shaken - 171
Hours spent making oboe reeds - 150
Phone calls made by staff volunteer Hazel Lewis - 4,268 calls
Covid tests administered - 1,800
Librarian time spent preparing each violin part for Haydn's The Creation - 2 hours
Number of artists who performed at the 2022 Festival - 435
Total rehearsal time for Grant Park Orchestra String Fellows - 90 hours
Miles traveled within Chicago to perform at Night Out in the Parks locations - 109
Pre-Concert Lectures and family fun events in the Chase Promenade North Tent - 32
Gratitude for the musicians of the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus - immeasurable