The Festival String and Vocal Fellowship is the Grant Park Music Festival’s summer training program for emerging professional musicians. Fellows rehearse and perform with the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
The Festival describes the program as designed for musicians from populations historically underrepresented in American symphony orchestras and symphonic choruses, naming racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds. The string side takes violinists, violists and cellists; the vocal side takes singers of every voice type.
Fellows also play chamber concerts in Chicago neighbourhoods and take part in the Festival’s education work, so the summer mixes orchestral playing with community performance and career training. The 2026 round is closed, and the Festival says 2027 audition dates will be announced in Fall 2026.
Benefits & funding
- Rehearsals and performances with the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus across the Festival season — 10 June to 15 August in 2026.
- Chamber music concerts in neighbourhoods across Chicago.
- Weekly lessons from Grant Park Orchestra musicians and master classes with visiting artists.
- Professional and career development sessions, with direct access to artistic director Giancarlo Guerrero and chorus director Christopher Bell.
- Contact with musicians of the Detroit, North Carolina, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Utah symphonies, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera choruses.
- The Festival does not publish a stipend figure, housing terms or travel support on its current fellowship page; this record classes it as a stipend-supported fellowship, and the amount should be checked when the 2027 audition information is posted.
Eligibility
- Emerging professional musicians from populations historically underrepresented in American symphony orchestras and symphonic choruses — the Festival names racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.
- String track: violinists, violists and cellists. Vocal track: singers of all voice types.
- Applicants must be attending, or have graduated from, a college, university or conservatory level music program. The 2026 cohort ran from an undergraduate to a doctoral candidate.
- No citizenship, residency, visa, age or gender requirement is published on the fellowship page.
- No minimum number of years of professional experience is published.
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Education required
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Application process
- 1Check the Festival’s fellowship auditions page from Fall 2026, when it says the 2027 audition dates will be announced.
- 2Apply through the Festival’s online application portal (Acceptd) once the round opens.
- 3Take part in the audition stage the Festival schedules for the cycle; the 2027 dates are not yet published.
- 4Selected fellows are announced publicly by the Festival and join the season in Chicago — 10 June to 15 August in 2026.
Program timeline
2026
The 2026 String and Vocal Fellowship application round closed.
Fall 2026
The Festival announces the 2027 audition dates.
June–August 2027
Fellowship expected to run alongside the Festival season, as in 2026 (10 June to 15 August).