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Chicago · Venue

Old Town School of Folk Music

A Lincoln Square teaching institution with two intimate concert rooms, rooted in Chicago’s folk revival and housed in a converted Art Deco library.

Upcoming shows
65
Capacity
150
Address
4544 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625
Phone
(773) 728-6000
Next show
Tue, 29 Sept 2026
Official siteDirections
Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago

About Old Town School of Folk Music

Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago’s Lincoln Square operates two concert rooms: the 425-seat Gary & Laura Maurer Concert Hall and the 150-capacity, general-admission Szold Music & Dance Hall. Maurer is the principal draw for seated concerts, with every seat within 45 feet of the stage, including the balcony. The setup makes the school a close-listening stop for folk, Americana, singer-songwriters, world music, jazz, rock, and adjacent touring bills.

A school finds its stage

The institution opened in December 1957 in an old Immigrant Bank building at 333 West North Avenue, shaped by a circle that included banjo teacher Frank Hamilton, Dawn and Nate Greening, and folk performer Win Stracke. Early programming put classes, sing-alongs, dances, and concerts under one roof, establishing the teaching-and-performance model that still drives the place.

Its current home began as the Hild Regional Branch Library, an Art Deco building that closed when the nearby Sulzer Regional Library opened in 1985. Chicago offered the vacant building to Old Town School in 1993; renovation turned the former circulation desk into a stage and the reading room into the two-story Maurer hall. The Lincoln Square facility opened in September 1998 with a concert by Joni Mitchell and Peter Yarrow, giving the school a purpose-built concert setting inside a reused civic building.

How the rooms work

Old Town School’s concert program combines internationally touring artists with Chicago performers, alongside staff and student events; its longstanding World Music Wednesdays add free midweek shows. Maurer suits seated, detail-forward sets, with a balcony folded tightly around the stage. Szold provides the alternate format: a flexible room with general-admission seating and a 150-person cap, designed for audiences who want to get close to performers, dancers, and smaller-scale ensembles.

Sources

  1. Old Town School History — Old Town School of Folk Music
  2. About Our Venues & Policies — Old Town School of Folk Music
  3. What’s That Building? Old Town School of Folk Music — WBEZ Chicago
  4. Old Town School of Folk Music — Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce

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