Festa Ravinia Recap

More than 300 people attended the 15th annual Festa Ravinia fundraiser at Macy's on State Street last Saturday night. "Fantasy Aquatic," sponsored by US Bank, drew its inspiration from this season's One Score, One Chicago selection, Zemlinsky's "The Mermaid." Attendees enjoyed a black-tie evening of dinner, music, dancing and live and silent auctions that benefited Ravinia's education and community partnership programs.

Ravinia's Jazz Scholars students were a musical highlight of the evening. Young musicians Michael King (piano), drummer Michael Piolet (drums) and Tim Bennett (saxophone) had the crowd going and their mentor, jazz great Willie Pickens, smiling. As King said, "It's amazing working with a pro."

Jazz Scholars with Willie Pickens

This year's co-chairs for Festa Ravinia were Kara Longo Korte and Erin Leddon. The benefit has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years while promoting the role of music arts in education.

Co-chairs Erin Leddon and Kara Longo Korte

Thanks to all who made this year another success!

Elizabeth Miller Just Added to Kraft Kids Concert Series

Elizabeth Mitchell, our latest addition to the Kraft Kids Concert series, will perform an 11:00 a.m. show in the pavilion on Saturday, August 25. Elizabeth and husband Daniel Littleton have been recording childrens music since the 1998 release of You Are My Flower, named childrens record of the year by the Boston Phoenix. Their most recent recording, You Are My Little Bird, was released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and was named the number one critics choice childrens music album of 2006 by Amazon.com.

Fiona Apple Just Added

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Fiona Apple has just been added as a very special guest with Nickel Creek for their "Farewell (For Now) Tour" appearance at Ravinia on August 10. Apple has received critical acclaim since bursting onto the music scene in 1996 with her platinum-selling album Tidal. Tickets are on sale now through the Ravinia website.

And don't forget that May 19, Box Office Opening Day, is right around the corner! Order your tickets in person at the box office window and get a 20% discount off your ticket purchase (not including the August 4 gala).

Make it a date. Make it a tradition. Make it a Ravinia summer.

Get 20% off Tickets on Box Office Opening Day!

Kick off summer on May 19th with Ravinia Festival's Box Office Opening Day! Ticket sales begin at 9:00 a.m. and the box office will stay open until 6:00 p.m. Receive a 20% discount on all tickets (except for the August 4 gala) when you purchase your tickets at Ravinia's box office for one day only! The 2007 season begins with great ticket deals and a live, on-site broadcast from WFMT, Chicago's fine arts station.

As an added bonus, Ravinia will also release a limited number of reserved seats on sold-out concerts for walk-up orders that day.

Phone sales begin May 20. See the full schedule online at http://www.ravinia.org/ and don't miss the opportunity to get tickets before they sell out!

Make it a date. Make it a tradition. Make it a Ravinia summer.

Dining Pavilion Preview

If you've been visiting the Ravinia website, you've seen us promoting the new dining pavilion. The crews have been working overtime to get the building ready in time for the 2007 season. Renderings are nice, but it's always good to see the real thing, even if it's a work in progress.

With the walls and exterior facing done, the workers are concentrating on the interior and repaving the brick walkways. We've got a few pictures to share.

Needless to say, we're excited about the new building, which will open with the season. Its many amenities include the first above-the-park dining so guests can people-watch over our famous lawn as they enjoy their dinners at the new Park View Restaurant. Stay tuned for more pictures as work continues.

Online Ticket Sales Begin Tomorrow!

It's that time of year again, and we're all set to start general ticket sales on the website tomorrow. We have a full slate of acts from classical to pop, both new faces and familiar friends. Like the Sun-Times said, "In recent years, Ravinia Festival has been pushing the buttons of eclecticism in classical music, dance, jazz, pop, musical theater, cabaret and combinations thereof. And its 2007 season looks to be one of the long-reigning summer festival's most eclectic set of offerings to date."

If you're curious about some of the highlights, we posted the 2007 Season Preview tracks on the Ravinia Podcasting page. Take a listen.

So, get your tickets early and often. We're looking forward to seeing you here again this summer. Bring a friend or two and enjoy another season of music under the stars.

Ravinia--Spring Paradise

It's April 11, and Ravinia is enjoying that fine spring weather that northern Illinois is noted for this time of year.

Ticket sales begin online a week from tomorrow.

Coming Soon: Cicada! the Musical

So I'm in a restaurant the other day with a few friends. We're making some small talk over dinner and the subject of Ravinia comes up. I'm asked how we're handling the "killer mosquitoes" that they've heard are closing down the park for the summer. Had a good laugh over that one. First of all, Ravinia is not shortening its season, which begins June 4, come bugs or high water.

Northern Illinois, including Ravinia, is about to be invaded by the 17-year periodic cicada. Lots of them, apparently. We don't know exactly how many, and we don't know exactly when, but we know it's a large brood that will hatch sometime from May through June. There are entire websites devoted to them.

Now, we've been dealing with the occasional hazards of an outdoor festival for over a century. We've made a couple of tweaks to the schedule, like using the Martin Theatre a little more in June, or starting the CSO's season in July. Sure, cicadas can make a little noise, and we're sensitive about that at a music venue. But they're completely harmless to man, beast and foliage. I've heard all ranges of plagues rumored to be descending upon Ravinia: locusts, bees, mosquitoes, wasps, termites, tsetse flies, and--my personal favorite--scorpions.

We don't expect the cicadas to be more than a minor nuisance, and a quick check of the calendar will tell you that we're not closing the park or opening any later than normal. We're an outdoor festival; sometimes you deal with what nature tosses your way.

Looking forward to seeing you here.

An audio preview of the 2007 Ravinia Season

Happy Birthday Ravinia!

Ravinia Festival turned 102 this year and we celebrated with a day full of music, games, rides and activities for the family.

Gypsy preparation in full swing

One full day.

That's all the time Ravinia Master Carpenter Mike Robinson and his stage technicians have to transform Ravinia's pavilion stage from a relatively empty symphony-friendly space into a glitzy 1930's vaudeville theater.

The pavilion stage is in use daily for either shows or rehearsals, and so time to actually erect the set is limited. The crew is doing as much as possible ahead of time. They have been building the set for a month and the electric system has already been hung. Monday is the only full day the crew has the stage entirely to themselves, and according to Robinson it will be a 14-hour work day.

"This is the most complicated scenery we have ever done," Robinson says. "It is also the best." And that's saying something because Robinson has plenty of shows to his credit. If Tony-winner Patti LuPone and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were not enough to entice to come to Gypsy, you should consider coming just to see the miracle our stage technicians will perform in one day. But to quote Mama Rose, "That's show business..."

Catch Gypsy on Friday, August 11, Saturday, August 12 and Sunday, August 13. All three shows start at 7:30 p.m., and the August 11 show will be preceded by a talk with Stephen Sondheim and Welz Kauffman at 6:45 in the Martin Theatre.

-Shannon Rego, Communications Intern

Ravinia Festival on MySpace

Created in March of 2006, Ravinia's MySpace profile has gathered thousands of friends from across the globe. Ravinia's Myspace webpage has been linked to many MySpace pages of artists that have been featured at the festival, including: Renee Fleming, Joshua Bell, Buddy Guy, Patti LuPone, Emerson String Quartet, Cheap Trick, Deborah Voigt, and Elvis Costello.

The MySpace service has provided Ravinia with access to millions of Rock & Roll bands, chamber music ensembles, and individual performing artists. Many users (there are currently 97 million) have discovered Ravinia through MySpace and utilized the opportunity to send promotional materials to the festival for review.

Special promotions, offered exclusively to MySpace members, have provided the opportunity to bring listeners to Ravinia for the first time to see performances by Lalah Hathaway, Blondie, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The MySpace webpage provides users with easy access to Ravinia's performance calendar and blog. MySpace users also have the ability to leave messages and comments regarding the festival and its performances.

The Ravinia MySpace page can be found at the following address:

www.myspace.com/raviniafestival

From the archives...

1936 program from George Gershwin's only Ravinia performance; autographed by George Gershwin and conductor, Isaac Van Grove.

Photograph of Igor Stravinsky and former Music Director, Seiji Ozawa at Ravinia in 1965; autographed by Igor Stravinsky.

1949 performance program from the "Million dollar trio's" only Ravinia performance; autographed by Artur Rubinstein, Jascha Heifetz, and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Photograph from Janis Joplin's only Ravinia performance, to an audience of more than 18,000, in 1970.

Invitation to Ravinia Park's opening day on Monday, August 15, 1904.

Photograph of Aaron Copland rehearsing for his final Ravinia performance, in 1968

-Justin Brown, Communications Associate

Ravinia Gala 2006: "Who could ask for anything more?"

The Women's board of Ravinia hosted the festival's annual Gala Benefit Evening on Saturday, July 15, 2006, which celebrated the 70th anniversary of Gershwin's only Ravinia performance.



The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Andrew Litton, and Hershey Felder headlined the evening, and Gershwin's Cuban Overture, Rhapsody in Blue, and Porgy and Bess were featured.



There were 1,100 guests in attendance at the sold-out Gala, and the benefit evening raised approximately $750,000.



Audrey Rubinstein (Women's Board chairman), Gail Hodges (Gala co-chairman), Welz Kauffman (President and CEO of Ravinia Festival) , Becky Murray (Gala chairman)

-Justin Brown, Communications Associate

5 things found on the lawn...

My favorite polka-dot flip-flops, a citronella candle, and a sign professing my undying love for Steve Miller are just a few of the things I accidentally left behind on the lawn last time I came to a concert at Ravinia with my friends. My list might sound odd to you, but it seems much stranger things have been left by others.

Of course, the morning after a concert the park staff always finds the usual keys, cell phones, sunglasses, and blankets, but sometimes they come across something a little more unusual.

This season alone the staff has found a whole salmon, a baby stroller, a pair of socks, women's undergarments, and an engagement ring. As Facilities Manager Jim Schmitz said, "It has been a fantastic journey in the land of garbage collection." And if anyone out there misplaced a salmon, it's being held in the lost and found.

-Shannon Rego, Communications Intern

Ravinia Festival Family Space

The Community Outreach & Education department at Ravinia Festival hosts a family space for children and adults to experience the music first hand. Watch as kids get to try out the instruments at an instrument petting zoo, take part in arts & crafts and listen to a story by the Kohl McCormick Storybus.

International Stars at Ravinia

This week of performances at Ravinia opened with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an acappella chorus from South Africa, who gained worldwide prominence after being featured on Paul Simon's 1986 album, Graceland. The audience was charmed by the traditional Zulu musical styles presented by the charismatic ensemble, and their encore presentation featured a joint performance with the opening act, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Taiwanese-born violinist Cho-Liang ("Jimmy") Lin performed a diverse program of music for violin and piano on Tuesday evening with the French pianist Andre-Michel Schub. The music of Mozart and William Walton was featured, as well as the Chicago premiere of Bright Sheng's Three Fantasies. Sheng's composition was inspired by Tibetan and Kazakhstani folk songs and music that he heard in a dream.

The Israeli duo of conductor Yoel Levi and violinist Itzhak Perlman took the pavilion stage on Wednesday evening to perform for a sold out Ravinia audience. Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto was passionate and full of energy, there wasn't an inch of free space surrounding the pavilion; hundreds left their picnics on the lawn to catch a glimpse of the classical music star. Mr. Perlman returns to Ravinia this evening to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in an all-Beethoven program featuring the Polish-born pianist Emanuel Ax.

-Justin Brown, Communications Associate

James Conlon: Celebrity

Chicago entertainment jounalist, Terry Armour, featured Music Director, James Conlon, in his Chicago Tribune Sunday entertainment feature (7.9.2006). Describing Conlon's new haircut, Armour says "You may notice that James Conlon's once long locks are much shorter." He explains the surprise hairstyle: "Filmmaker Kenneth Branagh asked Conlon to cut his hair for his walk-on part as a soldier in Branagh's adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute." Conlon was recently on location in England, where he conducted the movie's score.

On Wednesday, June 28, Maestro Conlon participated in an online chat hosted by Chicago Classical Music, the online classical music forum hosted by the Arts and Business Council of Chicago. He discussed in detail his "Breaking the Silence" series, a multiyear series of concerts that feature music suppressed by the Third Reich, and Shostakovich's Symphonies. Visit www.chicagoclassicalmusic.org to view a transcript of the chat.

-Justin Brown, Communications Associate

Listen to Robert Greenberg Discuss Mahler

Listen to The Professor lecture on Mahler last year at Ravinia Festival.

Don't forget, Greenberg returns to Ravinia on July 22 & 23 to talk about Shostakovich. Be sure to catch these exciting and wonderful lectures!

Sibling Ivory: The 5 Browns

The 5 virtuoso siblings from Juilliard brought the exciting sound of 5 pianos to the Martin Theatre stage on Thursday night.

The talented group performed pieces from the classical repertoire, including works by: Gershwin, Ravel, Copland, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky. Desirae, Deondra, Melody, Gregory, and Ryan introduced themselves individually to the audience prior to performing their solo pieces and discussed the work they were about to perform using historical and personal anecdotes.

The Browns have 10 Steinway grand pianos in their home in Utah (5 in one room for rehearsal, and 5 others in idividual rooms), and 5 dedicated Steinway grand pianos that travel with them across the globe for performances. Their 5 dedicated pianos were in Philadelphia for an upcoming performance; thankfully, the local Steinway dealer graciously provided three extra grand pianos to make the performance possible.

Hundreds of anxious fans patiently waited for their chance to meet the Browns and get their autographs after the performance. Their second recording, "No Boundaries," has been #1 on the classical music charts for 13 weeks, and counting.

-Justin Brown, Communications Associate