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Our Favorites Park News Artist News Ravinia History Classical Opinion All Posts Back to Ravinia.org View Ravinia Schedule Menu Our Favorites Park News Artist News Ravinia History Classical Opinion All Posts Back to Ravinia.org View Ravinia Schedule Get Ready To Buy Tickets For Ravinia’s 2024 Season April 22, 2024 in RaviniaNews , Park News All concerts for Ravinia’s 2024 season go on sale to the public on Wednesday, April 24, at 8:00 a.m. CDT, only on ravinia.org! We want to ensure you have a quick, easy, and secure experience purchasing tickets to the performances you most want to attend. Here are four tips to make your buying experience better. Read More Tags: ticketing tips , ticket buying , 2024 season Ravinia Festival Announces Programming for 2024 Season, June 7–September 15 March 14, 2024 HIGHLAND PARK, IL — RaviniaⓇ President and CEO Jeffrey P. Haydon announces Ravinia Festival’s complete 2024 summer lineup, offering 60 artist debuts and more than 100 concerts ranging from rock/pop, R&B, classical, jazz, and country, to movies with live orchestra, dance performances, Fiesta Ravinia, and more. Summer 2024 also features the annual six-week summer residency by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) with Chief Conductor Marin Alsop and a range of classical offerings from solo recitals and chamber music to semi-staged opera and dance. With an extraordinary range of concerts and artists, we are excited to offer an inspiring and captivating season for everyone who comes to Ravinia,” said Haydon, Ravinia’s President and CEO. Whether in Bennett Gordon Hall, Martin Theatre, Pavilion, Lawn, or Carousel, concertgoers will surely experience the spirit of summer with incredible music under the stars.” Read More Salutes to Wayne Shorter underscore springtime Ravinia concerts March 06, 2024 in The Artists , Reach Teach Play , Ravinia Magazine , History When saxophonist Wayne Shorter died last year at 89, the jazz world lost one of the most innovative and influential voices of his generation. Given Shorter’s wide-ranging reach and impact, it is hardly surprising that two upcoming concerts as part of Ravinia’s Fall/Spring Series in Bennett Gordon Hall will pay tribute to the recently departed jazz legend. The eight-member Ravinia Jazz Mentors will raise their hats to Shorter on March 16 , and vocalist Kurt Elling and Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, who played with the saxophonist for 20 years, will devote much of their May 3 program to his music. Read More Tags: Jazz , Jazz Mentors , Pat Mallinger , Danilo Pérez , Saxophone , Piano , Composers Long-Standing Love Stories Sparked at Ravinia February 14, 2024 in The Park , History It is not hard to find someone who has experienced love at our park, whether with the music, the magical atmosphere, or our beautiful grounds. The love between some Ravinia guests has continued outside and within the festival and is heartily blooming for years to come. Thank you to those who shared their special stories of love with us. We feel so honored to have been included in their romantic milestones. Read More Tags: Valentine’s Day , Love , Stories , Guests , Couples , Wedding , Anniversary The trumpet of Jason Palmer, 2003 RSMI Jazz alumnus and 2024 Ravinia on Tour ensemble member (photo: Jimmy Katz) Ravinia Steans Music Institute Jazz Alumni hallmark the art of spontaneity February 09, 2024 in Steans Music Institute , The Artists , Ravinia Magazine Although just 25 years old, pianist Luca Mendoza is one of only two all-time Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival triple crown winners.” Chicago-native bassist Harish Raghavan has become a fixture on the New York jazz scene, fronting two recordings since moving in 2007. Though based on opposite coasts, they have a common thread that brings them together at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall on February 27 with saxophonist Veronica Leahy, trumpeter Jason Palmer, and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr.—the quintet has alighted to that stage before, though not at the same time. They’re all alumni of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute (RSMI) Jazz Program from the past two decades. Mendoza has never performed with any of the other artists on the lineup, but he is sure they will bond quickly. We all know who each other is,” he said. That’s sort of the beauty of jazz being a small world at a certain level. We all know each other’s music and playing, and there is a certain caliber of respect that we’re bringing to the table. So, there is no concern at all—just excitement.” In keeping with the spontaneity that is a hallmark of the jazz genre, the musicians will arrive at Ravinia a day two or early to work out a program and run through it. Everybody is submitting some music, and we’re going to see how it goes at rehearsal,” Raghavan said. Read More Tags: RSMI Alumni , rsmi , jazz , Steve Wilson , Rufus Reid , Kurt Elling , tour , New Orleans , Luca Mendoza , Harish Raghavan , Veronica Leahy , Jason Palmer , Mark Whitfield Jr. , Steans music institute photo: Patrick Gipson/Ravinia The Steans Piano Trio Found and Renews Instant Kismet at Ravinia November 15, 2023 in Classical , Ravinia Magazine , RaviniaNews , Steans Music Institute , The Artists Kismet has a way of striking at unexpected times, and that is exactly what happened when three fellows at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI) happened to be put together with a violist to perform Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in 2015. Though previously acquainted at the Curtis Institute of Music, they had never played together and had no particular interest in being part of a piano trio. Or so they thought. All that changed when they began rehearsing together, and the young artists immediately found themselves captivated by the collaboration. Four years later, they decided to make the happenstance assemblage into a permanent group. Read More Tags: RSMI , Piano Trio , Steans , Steans music institute , Eunice Kim , Oliver Aldort , Xiaohui Yang , Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , Boston Symphony Orchestra , Boston Pops , Alumni , RSMI Alumni , Chamber Music , Haydn , Shostakovich , Ravel , Curtis Institute , Bennett Gordon Hall Shakti’s Zakir Hussain Drums Up Unbound, United Innovation August 28, 2023 in Artist News , Classical , Ravinia Magazine , RaviniaNews , The Artists World-renowned tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain remembers exactly when he first made music with guitar legend John McLaughlin. It was September 1972 in the Bay Area, and Hussain had been jaw-droppingly gobsmacked the night prior by McLaughlin, shredding up a storm in concert with his jazz-fusion band. The following day, they were hanging out at the home of maestro Ali Akbar Khan when McLaughlin asked Hussain, Would you play with me?” Half a century after that first jam session, McLaughlin and Hussain have launched a golden-anniversary world tour. In a big surprise for their fans, Shakti—a band mostly known for its concerts and live recordings—also recently released This Moment , the first new studio album in 45 years. Another fun surprise: their September 3 concert at Ravinia includes an appearance by banjo sorcerer Béla Fleck, with whom Hussain recently renewed a trio collaboration including bassist Edgar Meyer for the album and upcoming tour As We Speak . Read More Tags: Shakti , Zakir Hussain , John McLaughlin , Mahavishnu Orchestra , Indian , classical , jazz , gitar , tabla , drums , George Harrison Photo: Benjamin Allen Tessa Lark Explores the Formidable Flexibility of Fiddling August 28, 2023 in Classical , Ravinia Magazine , The Artists , RSMI , Music Education , Artist News , RaviniaNews There is a moment of sheer infectious joy on Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum Tessa Lark’s most recent album, The Stradgrass Sessions . There are several, actually, but one that stands out comes at the end of Hysedelje,” a fiddle tune composed by Lark that is more (blue)grass than Strad(ivarius). At the end, she emits a whoop” that evokes her Richmond, KY, roots as the daughter of a...