Ravinia’s Closing Knights Rooted In Outdoor Performance and RSMI

Just as in the legends of old—from Round Table to Templar—knights can withstand most any opposing force. So what’s a few cicadas or the clatter of a train? Nothing to America’s most headline-grabbing new orchestra, The Knights, according to Allan Kozinn in the New York Times. “The Knights have been the de facto house band of the free Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in Central Park for the last few summers, and they are clearly comfortable enough in that role to experiment with approaches to outdoor programming." Read the full article here. So they’ll be right at home when they close the 2012 Ravinia season with Yo-Yo Ma on Sept. 7, Itzhak Perlman on Sept. 8 and Dawn Upshaw on Sept. 9. In fact several past and present members are alumni of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, including the ensemble’s co-founders, Colin and Eric Jacobsen; and Kyle Armbrust; Nick Cords; and Max Mandel.

Violinist Joshua Bell Strings Ravinia’s Praises in Current Issue of Time Out Chicago

One of the biggest names in classical music today, violinist Joshua Bell, strings Ravinia’s praises in the current issue of Time Out Chicago. Bell performed Barber’s Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Tzigane with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last night. “I love the outdoor festival feeling. When I’m on stage, it’s very gratifying to watch people on the lawns enjoying the music with a glass of wine. There’s less sense of people being there for status reasons, and the atmosphere is casual and fun. It reminds me that classical music is nowhere near being dead. That rumor had been going around for 200 years! It’s not going anywhere,” Bell told the magazine.

Mix A Little Midori Into Your Summer

If you take a look at a print copy of Ravinia’s 2012 Calendar, you will notice that only one solo performer has the honor of having her photo appear on it not once but twice. Indeed, Ravinia Park will open for just her on two nights—Tuesday, July 3, and Thursday, July 5. “She,” of course, is Midori, one of a number of exciting violin soloists Ravinia will host this summer, a group that includes as Miriam Fried, Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman and Steans Music Institute’s alumnus Erik Schumann.

Even a superficial review of her career reveals that Midori's musical path has been adventurous and extraordinary. When she made the front page of the New York Times, it was with the headline “Girl, 14, Conquers Tanglewood with 3 Violins.” Midori began playing the violin when she was three, after her mother, the violinist Setsu Goto, heard her humming a Bach concerto, a piece Setsu had been practicing two days earlier. Midori would then go on to astound the Juilliard Pre-College audition panel with another piece of Bach’s—the famously difficult Chaconne.

It would seem fitting, then, that Midori will perform the complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J.S. Bach here. There can be no doubt that the winning duo of Midori and Bach will conquer Ravinia. Make sure you’re there to see it, because this performer carries excitement wherever she goes.

To Clap or Not to Clap? Trib Weighs In With Applause-Worthy Results

The mores change with the times, but these days audiences tend not to clap between movements during a symphonic performance. That wasn’t always the case, and in Ravinia’s relaxed, family-friendly environment, audiences can go either way. The Chicago Tribune recently printed its entertaining analysis of the hand-wringing debate: Read here.

WFMT Will Air 8-Part Concert Series From Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute

Chicago’s only classical music station, WFMT 98.7 FM, will broadcast From Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, an eight-part concert series hosted by Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman. The show will air at 4 p.m. Sundays from May 6 through June 10. Each hour-long episode will include performances captured live last year in Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall along with brief interviews from participants in SMI, Ravinia’s summer music conservatory, which each year offers 60-70 fully paid fellowships to the most talented young professional musicians in the world.

James Conlon Discusses Tagore and Zemlinsky on Oct. 28

Join Ravinia Music Director James Conlon as he explores composers Rabindranath Tagore and Alexander Zemlinsky in a lecture entitled “A Lyric Symphony: Tagore and Zemlinsky,” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28, at the University of Chicago’s Fulton Hall. This lecture is part of a two-day conference titled The Many Worlds of Rabindranath Tagore, which brings together leading scholars from around the world to discuss the different aspects of this extraordinary writer’s life and works. Tagore was a writer of fiction, essays, poetry, plays, critical commentaries and music and is the only person whose songs are the national anthems of two countries, India and Bangladesh. Translated into many languages, his works received much adulation and criticism during his lifetime and across India and abroad, and he has been a critical figure in the history of education in South Asia. For more information, please click here.