Just Talked To Princess Aurora, And It Was...

I just had the most marvelous phone call from soprano Mary Costa, about whom I blogged recently after discovering she had made her Chicago area debut at Ravinia the year after the release of Walt Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty, for which she provided the voice and figure model for the title character. After posting that blog, I Googled her and wrote to her in her native Knoxville, TN, where she had helped launch the Knoxville Opera in 1978 and starred in its inaugural production, Verdi’s La Traviata (the same role in which she had made a triumphant 1964 Metropolitan Opera debut). I was requesting a photo I’d like to frame along with a lovely thank-you note she had written to me for some archival research I did for her while I worked for San Francisco Opera many years ago. I had hoped merely that someone, perhaps a secretary, would send me a photo; instead, she called me direct at Ravinia, and we spent a delightful quarter-hour discussing everything from current styles of opera production and the future of opera to recent movies and my own harpsichord studies. Her interest in me was genuine and touching, and left me feeling positively ebullient for the rest of the day. How wonderful to be able to tell my friends: I just talked with Princess Aurora!

John Schauer
Associate Director of Communications, Publications

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.