Ravinia Receives Grant from the Academy of Country Music Towards School Programs

ACM Lifting Lives is the philanthropic arm of the Academy of Country Music dedicated to improving lives through the power of music. Each year, ACM Lifting Lives provides grants to music therapy and music education programs. 

This year Ravinia is honored to be a recipient of this generosity, receiving a grant towards the festival’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs. This generous grant will be put towards Ravinia’s Music Discovery program, which focuses on children from kindergarten to third grade, at the Edward Beasley Elementary School in Chicago.

Thank you ACM Lifting Lives for this gift which will help continue Ravinia’s mission of bringing music education back into the schools!

A Big Thank You to REACH*TEACH*PLAY

Hi Christine,

     My family and I attended Ravinia this past Sunday for the Family Place events and the CSO concert. We are new to the Chicago area this year and that was our first true experience & picnic and all. My daughter is 4 1/2 and has always loved music at whatever age/stage she has been in. This weekend provided an experience for her (and us) that will stay with us forever.

     The volunteers at the Instrument Petting Zoo were wonderful. They were patient, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and an inspiration to the children. I am attaching photos of Isabelle's (my daughter) violin interaction. You can see the progression in both the volunteer and Isabelle's face as she listened, learned and then produced sound from the violin. She was so excited to hear the music! This happened at each station as my daughter was successful in making sounds on the violin, bass, french horn, trombone, trumpet, saxophone and clarinet.

     I want to thank you and your staff for generously providing this type of opportunity for the children. Not only did Isabelle get to experience music in a way that is truly unique, her mommy (Me!) got to feel the joy as she watched Isabelle's excitement.

     Isabelle also loved hearing and seeing the CSO. We hung out behind the Pavilion for a little while and she danced around like only a child can do as she felt the beautiful music of the orchestra.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Karen, Ira and Isabelle Smith

Ravinia Welcomes Singers to Steans Music Institute

Ravinia has welcomed 15 singers to the Steans Music Institute, the festival’s summer conservatory. The singers receive a fully paid fellowship to work with the Steans faculty, led by Brian Zeger. They will also participate in master classes open to the public and will give concert performances on Aug. 8, 11 and 15.

Representing the finest emerging talents from around the world, this year’s participants are soprano Betty Waynne Allison of Ladysmith, B.C, Canada; soprano Elizabeth Baldwin Sylvania, Ohio; baritone Jonathan Beyer of Chicago; soprano Janai Brugger-Orman of Chicago; soprano Lucia Cesaroni of Toronto; baritone Michael Kelly of Massapequa, NY; tenor Seil Kim of Seoul, South Korea; soprano Caroline MacPhie of Lancashire, U.K.; tenor Alex Mansoori of Seattle; soprano Ileana Montalbetti of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; bass Liam Moran of Brookline, MA; mezzo-soprano Naomi O'Connell of County Clare, Ireland; tenor David Portillo of San Antonio;  soprano Elizabeth Reiter of Chicago; and baritone Jorell Williams of Brentwood, NY.

They will be accompanied by piano participants Jonathan Ware of Dallas; Renate Rolfing of Honolulu; Adam Neilsen of Salt Lake City; Brent Funderburk of Spartanburg, SC; and Natalia Katyukova of Moscow.

Hibbard Elementary School Student Orchestra Appears on Making Chicago Great

WCIU, the U, created a terrific  “Making Chicago Great” segment on its You & Me This Morning show about our student orchestra at Hibbard Elementary School, just one of Ravinia Festival’s many REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.

Highland Park Students Experience Music with Ravinia Artists

Ravinia Festival's involvement with Highland Park elementary schools was showcased over the last two weeks as the 5^th grade students from Indian Trail and Oak Terrace held their spring performances.  Each school received a 4-week Ravinia sponsored residency with the Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble.  Indian Trail students explored concepts of music including; melody, harmony, form, tempo and rhythm and related them to the systems of the body. The students created and performed their own compositions to show how these individual components come together to create a piece.   Oak Terrace students discovered the symphony through the famous melodies of Beethoven.  At the final performance last week, students performed themes from Beethoven Symphonies with members of the Ensemble (pictured above).

The “professional” debut of over 100 Highland Park middle school students at Ravinia Festival’s Bennett Gordon Hall on April 19, was the highlight of the residencies with Ravinia artists. “A Morning of Jazz” featured performances by band students from Northwood, Elm Place and Edgewood Middle Schools alongside several Ravinia Festival Jazz Mentors, nine of Chicago’s best jazz musicians that give master classes to Chicago Public High School students and intensive year-round training to twenty-five CPS students (Jazz Scholars) selected through audition. Led by their respective band directors Margaret Delligatti (pictured right), Matt Taylor and Mollie McDougall, Northwood performed Duke Ellington's “Satin Doll,” Elm Place played “Round Midnight” by Thelonius Monk, and Edgewood rendered “Caravan” by Duke Ellington.  

Ravinia Festival Jazz Mentors Ernie Adams (drums), Pat Mallinger (saxophone), Audrey Morrison (trombone) and Pharez Whitted (trumpet) worked closely with District 112 band student’s at all three Highland Park middle schools to expand their repertoire into jazz with an in-depth exposure and study of jazz music, techniques and performance. These top Chicago Jazz musicians taught six workshops at each school in which Highland Park's aspiring middle school musicians were able to study and learn in small groups.

For over 10 years, Ravinia Festival and the 112 Education Foundation have partnered to bring high quality musical residencies and performances to Highland Park elementary and middle school students.  Ravinia provides top Chicago musicians to work with the students in band, orchestra and choir and musical programming that enhances the musical curriculum to at least two elementary schools on a rotating basis, and to all three middle schools. The Festival hosts the annual Kids-Go-Classic concert at Ravinia where thousands of District 112 students and their families are given free lawn passes to attend a summer afternoon concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Isaac Sinnett
REACH*TEACH*PLAY Project Manager

Guest Blog – Jazz at Ravinia on June 12

Jazz is a musical language of storytelling and on Sunday, June 12, 2011, many stories were shared throughout the Ravinia Festival. By the afternoon, things were cookin’ in the Martin Theatre as the Ravinia Jazz Scholars and Mentors played a short and sweet two song introduction set of Drew’s Blues and Mr. Kenyatta. Once the masters set the stage, the Jazz Scholars were introduced and performed a memorable set of tunes that showcased a variety of styles within the jazz spectrum. The high school Ravinia Jazz Scholars started off with a fast bebop tune, Groovin’ High, in which soloists Andrew Rehayem on trumpet, and Brian Sanborn on guitar, displayed their learned abilities of “keeping with the changes” and playing meaningful solo lines. Max Bezanson and Angie Fritz then showcased their voices on the well known swing tunes In a Mellow Tone and Do Nothing Til’ You Hear From Me. The Jazz Scholars concluded with a Latin percussion-driven feel in Afro Blue where soloists Rachel Alicea on tenor sax, Raleigh Ford on flute, and Charles Ruiz on drums, revealed their keen sense of Afro-Cuban jazz. With songs and stories chosen from across the century, the Jazz Scholars did well to respect the roots and traditions of jazz history.
                As the evening continued on, the stories played on. From jazz compositions inspired by the impressionist paintings of Claude Monet to the traditional New Orleans standards of King Oliver, Wynton Marsalis lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in an array of illustrious tunes that each told a story of their own. The various modern jazz compositions based on famous works of art within the last century painted vivid and almost mystical pieces. Marsalis introduced each song and as he spoke, nothing short of honesty remained, as he told us the story of each song and then sang it together most beautifully with the jazz orchestra. Then, at the peak of evening, Duke Ellington’s Sunset and the Mockingbird spoke for itself.
                With just barely enough time, Marsalis kindly allowed a meet and greet with the Ravinia Jazz Scholars during the intermission. No more than a minute had passed since he entered the room in which he began humming the various tunes that we played earlier that afternoon, bringing smiles to each of our faces. When asked the question, “What do you think about where jazz is going today as opposed to traditionalism,” Marsalis responded by saying that “the legacy [of jazz] works both forwards and backwards.  While the tradition and standard was set early in the 20^th century the legacy is still being carried on into this generation, where teacher teaches what needs to be known and student bring about what is new.”
              The legacy of jazz will live on, far beyond the events of this past Sunday, yet it is hard to now imagine how one can forget such a beautiful day of storytelling and simply gorgeous music.

Charlie Kim, Ravinia Jazz Scholar

Click here to visit the Image Gallery from June 12, 2011