Ravinia’s latest initiative, Sistema Ravinia, which puts musical instruments in the hands of young students, will begin its second year of daily afterschool instrumental instruction with 40 Circle Rockets orchestra students.
The Jazz Scholars program matches talented high school students with Chicago’s finest jazz musicians, providing training and mentorship. These students meet with and rehearse over 50 times per year with our Jazz Mentors.
The Music Discovery program enhances the musical skills of thousands of K-3rd grade Chicago Public School students in over 140 classrooms by providing resident teaching artists and interactive music learning activities.
The Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School begins its free music classes in general music, voice, violin, guitar and piano for children and adults who reside in this underserved community.
Many artists from the $10 BGH Classics series and other renowned ensembles and musicians will perform in schools through Ravinia’s Guest Artists in the Classroom.
Music Education
RSMI Alumna Sings In Tanglewood Finale Before Returning For Ravinia Closer
Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, an alumna of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, just earned great notices for helping to close the 2013 Tanglewood season with its traditional finale, Beethoven’s Ninth.
She returns to Ravinia Saturday, Sept. 7 to help close Ravinia's season with the Midwest premiere of the acclaimed John Adams Passion, The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Mumford will reprise the role she originated along with fellow original cast members mezzo Kelley O’Connor, tenor Russell Thomas and countertenors Daniel Bubeck, Brian Cummings and Nathan Medley. Grant Gershon conducts the Chicago Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale.
RSMI Alumni Claudia Huckle Wins Birgit Nilsson Prize
At Steans, the faculty and fellows both strive for excellence. When the fellows leave the institute at the end of the summer, we know they are going on the great things. We follow their careers and support them through every one of their milestones. We were happy to hear that 2005 RSMI alumna Claudia Huckle, a mezzo-soprano from England, recently won the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition. Congratulations, Claudia!
RSMI Singers Get Nine Songs To Call Their Own In A Concert of Premiers
All summer Ravinia has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of its summer conservatory, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. Perhaps the biggest celebration yet comes tonight, Aug. 12, with a concert that boasts nine world-premiere songs, commissioned for the milestone year. Tickets are just $10, and all ticket-holders are invited to a post-concert party. The songs are Jake Heggie’s By the Spring, at Sunset, Aaron Jay Kernis’s setting of Walt Whitman’s Clear Midnight, Ramsey Lewis’s Quiet Moments, David Ludwig’s Still Life, Stephen Paulus’s Was It All a Dream?, Augusta Read Thomas’s Twilight Butterfly, and a three-song cycle by Roberto Sierra called Décimas.
Ravinia C.Y.I. Grant Is Anyone's Game
Every night the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs at Ravinia, high school students from all over the Chicagoland area come to enjoy free lawn entry and, by doing so, earn points towards a $5,000 grant for their schools music program. Over 100 high schools are currently in the running and with just three CSO concerts remaining, it could still be anyone's game.One Score Resources On Verdi's Masterpiece Aida Available Online
Were you aware that Aida premiered in the same year that much of the Windy City was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire? Learn about this and more as Verdi’s Aida is this year’s selection for Ravinia’s One Score, One Chicago initiative, the first time an opera has been selected for that treatment, and companion resources are available now. James Conlon will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with an all-star cast headed byLatonia Moore, Roberto Alagna and Michelle DeYoung in the Pavilion onAug. 3. One Score each year seeks to unite the music community in consideration of one masterpiece, including in-school programs. Explore it all, and you too can “Ritorna vincitor!”
Calling All High Schoolers!
Calling all high schoolers! Join us on August 4, 2013 at 3 p.m. for the 3rd annual Cannon Ball celebration prior to the 5 p.m. “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” concert. Cannon Ball is a free party with food, refreshment and prizes hosted by Ravinia's Classical Youth Initiative every summer before the Chicago Symphony's All-Tchaikovsky Evening. The concert features live cannons as musical instruments for the “1812” Overture. As with all CSO concerts at Ravinia, high-school students who check in at the box office will get onto the lawn for free as well as receive points for their school towards a cash prize for their music programs from the Ravinia Associates board. High-school students attending the Cannon Ball will receive double the amount of usual points. You can find the current standings of this years Classical Youth Initiative grand prize here!
The Classical Youth Initiative is Ravinia's program aimed at giving high school students in the Chicago area the opportunity to experience the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a chance to win money for their school's music program. To help create and develop ideas that teenagers would be receptive to, Ravinia reached out to students from Highland Park High School who met weekly with Ravinia staff members to develop a way to promote classical music to their peers. The result of all their hard work is the Classical Youth Initiative.
Master Classes Not Just For Musicians
VIDEO: James Conlon on his philosophy of conducting master classes.
When I was a junior in high school, I attended my first master class. It was at a four-day conference, and as I was too scared to attend as a performer, I went as an auditor instead. That means that I got to attend all the sessions but didn't play at any of them. I think I spent half my savings to do this.
At Ravinia, you don’t need to spend your savings to attend a master class. They’re free! In fact, not only are they free for the audience members, they’re also free for the incredibly talented young professionals who have been accepted into Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI) each summer for the last 25 summers.
A Great Introduction For Kids
I’ve often marveled at the relatively low-brow (does anyone use that term anymore?) way I was introduced to classical orchestral music as a child. It wasn’t piano lessons or music appreciation courses or anything quite so formal. Rather it was my typical kid’s addiction to cartoons on television.
I’m not talking about latter-day Saturday morning fare like the Powerpuff Girls or SpongeBob SquarePants, but classic Hollywood theatrical cartoons that were a fixture of TV back in the day. I still remember seeing Andy Panda conduct a cartoon orchestra in a performance of Suppe’s Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna overture, or Mickey Mouse leading a band performance of the overture to Rossini’s William Tell. I was totally hooked, and those cartoon selections, among others, were my main incentive for acquiring my first classical LPs.
It wasn’t just the animation, of course. The music seemed so right to me, and I have come to realize in retrospect just how ideal an introduction to classical music overtures can be. They are brief enough not to tax a child’s attention span, and most of them are jam-packed with wonderful tunes that today’s children—at least those with an open mind—can still find entrancing.
This is why the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert on Sunday, July 21, is a wonderful opportunity to introduce the children you care most about to the endlessly rewarding world of classical music. The program includes the overture to Bernstein’s Candide, the overture—and Wedding March—from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (virtually any child will recognize that march) and two of the most perennially popular of Rossini’s infectious overtures, those to The Barber of Seville and The Thieving Magpie, both of which have made an appearance in numerous cartoons—the former was a specialty of Bugs Bunny, and a 1964 adaptation of the latter earned an Oscar nomination. Here’s your chance to give some lucky children something they can cherish for the rest of their lives—and have a lot of fun yourself along the way.
Miriam Fried Recieves Honor For Her 20-Year Commitment to RSMI
One of the most respected violin pedagogues in the world, herself an acclaimed soloist, Miriam Fried was surprised by Ravinia leaders, family and friends at a ceremony Monday when they presented her with the first Edward Gordon Award in recognition of her 20 years of leadership at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. Fried, who has led RSMI’s piano and strings program for most of the summer conservatory’s 25-year history, will give a concert in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre on July 5,with violinist Mihaela Martin, violists Atar Arad and Paul Biss, cellist Frans Helmerson and pianist Jeremy Denk.
The Circle Rockets Brass Take Off!
The Circle Rockets Brass continue to exceed our expectations, both in terms of their skills and their enthusiasm! We are very excited to see some of our older students begin taking on leadership roles as peer-teachers and mentors for our younger students. Recently the students have been learning about playing in harmony (both in the musical and social senses!). Their rapidly growing skill levels are combining with a greater sense of musical identity to foster the joy of collaboration that was so obvious last week when one of our youngest trumpet students exclaimed, “We sound awesome!”
Theresa C.
Photo above: Tristan Dismukes, a fourth grader, teaches an exercise from our Essential Elements book using practice techniques discussed in class.
Associates Host Music Matters Party for REACH*TEACH*PLAY Education Programs
Ravinia Associates, the festival’s forward-looking board of young business leaders, will host its annual Music Matters party to benefit Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. The black-tie event features a live auction (with electronic bidding paddles) for sporting events, vacation packages and premium Ravinia tickets. The event will also honor Ravinia Life Trustees Harrison and Lois Steans for 40 years of dedicated service. Ravinia reaches about 75,000 people each year through its education programs, which include student orchestras built on the “El Sistema” model. Those unable to attend can still make a donation to our REACH*TEACH*PLAY programs, and have it matched as part of the Music Matters Challenge, sponsored by Evergreen Real Estate Services.
Update: Sistema Ravinia Circle Rockets Orchestra
“I love orchestra!!!!” says Chloe, a 4th grade student and violinist at Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School in Chicago. She and 45 of her classmates in grades 4-6 have been learning, practicing and performing music for two hours daily since late October in the Circle Rockets orchestra. While all of the students are novices to orchestral music (in fact, they had never had instrumental music lessons before), they are advancing rapidly thanks to the intense training and innovative instruction of the new Sistema Ravinia initiative. “It’s a terrific experience to put a musical instrument in a kid’s hand, but even better when you see the music all over her face,” said Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman.
Ravinia CYI Alumni Jonas Tarm Receives Outstanding Honors
Jonas Tarm, founding member of Highland Park high school's student advisory board (now Ravinia Classical Youth Initiative) continues his success post graduation. In only his freshman year at New England Conservatory of Boston, Jonas is a National YouthArts Foundation Finalist in music competition. Chosen from approximately 10,000 applications from students in nine disciplines in the visual, literacy and performing arts, the former student at Highland Park High School and Music Institute of Chicago will participate in a life-changing experience provided by the National YoungArts Foundation. Congratulations Jonas! We are enjoying watching your professional career take off!
Ravinia Launches Student Orchestra At Circle Rock Elementary School
Ravinia Festival has announced the creation of a new student orchestra at Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. The orchestra, for children 8 to 12 years old, is modeled on the “El Sistema” training system that forgoes theory lessons to have the students making music with their instruments on the very first day they receive them. 60 children who volunteered to be part of “The Circle Rockets,” will receive their instruments today, learn their first note and perform in their first concert. Under the banner “Sistema Ravinia”™ Ravinia’s student orchestras are part of the festival’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY® education programs.
RSMI Violinist Dami Kim Wins Joachim Competition
Violinist Dami Kim, who earned a fully paid fellowship to participate last summer in Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI), the festival’s summer conservatory for young professional musicians, has won first prize at the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, one of the most important competitions in the world. Watch several videos of Kim performing at the competition.
Classical Youth Initiative 2012 Grant Winner
Ravinia Festival, along with the Ravinia Student Advisory Board and the Ravinia Associates, has announced that Central High School in Burlington, IL, has been declared the winner of the festival’s second annual high school attendance contest for Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts. The attendance contest spanned the duration of the CSO summer residency at Ravinia, and any high school student who attended a concert simply showed a valid student I.D. at the Ravinia Box Office for free lawn admission and to receive a point for the high school they attend. Over 100 high schools participated in the teen attendance contest. The first runner-up was Evanston Township, followed by Highland Park, New Trier and Adlai E. Stevenson high schools.
Read MoreRavinia Festival, along with the Ravinia Student Advisory Board and the Ravinia Associates, has announced that Central High School in Burlington, IL, has been declared the winner of the festival’s second annual high school attendance contest for Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts. The attendance contest spanned the duration of the CSO summer residency at Ravinia, and any high school student who attended a concert simply showed a valid student I.D. at the Ravinia Box Office for free lawn admission and to receive a point for the high school they attend. Over 100 high schools participated in the teen attendance contest. The first runner-up was Evanston Township, followed by Highland Park, New Trier and Adlai E. Stevenson high schools.Back to School with Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY Education Programs
School is just starting, and that means the festival’s free REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs are in full gear! We have expanded our Music Discovery program to reach 150 classrooms this year and over 4,300 K-3 kids who will develop their musical skills with resident teaching artists and interactive activities. Talented high school students will be auditioning soon for our Jazz Mentor program in which students are coached by Chicago’s finest jazz musicians. The Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School begins its free music classes in general music, voice, violin, guitar and piano for children and adults alike who reside in this underserved community. Ravinia’s latest program, Sistema Ravinia, which provides intensive after-school orchestral training at the grade-school level, is in full swing at William G. Hibbard Elementary, and Ravinia’s second installment at Circle Rock Elementary has just begun. Many artists in the BGH $10 CLASSICS series will also perform in schools through Ravinia’s Guest Artists in the Classroom program. Remember, your support of Ravinia makes these programs happen!
Women’s Board Gala Raises $900,000 to Support Ravinia, REACH*TEACH*PLAY
In its 50th anniversary year, the Women’s Board of Ravinia Festival hosted a gala benefit—starring Patti LuPone and Patricia Racette with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon and Rob Fisher—that raised $900,000 for the festival and its REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs. Since its inception, the Women’s Board has become the biggest donor to the nonprofit festival, having given more than $25 million. The group also started Ravinia’s first educational programs and continues to spearhead new initiatives, such as Sistema Ravinia, which creates student orchestras in underserved schools. Listen to this public service announcement from Hubbard Radio (WTMX, WILV, WDRV) about Ravinia’s Women’s Board.
Help Ravinia Put Music Back Into Schools; Sun-Times Foundation will Match Donation
Help Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs meet a goal of raising $15,000 by October 24. The funding will help Ravinia to provide music education and live performance opportunities in more than 60 underserved inner-city Chicago Public Schools and in dozens of communities that lack access to music resources. When you make a donation through this link, the Sun-Times Foundation will match it dollar-per-dollar until the goal is reached. Thanks for your support.