Sistema Ravinia students participated in a workshop with rising conductor Jonathan Rush and prominent violin- and viola-playing hip-hop duo Black Violin at Ravinia Festival on June 18.
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Ravinia Days Was In Full Swing At Ravinia Festival!
Reach Teach Play kindergarten through 3rd-grade students from its Music Discovery Program came together to celebrate and showcase live music and dance performances for their friends, family, and educators.
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Reach Teach Play says farewell to Fifth House Ensemble
Last month, all fourth and fifth grade students from District 112 enjoyed Journey Live, an original, interactive live performance of the Grammy-nominated score to the video game “Journey” performed by the Fifth House Ensemble at Ravinia Festival.
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Bid on Summer Fun & Support Reach Teach Play in the Music Matters Preview Auction!
As we ramp up to the 2022 season, the Ravinia Associates Board looks forward to holding an online Silent Auction to kick off their annual fundraising for Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education programs. You can support the Associates and Reach Teach Play from home by bidding on an array of exciting summer auction packages, all available on your phone or computer!
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Reach Teach Play’s Music Discovery Program celebrates 25th Anniversary
Ravinia’s Music Discovery Program celebrates its 25th anniversary! The residency-based program, one of Reach Teach Play’s nine music education programs, started in 10 schools in 1997 and currently serves more than 20, reaching over 3,000 Chicago Public Schools students a year. Get to know RTP with photos and video from four recent performances at Chicago area schools.
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This Summer Ravinia Presents the Breaking Barriers Festival
This summer, Ravinia Festival presents the creation of the annual Breaking Barriers festival, curated by newly extended Ravinia Chief Conductor Marin Alsop. The festival will celebrate the diverse artists and leaders in the forefront of classical music today and in the future. This year’s Breaking Barriers Festival focus on women conductors and will take place July 29–31.
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Ravinia welcomes Alejandra Valarino Boyer as the new Director of our Steans Music Institute
Alejandra Valarino Boyer joins the Steans Music Institute as its new Director, effective March 1. With more than ten years of experience in arts administration, Valarino Boyer is a strategic leader with experience in community engagement, production management, and program development through her work at Seattle Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.
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Reach Teach Play brings virtual live performance to families
Reach Teach Play’s Music Discovery Program brought students and their families together for a virtual live performance of the Green Golly & Her Golden Flute, a picture book, based on the Parents’ Choice Golden Award winning recording by the same name, written and performed by Keith Torgan and Barbara Siesel.
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Reach Teach Play Leader Joins El Sistema USA Board
Ravinia proudly congratulates Isaac Sinnett, Senior Associate Director of the festival’s Reach Teach Play music education programs, on being elected as the newest board member of El Sistema USA! He has worked exceptionally with Reach Teach Play for more than a decade to serve over 75,000 Chicagoland community members each year through Ravinia’s education programs, ensuring music remains accessible to all.
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Meet Steve Wilson—RSMI's Newest Program Director
At the start of the 2021 Ravinia season, the Steans Music Institute was proud to announce that Steve Wilson joined the Program for Jazz directorate as the program’s third co-director. Wilson, a saxophonist and composer, has long been active in the New York jazz scene, playing, teaching, and recording, both with his own ensembles and with jazz stalwarts such as Christian McBride, Maria Schneider, and Chick Corea.
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’Tis the Season for Reach Teach Play Programs
Reach Teach Play programs are still in full swing this off-season, and our students have been busy showcasing their hard work. Just last week, our Sistema Ravinia Orchestra presented a winter concert at Gregory Elementary School located in Homan Square. Trumpet and clarinet students gave an auditorium performance to their fellow classmates.
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Ravinia Steans Music Institute alumni and faculty receive Grammy nominations
It’s that time of year again! We are proud to announce alumni and faculty members of the Steans Music Institute who have received 2022 Grammy Award nominations. The 64th Annual Grammy Awards broadcast is scheduled for January 31, 2022.
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Ravinia Jazz Scholars alumni jazz it up at Green Mill
Four alumni of Ravinia’s Jazz Mentor Program—known as Jazz Scholars when they were young musicians in the program—made their way to the Green Mill Jazz Club stage for much-anticipated performances that had lines out the door.
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RSMI Alumni Making Headlines in November 2021
Since 1988, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute has been an international destination for young professional musicians devoted to honing and advancing their musical talents. Over that time, RSMI has seen over 1,500 exceptional musicians enter its programs; many of whom have gone on to have very impressive accomplishments in their careers. Here are a few recent stories from November 2021:
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Ravinia’s music education program paves 12-year-old singer’s opera career path
Daelyn Calloway, who is in the Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School choir program, has already been a part of a handful of opera productions at the young age of twelve. Her most recent singing appearance in The Magic Flute occurred this month at Chicago’s Lyric Opera. She has also performed in the Lyric’s production of The Queen of Spades, The Dead Man Walking, and in the spring, she will be performing in the Tosca production.
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Socially Behind the Scenes at Ravinia Steans Music Institute
in Music Education, RSMI, Park News
A day in the life of a Steans Music Institute fellow is never all practice, all the time. To share glimpses of the experience with those on the outside, “Tuesday Takeovers” began in RSMI’s Instagram Stories, bringing viewers into the musicians’ jam-packed schedules and daily experiences.
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Reach Teach Play Looks Back at Successful Summer
Not only did live music return to the park after a dark and quiet 2020 season, so did Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play (RTP) education program participants. Although RTP instructors and students were not able to perform or meet in person for over a year, this season brought with it numerous joyful reunions and inspiring moments.
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Reach Teach Play Brings Flamenco to Elementary Classroom
This month, Reach Teach Play’s Guest Artists in the Classroom brought the Clinard Dance Flamenco Quartet to Hitch Elementary School for two performances in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The performances brought zapateado–a Spanish word referring to the shoe strikes flamenco dancers make–to over 100 students along with mesmerizing sounds from traditional Spanish guitar, a cantaora or cante singer, and a violin.
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In Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play programs, it’s never been clearer that music matters
Every year Ravinia sends hundreds of musicians into Chicago Public Schools as well as classrooms in Highland Park, Waukegan, and North Chicago. What began in 1965 with the Women’s Board’s program of making lawn passes available to low-income music lovers has grown into Reach Teach Play, a year-round operation that reaches 75,000 children annually through a dozen distinct programs.
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Emoting the Moment: Ben Folds waltzes to weird and normal
Ben Folds does not talk in what he calls “snack-sized” sound bites. He speaks expansively about creativity, a mercurial process. We spoke about why waltzes are incredible, the pitfalls of writing a song about Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous Four Seasons Landscaping press conference, and why arts education is essential to our post-pandemic restart.
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