Our Place

Yesterday we gave the grand tour of behind-the-scenes Ravinia to a group of young adults from Our Place in Winnetka and their chaperones. One of the highlights of this field trip was a visit to the dining pavilion kitchens with their industrial-sized machines. Executive Chef Tim Raddack not only had a hearty lunch waiting at the end of the kitchen tour, but he presented each participant with a chef’s toque –which he autographed. The group then checked up on the hosta garden they helped Ravinia plant in the spring before taking to the pavilion stage to sing and dance. Telling these young music-lovers all about Ravinia was as much fun for me as it was for them.

--Nick Pullia
Director of Communications

This Week in Tweets: June 7-14

Each week this summer we post the top tweets of the week about Ravinia Festival under the heading This Week in Tweets. During the last week we scoured the depths of the twittersphere to bring you the best tweets that mention your favorite outdoor music festival. Log on to Twitter, follow @RaviniaFestival, tweet about us or twitpic your lawn set-up and you might wind up in our blog feature! Featured tweets will win you great prizes all summer long. We’ll contact you to claim your prize if you are featured. Don’t forget to read the contest rules too!

  1.  
    If I can't find anyone to go to the Hall & Oates concert with me, I might *actually* turn into a maneater.
    8 Jun via web 
  1. Whoa. I just bought tickets to see Steely Dan at Ravinia in August. Is this happening? Can this be real?
    13 Jun via web
  1.  
    Enjoyable evening at with and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra! Well played. Swingin' dreams tonight.
    12 Jun via Twitter for iPhone
  1. Ravinia tonight. yay! feeling culturiffic :-) Ruth Page event and Chicago Children's Choir - me & my kid are alums, respectively!
    9 Jun via web


Ravinia Teams to Support Jackie on WTTW

Ever since we announced that 11-year-old singing sensation Jackie Evancho, the angelic blond who wowed the jaded judges of America’s Got Talent, would make her debt this summer, I was curious just how good was she and how could a little girl hold a crowd. Boy, did I get my answers. PBS had actually given her a Great Performances special, a banner program usually reserved for operas, orchestras and Broadway stars. I rounded up some Ravinia Festival co-workers and their friends as a Ravinia team to answer phones for the WTTW Pledge Drive, during which Jackie’s Great Performances concert would air. After a mystifying, dizzyfying and a little terrifying crash course in the station’s phone and computer operations and brief introduction to the script we were to use to secure the callers’ donations, we were let loose to accept the calls from the public who had just been watching Jackie on TV. There goes the script. People were so enthralled with the young performer that they were more concerned with singing her praises than going through the pre-drilled motions. They compared her voice to singing legends. They compared her voice to angelic choirs. They compared her to the best concert they ever attended in their own lives. They pledged ever-higher amounts to receive the Jackie CD; no, the DVD; no, the tickets to Ravinia Festival. When phone traffic slowed enough for me to tune into the special for a few minutes I saw what made believers out of so many callers. Check it out for yourself at 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, when Jackie performs her live concert at Ravinia with an orchestra and young pianist Conrad Tao. By the way, we were told that call-ins to the station broke records during Jackie’s concert.

--Nick Pullia
Director of communications

The Judds and the Electric Cowboy Hat!

No this isn't a new record release from the Judds, it’s something that actually happened on Friday night. I manage Ravinia Gifts and was working in the Martin Theatre store on Friday night at The Judds concert. Ok, I wasn't really working at the time, I wanted a glimpse of Naomi and Wynonna performing and it was my only chance for the night, we had been too busy selling our light-up cowboy hats all evening.

It was towards the end of their performance (which was amazing by the way, I loved the onstage banter with the audience just as much as their music) when Wynonna asked a gentleman in the audience to give up his light-up cowboy hat. She said she wanted it for her mother so she could find her when she would get lost in the woods. The audience member offered up his orange baseball hat, which she promptly refused saying she wanted the light-up cowboy hat, which she absolutely loved. It was so cool!

The audience member gave up the light-up cowboy hat and she let him sing with her on their last song. He didn’t sound quite as good as The Judds, but was laughing so hard it didn't even matter. The audience went wild. What an amazing time at Ravinia.

I lost count how many hats we sold that night but that was all you could see on the lawn and in the pavilion, light-up cowboy hats bouncing along to the sounds of The Judds!

Click here to see our photo gallery from the performance, what a great opening weekend!

Jennifer J. Wood, Manager of Retail Operations

 



Guest Blog – Jazz at Ravinia on June 12

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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 20th 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

 

Classical Youth Initiative Student Profile: Jonas Tarm

As you may have heard or seen on the Ravinia website, this summer will be the inaugural summer of the Classical Youth Initiative (CYI). A wonderful group of students from Highland Park High School worked alongside the Ravinia Communications Department to encourage young listeners to attend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances at Ravinia.  We will be featuring students on the blog all summer. Here we have our talk with Jonas Tarm about his love for western art music.

Jonas just finished his junior year at Highland Park High School. He is heavily involved in his high school’s music program along with many other music programs in the Chicago area. He played in the Midwest Young Artists program for four years. Currently, he plays in Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program. He also composes his own pieces; some of his which were featured in the Institute’s “Generation Next: Composers Concert”, which was aired on WMFT this year. He is an extremely talented violin player and composer. This fall, he was placed in the IMEA All-State honors orchestra. In the spring, he won Highland Park High School’s concerto audition, which led to him being featured in the top orchestra’s performance of the third and fourth movements of Edouard Lalo’s  “Le Symphonie Espagnole.” He has had a wonderfully accomplished music career so far.

Jonas’s background is far different from your typical suburban teenager. He was born in Estonia, and lived there for the first ten years of his life. He began playing music while still living in Estonia. He started playing the violin when he was seven years old. He chose to play violin mainly at the request of his mother who hoped buying violins would cheaper than buying pianos! He moved to Highland Park at age ten and began playing in the school orchestras. As he has grown up, Jonas said his main influences are musicians and composers that display diversity and refuse to be narrowly defined. He stated that Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Bernstein are of his biggest influences because both used classical training to fuel explorative careers in both performing and composing music. His favorite pieces to play are anything written in the 20th century, and one day hopes to play Mahler’s renowned compositions. Kids like Jonas Classical music is not dead as some would lead you to believe. There are teenagers out there who love blasting Bartok’s symphonies out of their stereo just as much as they love blasting out Kanye West’s music.

Jonas chose to be a part of the student marketing team because Ravinia has always been a big part of his life. He wanted to show other kids the positive experiences he has every time he sees a CSO performance. He lives in the neighborhood surrounding Ravinia, so he hears every concert from his house. He attends many CSO shows every summer. He even visits CSO rehearsals to learn how professionals rehearse. Jonas also hoped working on the team would help him develop skills that would allow him to help sell his own playing as he begins to pursue a professional music career. He feels the marketing team’s biggest challenges are coming this summer. He specifically mentioned the challenge of executing the CYI successfully so that students actually come see CSO shows. He really hopes that this summer’s Cannon-Ball Event will open teenagers from other schools who may not know as much about Ravinia. Working on this team has helped him learn more of the business obstacles facing classical music. The challenge above led Jonas to a few beliefs about the state of classical music today. Jonas feels the solution to the problems facing the world’s top orchestras is finding an effective way to present traditional western art music to a young audience.

That belief demonstrates what struck me the most about Jonas. He is extremely aware of the challenges that a musician faces; and is willing to ask himself difficult questions that most shy away from. For example, when I was in high school, I vividly remember one guy who is one of the best singers I have ever heard. He was good enough to compete on American Idol last year. Even though he was ridiculously talented, he did not have Jonas’s foresight. He never spent time learning musical marketing skills while he was in high school. Jonas’s decision to work on these skills at such a young age demonstrates his character. It bodes well for him that he is willing to look around and ask himself difficult questions like “Can western art music be sold to kids? Does the art need to change?” Kids like Jonas and the other students I will be interviewing make those difficult choices, which is one of the biggest reasons why all of us at Ravinia believe that we can find a way to market the CSO to teenagers through the Classical Youth Initiative.

Edwin Pratt

Communications Intern

 

 

Kraft Hoopla Kicks Off at Ravinia Festival on June 19

Kraft Foods Foundation is pairing up with some of kids’ favorite partners to launch 2011’s Kraft Great Kids Hoopla. The Hoopla kicks off at Ravinia on Sunday, June 19. Get free lawn admission for the Kraft Great Kids Concert with The Dirty Sock Funtime Band. While admission is free, tickets are still required. Free lawn tickets are limited to six per household. Activities start at 11 a.m. and the concert begins at 1 p.m.

Hoopla events offer families the opportunity to build an Imagination Playground, learn line dancing and yoga, play games and visit an instrument petting zoo at a different venue each month throughout the summer. Each program partner focuses on nutrition education, fitness and literacy, all packaged as creative play at museums and other family venues throughout the Chicago area.

This Week in Tweets: May 30-June 7

Each week this summer we post the top tweets of the week about Ravinia Festival under the heading This Week in Tweets. During the last week we scoured the depths of the twittersphere to bring you the best tweets that mention your favorite outdoor music festival. Log on to Twitter, follow @RaviniaFestival, tweet about us or twitpic your lawn set-up and you might wind up in our blog feature! Featured tweets will win you great prizes all summer long. We’ll contact you to claim your prize if you are featured. Don’t forget to read the contest rules too!

  1.  
    Surprising the gf. Taking her to see the at on June 11.
    26 May via Tap11
  2.  
    my first concert was the vacation tour in '83 , planning to take my daughter to her first show to see them !
    30 May via web
  3.  
    Being retired means summer concerts in Ravinia Park with people transfixed under the stars. I remember my 1st,1967. Van Clyburn was playing.
    31 May via web
  4.   
    My daughter just gave me tickets to the Moody Blues concert on June 11 for my birthday. Love it & lover her!!
    2 Jun via TweetDeck
  5.   
    Hanging out in the line for the booth at
    4 Jun via TweetDeck
  6.  
    friend. ill buy a wallet if you come to the ravinia LOTR CSO event. i wont dress up as frodo.
    7 Jun via TweetDeck


Underpass Official Opening June 9

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Next week we open the gates to the 2011 season at Ravinia Festival! Tickets are available now to see the Emmy Award©-winning Chicago Children’s Choir on Thursday, June 9. Plus you can join us early to enjoy special events in the park. Festivities start at 5:00 p.m. Be one of the first to walk through the new underpass with Ravinia President/CEO Welz Kauffman in a grand opening celebration. It will be an evening to remember with plenty of family fun!

Win prizes, sample food from Levy Restaurants and enjoy activities for kids before the concert. Kids can enjoy free train rides in the park with our friends from Kohl Children’s Museum. Visit the Kids Club table for coloring activities and free membership sign-up. Spin the prize wheel to win great gifts from Ravinia such as tickets, picnic items, playing cards, T-shirts and more.

Metra will also be on site providing safety tips for the family. Ravinia’s own REACH*TEACH*PLAY will provide an instrument petting zoo along with the Highland Park Strings.

Activities will end at 7:15 p.m. just before the concert. While the activities are free, patrons must purchase a ticket to attend the concert in order to enter the park. For more park information, visit our website

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REACH Students Enjoy Music at Ravinia

The first visitors to Ravinia's 2011 season were students from Ravinia's REACH*TEACH*PLAY programs. Close to 2,900 children (K-6) from Chicago and Waukegan public schools came to Ravinia on Tuesday, May 24 to enjoy a performance in the main Pavilion by the Midwest Young Artist Orchestra. The day's program included excerpts from Prokoviev's Romeo & Juliet Ballet Suites which represents this year’s selection for the festival's One Score, One Chicago initiative.

Schools that attended the performance were visited by an ensemble or a pianist during the school year to experience a more intimate and introductory performance of Prokofiev's music. These visits served both as an educational activity and as a prelude to the larger performance by the orchestra at Ravinia. Last week's performance began with presentations by students (K-3) who participated in one of Ravinia's emblematic efforts in Chicago's elementary schools, the Music Discovery Program - a residency based music education program that serves over 2,300 students per year. At the end of the day's concert, students enjoyed lunch on the park's lawn as a way to have the ultimate Ravinia experience.

See photos of their day at Ravinia!

 

Ravinia Engages Pianist Kevin Murphy as Director of the Vocal Program at the Steans Music Institute

Ravinia Festival has named renowned pianist, music administrator and educator Kevin Murphy director of the festival’s summer music conservatory, the Steans Music Institute. He replaces Brian Zeger, who steps down in August after six years in the position. Murphy’s duties will include selecting 15 singers and five pianists from a worldwide pool of applicants to participate in the program each summer as well as securing faculty who will work with these artists over an intensive three-week residency. In consultation with the faculty, he will program four concerts of art song and three master classes each summer. 

Murphy has been director of music administration at New York City Opera since September of 2008. Before that time, he was director of musical studies at the National Opera of Paris. In 1992 he was the first pianist invited by Maestro James Levine (former Ravinia music director) to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and continued as an assistant conductor from 1993 through June 2006. In addition to his on- and off-stage partnership with his wife, soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, he has collaborated in concert and recital with many of today’s leading artists, including Steans Music Institute alumna Michelle DeYoung, Nathan Gunn, Bryn Terfel, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming and others. Additional credits include performances of Mozart operas with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia.

“I can think of no better fit for Ravinia and the Steans Music Institute than Kevin, a truly respected and talented pedagogue who will spark and inspire the young professional musicians who will study with him,” said Ravinia Festival Music Director James Conlon. “Kevin is a friend, and I look forward to having him as a festival colleague.”



Come See What Ravinia's REACH*TEACH*PLAY Is All About

Not only does Ravinia present concerts, but as a not-for-profit the festival connects music to thousands of families around Chicago through multi-tiered education programs called REACH*TEACH*PLAY. Please join us for a showcase of these programs that is free and open to the public, featuring performances by Chicago Public School students, guest artists, teaching artists and musicians from the festival’s community partnerships, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 14 in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. in Chicago.

Brian Peck, morning disc jockey at 100.3FM, will serve as master of ceremonies and the event features performances by Chicago Public School students of all ages from the kindergarten level to high school and also includes adult singers who take part in Ravinia’s community conservatory in Lawndale. The showcase will include a presentation by Ravinia Jazz Scholars, high school students who have studied with some of Chicago’s great jazz artists, including jazz mentor Willie Pickens. Ravinia’s newest education effort, the REACH Orchestra, a student-training orchestra and after school program for 8 to 12-year olds, will also perform. The event also includes a performance by pianists Marta Aznavoorian and Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, who have appeared as guest artists in classrooms.

Please join us to support these incredible programs!

Amy Schrage
Associate Director of Communications

 

 

Chinese Fine Arts Society Shares Music with REACH Students

In honor of celebrating the Chinese New Year, students from the University of Chicago Donoghue Charter, Polaris Charter Academy and Brownell elementary schools were able to experience traditional Chinese music provided by the Chinese Fine Arts Society. Authentic ethnic instruments were used in this educational performance. Students were able to participate in this experience through Ravinia's REACH*TEACH*PLAY educational program, Guest Artist in the Classroom. Through this initiative, live performances are brought into schools throughout the Chicagoland area.

Ravinia Associates Become Newest Orchestra at Hibbard Elementary

The Ravinia Associates, a group of young professionals dedicated to supporting the musical arts, emphasizing Ravinia Festival and its REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs, held their winter board meeting at Hibbard Elementary School on January 22, where they became its newest orchestra for the day as part of their exploration of the orchestra training initiative at Hibbard. 

The day started in the auditorium where students from the YOURS and REACH Orchestras performed for the group.  All members of the Associates were then handed their own instrument and broke into smaller groups by instrument. The students worked with each member on a one-to-one basis, teaching them how to create sound and to play the rhythm to the William Tell Overture. When asked about the opportunity to teach, student violinist Sheila Esquival (pictured above) said “It was really fun to teach them and to see them get excited about what we get to do everyday.”  The students and adults then came back together, in the auditorium, playing side-by-side for a full orchestra rehearsal and performance of the overture. 

Kara Longo Korte, President of Ravinia Associates added that “The meeting at Hibbard Elementary was by far my favorite Associates meeting! …to witness the children playing in the orchestra made a big impact on each Associate. Once we tried to play an instrument that we’d never touched before, it made each of us understand just how amazing this program really is…” Click here to see a photo gallery of the event.

Program History

Ravinia Festival and The People's Music School have joined forces to bring music education to children.  In 2008 The People's Music School initiated an orchestra training project and created the YOURS (Youth Orchestras United Rita Simo) Orchestra at Hibbard Elementary School, modeled after Venezuela's El Sistema. The system has embraced the notion of transforming groups of children into communities of musicians who in turn transform their communities.  The Ravinia Festival Women's Board initiated the REACH Orchestra at Hibbard in January 2010.  The partnership now has 3 orchestras at Hibbard where 160 students participate in sectional and full orchestra rehearsals 5 days a week for 2 hours after school.

 



2011 Ravinia Poster Announced!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday the Women’s Board of Ravinia unveiled the winning poster design for the 2011 season.

A collective gasp of WOW was heard in the room as everyone saw the poster for the first time! It was amazing.

When we first saw the design created by Joshua Lowe, who is a graduate student at Purdue University, we knew it would be the perfect fit for our upcoming season. The colors are gorgeous and the stained glass look is absolutely beautiful. The talented young artist said the stained-glass look of the trees was inspired by the arts-and-crafts architectural style that was part of Ravinia’s 1904 design, which can be seen in the Martin Theatre—the only building standing from the park’s original construction.

We can’t wait to see this design showcased in the park.

Look for the poster in storefronts throughout the area. Shoot the 2-D bar code with your smart phone to find special offers at ravinia.org. Order your poster today! It is available online at shop.ravinia.org – we know it will be a hot seller this season!


Jennifer Wood

Manager of Retail Operations

Live! with Eric Ferguson & Kelly?

Could Eric Ferguson from 101.9FM The Mix’s Eric and Kathy morning radio show be the next guest co-host on "Live! with Regis & Kelly"? He is in the top 10 “Men of Radio Co-host For a Day Search.”

Take a look at his video and vote here. You must vote for five finalist to make the cut.

"Live! with Regis & Kelly" taped their show from the Ravinia Festival pavilion back in 2003.  Below Amy Schrage recalls the scenes from backstage.  

 

"Live! with Regis & Kelly" from the Ravinia Festival pavilion 2003

It was a crisp October morning in 2003, the trees were a gorgeous sight filled with fall colors. Normally on a day like this, Ravinia would be calm, serene and very quiet, since the summer season would have wrapped for the year a few weeks before. But not today. Today Regis and Kelly were taking over the pavilion, bringing their New York based television show to our festival, filming two episodes of their famed talk show in front of crowd of excited Chicago fans.

I remember it like it was last week. The filming went smoothly as the crew moved guest after guest on stage to chat with the talk show hosts including ex-Chicago Bulls player Scottie Pippen, actress Jessica Biel and the late Bernie Mac.

One of the last guests, actor and Chicago-born Gary Sinise, shared his stories of growing up in Ravinia’s hometown of Highland Park while he worked for our festival in the summers. During these college years, Sinise was also starting his acting company, Steppenwolf Theatre, in the basement of a church in Highland Park. Since these actors were college kids with a lack of funds, Sinise would “borrow” supplies from Ravinia such as toilet paper and paper towels for their start-up theater. The crowd roared as Sinise left the pavilion stage during his interview with Regis and Kelly and rolled out a cart full of supplies to pay Ravinia back for what he took in the 1970s. The show ended that day with an energizing performance of “Where is the Love?” by chart-topping group the Black Eyed Peas.

The Ravinia staff had an amazing time that day, it was fun to produce a television show from our stage and we were so happy that the Ravinia-concert goers and Chicago fans were able to be a part of this experience.  To see more photos from the day, check out the Ravinia photo gallery.

Amy Schrage

Associate Director of Communications