“El Sistema” Programs Like Ravinia’s Are Sweeping Nation for Good Reason

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A recent report in the Huffington Post detailed a bit of the history and success of the Venezuelan music-education system that has taken an exciting foothold around the world, including over 50 U.S. cities. Ravinia Festival is planning its third “El Sistema” orchestra in a Chicago elementary school shortly.

"El Sistema," according to Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a graduate of the program, is a "visionary global movement that transforms the lives of children through music."

Read the Huffington Post story.

Lord of the Loud, Jim Marshall, Dies at 88

Over the past 50 years Marshal Amplification has become synonymous with the big sound of live music everywhere, and today we were saddened by the news that the legend himself, Jim Marshall, has passed at 88 after battling with poor health for years. While artists like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton have redefined rock and roll, it would be impossible to say where rock might have landed in the history books without the "Marshall Sound." You would be hard-pressed to find a rock band today that doesn't have at least one Marshall amp as part of their set up. The man may be gone, but the legend of the "Lord of the Loud" has a permanent place in music history.

Motörhead (above) photo courtesy of Lost In Concert

Ravinia Festival Ranked as a Top Alternative Music Festival

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Ravinia 2011 – Go Gos and the B52s

Fox News has ranked Ravinia Festival as one of the Top Alternative Music Festivals in the country. Being not only the oldest music festival in the country, but the oldest on the continent, it is very flattering to still be considered as one of the best! None of this would be possible without you. Thank you for all your patronage and support over the past 107 years (6 months, and 26 days), making Ravinia Festival the greatest music venue ever. (Yes, ever)

“What truly defines us is that music-lovers can really create their own vision of what Ravinia is to them--an intimate dinner date for two followed by a performance by the great Chicago Symphony Orchestra, or a group of friends on the lawn partying with the Blues Brothers.” – Welz Kauffman, Ravinia President and CEO.      

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Ravinia Brings Music to the Heart of Chicago’s Little Village

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For two consecutive days, the Ravinia Festival, through its Guest Artists in the classroom Program (GAIC) and in collaboration with Chicago Arts Orchestra (CAO), brought educational performances of rich and diverse repertoire of classical music to students from Telpochacalli Elementary and Hammond Elementary. Students had the opportunity to enjoy contrasting and yet equally fascinating repertoire by the likes of W.A. Mozart (Exultate Jubilate), Mexico’s Ignacio Jerusalem (Sinfonia in G), Luigi Boccherini (La Musica Notturna di Madrid), and  Léo Delibes (Flower Duet from Lakmé) which rendered a unique experience.
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Ravinia Goes Social: Instagram

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Ravinia Festival is now on Instagram! As many of you know, and are hopefully follow, Ravinia is on Facebook and Twitter. In fact most of you reading this post right now have come from our craftily shortened link via Facebook or Twitter. However, the Ravinia social media experience doesn’t stop there.
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Week of Feb 20 in Classical Music History

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As the season draws closer and closer this weekly playlist will become a bit more infrequent as we want to focus our efforts on bringing you new (and not all classical) music to your homes. This playlist should update about 1-2 times a month and will coincide with important summer Ravinia dates. Once our 2012 season draws to an end, we will go back to weekly or biweekly updates, with more more specific content. Expect our changes to take place starting next month. Add Ravinia Festival: This Week in Classical Music to your Spotify playlist, and listen to all your favorite works on the anniversaries of their initial premiers. Just click the Spotify logo, or the link above, and enjoy a week of historical moments. We update our playlist every week so there will never be a need to resubscribe! Below is a day-by-day listing of the track selections for this weeks edition of the playlist. We hope you enjoy!
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We Salute Black History Month

This month we want to highlight many of the black artists that have shared their talents with us at Ravinia Festival. Below is just a short list of a few of the numerous black artists that lit up the stage at the festival over the years! You can click on the images below to learn more about each of the artists. Enjoy!

Bill T. Jones
Cesária Évora
Jessye Norman
Keb Mo
Lillias White
Ella Fitzgerald
Omara Portuondo
PJ Morton
Thelonius Monk
Ramsey Lewis
Jubilant Sykes
Wynton Marsalis

Major Changes Coming for Chair Rental Service

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In its 50th anniversary year, the Women’s Board of Ravinia Festival is growing again and will assume management of the chair and table rental business on the festival grounds, now called Camping World Chair Rental. 

Patrons do not have to carry their own picnic gear to the park as the new management makes it easier than ever to rent or buy everything you need at the festival.
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Carrie and Tony poised to ignite @theGrammys

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When the Grammy nomination list went public on December 1, 2011, we were excited to see numerous Ravinia Festival artists up for various awards. From "Best Blue Grass Album" to "Best Pop Duo of the Year," Ravinia artists are in contention for many top honors. Tony Bennett, up for “Best Pop Duo of the Year” award for his duo with the late Amy Winehouse for “Body and Soul” off Duets II, “Best Pop Vocal Album of the Year” for Duets II and “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)” for his duet with Queen Latifah “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)” on Duets II, and Carrie Underwood, up for “Best Country Solo Performance”, for her single “Mama’s Song” off Play On, are slated to perform together on stage. They are poised to set the stage afire with their single "It Had To Be You" off Tony's Duets II album. You can catch the Grammys this Sunday February 12 at 7 P.M. CST on CBS and if you haven't had the pleasure of listening to this Carrie and Tony duet yet, here is your chance...
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Week of Feb 6 in Classical Music History

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This weeks selection of works is very unique. For the first time, I had the pleasure of hearing booming sound of an instrument known as thundersticks in Cowell's 1925 work "ensemble." That is just a sample of this weeks unique line up. Just add Ravinia Festival: This Week in Classical Music to your Spotify playlist, and listen to all your favorite works on the anniversaries of their initial premiers. Just click the Spotify logo, or the link above, and enjoy a week of historical moments. We update our playlist every week so there will never be a need to resubscribe! Below is a day-by-day listing of the track selections for this weeks edition of the playlist. We hope you enjoy!
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Jonas Tarm Wins National Competition

Jonas Tarm

Highland Park High School senior Jonas Tarm is making waves all over the nation. In addition to being a full time high school student, he is part of Ravinia's student marketing team, working towards developing interest in classical music for the younger generation, and studies with the Music Institute of Chicago's Academy for gifted pre-college musicians. He recently won first place in a national classical composition competition, sponsored by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). The 24,000+ member association will be sending him to New York City next month, where his winning entry will be performed at MTNA's annual convention. Tarm's piece for violin, piano, cello, and flute is a Latin-tinged chamber work named "Las Ruinas Ciculares", a musical interpretation of Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges' story "The Circular Ruins," about a man who sets out to dream another human being into existence—only to realize that he himself is a figment of someone’s dream. Just earlier this year Tarm won the Music Institute’s Generation Next Young Composer’s Competition, the Illinois Music Educators Association’s composition competition and has been a feature artist, and composer, in WFMT's program Introductions. Congratulations to Jonas Tarm on yet another amazing accomplishment!

Ravinia Salutes Black History Month

This February, for Black History Month, we want to highlight many of the artists that have shared their talents with us at Ravinia Festival. Below is a short sample of just few of the many African American artists that performed at the festival over the years. For the remainder of this month, we will continue to share more photos, a couple Spotify playlists, and some videos of some of the amazing talents we have seen perform at the festival! Enjoy!

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Week of Jan 30 in Classical Music History

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January just flew by. With our schedule just a little more than a month away, it begs the question of what the future of this weekly playlist might be. Leave your feedback below and let us know if you would like this playlist to be the way it is now or possibly spread to all music genres? We would love to hear from you. Enjoy this weeks edition of Ravinia Festival: This Week in Classical Music, and listen to all your favorite works on the anniversaries of their initial premiers. Just click the Spotify logo, or the link above, and add our playlist to your library. We update our playlist every week so there will never be a need to resubscribe! Below is a day-by-day listing of the track selections for this weeks edition of the playlist. We hope you enjoy!
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Ravinia Associates Rehearse With Lawndale Choir

“The interaction with the Associates was great. It gave them a chance to see what we are doing and see the quality of the program”

The Ravinia Associates, a group of young professionals dedicated to supporting Ravinia Festival and its REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs, held their winter board meeting at the Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School in Douglas Park on Chicago’s Westside. “It wasn’t your typical meeting.  Every member was able to experience first-hand what the Family Music School is all about” remarked Associate member Dave Gaspar.  The Family Music School is part of an ongoing partnership between the Ravinia Festival and the Lawndale community.

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Ravinia Festival 2012 Poster Contest Winner

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Poster Winner, Daniel Goers, with the 2012 Poster Competition Co-Chair Marilyn Vender (left) and Women’s Board Chairman, Jeanne Denison (right)

The Ravinia Festival Women's Board was founded in 1962, and for the past 40 years, one of their major tasks has been to select the Ravinia Festival poster from student submissions each year. In 2012, they are celebrating their 50th anniversary, and they decided to give you a present this year, and let you decide the winner of this years contest from three finalists selected by the board and Ravinia CEO Welz Kauffman. Hundreds of you voted for your favorite posters and, ultimately, a winner was crowned.

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Ravinia in The Community: @971TheDrive Crue

With the recent press release confirming Idina Menzel's debut at Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in July, excitement is as high as ever for the 2012 season, and with good measure. One of our major radio partners, WDRV "The Drive" 97.1FM, is going to be around town next weekend sporting the new van design featuring Ravinia Festival on it, while also giving away some great Ravinia prizes! Event information and links below!
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