Alan Jackson Showed Me The Way

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Confessions of a Former Music Snob

I saw a TV show featuring the top 10 country videos at the time and was struck by “Here in the Real World” by Alan Jackson. Unlike other country artists, he didn’t make a great display of being a caricature of a boisterous, s**t-kicking redneck bumpkin. In the context of many other country artists, he stood out as practically aristocratic, a true country gentleman, even if he wrote songs with titles like “Blue Blooded Woman (and a Redneck Man).” There was a genuine sincerity to everything he sang that was irresistible.

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Ravinia's Bennett Gordon Hall Concerts Are Never Out of Season

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And best of all, the series offers music lovers the chance to hear “an impressive lineup, by any standard,” (Chicago Tribune) of world-stage stars at a fraction of the ticket price commanded elsewhere.

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Jackson Browne Has Given His Music A Personal Touch for Over 40 Years

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The list of renowned musicians with whom Browne has collaborated in some form could fill a whole page. His early brushes with Nico, Buckley, Frey, and Crosby were just the beginning; in the years to come, he toured with such icons as Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell, and he made music with everyone from Warren Zevon to Bonnie Raitt to Bruce Springsteen. So it’s hard not to wonder, from such an embarrassment of riches, do any of those collaborations stand out for him as favorites?

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Ravinia Mixtape: The '90s!

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Remember those snap bracelets and day-glo everything? Remember when MTV used to actually show music videos? Those days before everyone was on this new thing called the Internet and AOL CDs overflowed your inbox … your actual mailbox?

You can relive those days with our special ’90s-themed mixtape, which showcases artists from two of our hottest concerts of 2015.

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CEO Welz Kauffman Goes Where No Man Has Gone Before

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Every Monday morning, Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman boldly goes to the WGN TV studios for the on-air “Ravinia Minute” with announcer Mike Toomey. He previews the events Ravinia offers in the coming week. This week, his delivery was "Spock on” as he got into character to discus the Aug. 16 presentation of J.J. Abrams’s 2009 Star Trek, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing the score live. See what it takes for an Earthbound CEO to beam up to the Enterprise.

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Ramsey Lewis Joins A New "In" Crowd with His First Classical Concerto

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The traditions of jazz and classical music have enjoyed parallel histories but relatively few intersections. Yet players from Benny Goodman to Wynton Marsalis have famously commuted between the two realms, and composers from George Gershwin to Duke Ellington to Leonard Bernstein have negotiated areas of artistic agreement that have linked certain of their traditions in often exciting ways, creating the bedrock of symphonic jazz.

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Taking The Flying Dutchman's Dare

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I would like someday to give a lecture or write an article making a case for disliking classical music—at least some of it. I fear that people new to classical music may hear something they really detest and, not knowing the infinite variety of classical music, incorrectly conclude that they don’t like any classical music at all. But just about everyone, no matter how knowledgeable or devoted to music, must admit that there are portions of the repertoire they don’t enjoy.

In my case, there are numerous swaths of the classical repertoire that simply don’t appeal to me. Most pertinent at present, I don’t like Wagner.

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A Symphony of Silk

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So on ghastly summer days with 99-degree heat and 99 percent humidity, that's where I went in my imagination. Lying on my bed, I would put Scheherazade on the phonograph while nibbling grapes and sipping lemonade, as if I were the Persian ruler to whom the stories were being told. It didn't dispel the heat, of course, but somehow, in that setting, the climate seemed more natural and bearable--at least for as long as the music lasted.

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New Works Are The Passion of Five Ravinia Stars

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But music is a living art. And no matter how glorious its past, in order to be fully alive, it must be constantly replenished by sounds that reflect the world as it is today, not as it was 300 or even 75 years ago. This season’s Ravinia schedule includes a range of artists who will be playing the music of the here and now as well as masters of the past.

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