Today, Ravinia announced updates to its 2021 season, which features more than 70 events from July 1 through September 26. Ticket sales for the 2021 season will be split into two phases. Tickets for concerts scheduled between July 1 and August 15 go on sale to the general public on June 16. Tickets for concerts scheduled after August 15 are available to Ravinia donors as soon as June 18 and go on sale to the public on July 21, exclusively at Ravinia.org.
Teddy Abrams will make his first Ravinia appearance on August 7 leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in “Unboxing Bernstein: A Live Revue.” The widely acclaimed Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra, who recently collaborated with Jim James of My Morning Jacket on The Order of Nature, will lift open the music that made Leonard Bernstein a name-brand icon, from West Side Story to Candide and On the Town. Abrams’s recent guest conducting highlights include engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco, National, Houston, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee Symphonies. View concert.
Counting Crows returns to Ravinia on August 19. The band has enchanted Ravinia audiences with their intensely soulful and intricate take on timeless rock. Exploding onto the music scene in 1993 with their multi-platinum breakout album August and Everything After, the band has gone on to release seven studio albums, selling more than 20 million records worldwide, and is revered as one of the world’s most pre-eminent live touring rock bands. The band just released their newest record, Butter Miracle, featuring the hit single “Elevator Boots.” View concert.
Marie Osmond will make her Ravinia debut on August 25, sharing the Pavilion stage with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. Osmond has been entertaining millions throughout the world for decades and is a multiple gold- and platinum-selling artist and CMA winner with numerous Billboard chart-topping singles and albums. Music Is Medicine marks her latest studio release, encompassing a lifetime of experience. It reached the top 10 on both Billboard and iTunes Country charts. View concert.
David Archuleta will also make his Ravinia debut on August 25 as a special guest with Osmond. In 2008, more than 30 million television viewers fell in love with Archuleta’s angelic voice, making him runner-up in Season 7 of American Idol. His first single, “Crush,” debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, eventually going double platinum after selling more than 2 million digital copies worldwide. Today, the singer releases music under his own indie label, Archie Music, regularly selling out two domestic tours a year. View concert.
Lady A returns to the Ravinia stage on September 3. Since teaming up in 2006, the trio has sold more than 18 million records while earning nine #1 hits on the Country radio charts. They have won seven Grammy Awards (including both Record and Song of the Year honors for “Need You Now” in 2010), and they were first artists in the history of the CMA Awards to win Single of the Year in back-to-back years. View concert.
The Roots return and join the Ravinia lineup on September 4. The legendary Roots Crew has become one of the best-known and most respected hip-hop acts in the business, winning four Grammy Awards. The crew was named one of the greatest live bands around by Rolling Stone and serves as the official house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. View concert.
Ravinia favorite John Legend returns for two nights, September 5 and 6, on his Bigger Love tour. The multi-platinum artist has garnered 11 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and an Emmy Award, making Legend the first African American man with all four honors (EGOT). Legend has released six celebrated albums: Get Lifted (2004), Once Again (2006), Evolver (2008), Love in the Future (2013), Darkness and Light (2016), and A Legendary Christmas (2018). Concertgoers are sure to hear some of their favorite tracks this summer. View Sep. 5 concert. View Sep. 6 concert.
The War and Treaty makes its Ravinia debut opening for John Legend on September 5 and 6. Named 2019’s Emerging Act of the Year by Americana Music Association, the husband-and-wife team of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount-Trotter deliver a dynamic sound that joyfully blends Southern soul with elements of gospel, country, rock and roll, and blues. The Nashville-based duo recently debuted their sophomore album Hearts Town, which showcases their boundless energy and tremendous generosity as songwriters and performers. View Sep. 5 concert. View Sep. 6 concert.
Max Weinberg’s Jukebox comes to Ravinia for the first time on September 19, armed with an unlimited repertoire of classic songs to engage the audience in a truly interactive concert, creating the setlist in real time with his crack four-piece group playing the songs on demand. For 45 years, Weinberg has held the drum chair behind Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band, and while anchoring the house band for Late Night with Conan O’Brien for 17 years, he expanded his role as a band leader and resident music historian. Weinberg and his band have over 200 songs from the glory days of rock and roll at their command, everything from The Beatles to the Stones to Bruce and The E Street Band’s biggest hits. View concert.
Frank Orrall returns to Ravinia on September 23, making his first appearance as a solo artist and playing a DJ set to the North Lawn from the Carousel Stage. He’s been recording since the days of tape decks, collaborating with a wide array of musicians on the way to releasing eight full-length albums with his longtime band. Orrall is a multi-instrumentalist, poet, and composer with a host of side projects including the Mod dub rockers Thievery Corporation, Palm Fabric Orchestra, 8fatfat8, and Mourning Doves, which recently cut its first album. View concert.
Ms. Lauryn Hill makes a return to the festival on September 25. Hill established a reputation in the music world as the lone female member of The Fugees, whose record sales would make them the second biggest-selling R&B act worldwide since Michael Jackson. She launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The recording earned a record-breaking five Grammy Awards. View concert.
Additionally, openers have been added
to two dates on the 2021 season schedule.
Ruben Studdard makes his Ravinia debut opening for Brian McKnight on July 30. Studdard rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol, and he received a Grammy nomination in 2003 for “Superstar.” In the years following Idol, Studdard has released six studio albums—including his platinum-selling debut, Soulful, and the top-selling gospel follow-up I Need an Angel—and has scored hits with “Flying Without Wings,” “Sorry 2004,” and “Change Me.” His most recent release is Ruben Sings Luther, a tribute to Luther Vandross, which will be a feature of his performance. View concert.
Singer Allison Russell makes her Ravinia debut this summer opening for Lake Street Dive on August 26. She is the founding member of acclaimed music groups Birds of Chicago, Our Native Daughters, Capitol Sun Rays, and Po’Girl. Russell’s new album Outside Child is her first solo offering and tells her own story to reframe and reclaim her identity and its singular authority. View concert.