Happy International Women's Day 2013

On this International Women’s Day, we would like to highlight our celebrated Ravinia Women’s Board. Made up of over 130 of Chicago’s most prominent women, the Women’s Board membership includes a diverse range of working women and philanthropic greats.

After just completing their milestone 50^th year, the Women’s Board continues to host some of Chicago’s most elite events that support the Ravinia Festival on a whole new level. This year’s annual Women’s Board Gala on Saturday, July 27 will bring renowned pianist Lang Lang back to the stage that made him famous!

Beyond fundraising events, the Women’s Board created and helps administer Ravinia’s education program, Reach*Teach*Play. Reach*Teach*Play follows the "El Sistema model" of returning music back to budget-strapped schools, and serves over 75,000 people in the Chicagoland Area, ensuring that great music remains accessible to all.

Happy International Women’s Day!

RSMI Alumni Grace Kelly Wins Prestigious Award

Ravinia Steans Music Institute alumni Grace Kelly, who was in our jazz program in 2007, has won a 2013 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Established by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers under the age of 30, the program now carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Found's multi-year financial commitment to support this unique program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 10 to 30, and are selected through a juried national competition. Congratulations on this award Grace! This talented young woman is going places. You can follow her on Twitter at @GraceKellyJazz.

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.”