The Chicago Tribune has named Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman its Chicagoan of the Year for Classical Music for leading the way in celebrating the centennial of Leonard Bernstein. In the article, Chicago Tribune Music Critic Howard Reich said, “For anyone who values Leonard Bernstein’s towering musical achievements, Ravinia Festival was ground zero this summer. … No one did more to make all of this come together than Kauffman, whose efforts with guest curator-conductor Marin Alsop and the rest of the Ravinia staff gave listeners a new understanding of the breadth and depth of Bernstein’s art.”
In a separate end-of-year story, Reich also selected two Ravinia premiere presentations, Bernstein’s Mass and Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard, among the 10 best concerts of the year. Responding to critical and popular acclaim, Kauffman has programmed an encore presentation of the massive Mass—with 200 artists on stage, ranging from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Chicago Children’s Choir and even the Highland Park High School Marching Band, under the baton of Bernstein’s final (and only female) protégé, Marin Alsop—for the upcoming 2019 season.
Tribune Names Ravinia CEO Welz Kauffman 2018 Chicagoan of the Year for Classical Music
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