A summer celebration: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival
The CSO returns to Ravinia for its 88th residency
Jazz, classical, rock and musical theatre: Ravinia is an annual festival that celebrates music across the genres.
As Ravinia prepares to open its gates for the summer 2024 season, the festival’s diverse programme of over 100 events won’t disappoint the 400,000 music fans that flock to the site each year. Set in historic and idyllic grounds just north of Chicago, in Highland Park, Illinois, this is a summer celebration of live music like no other.
Ravinia, North America’s longest-running outdoor summer music festival, first opened its doors in 1904. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra became a regular guest soon after and has held its summer residency there since 1936.
In 2024 the CSO celebrates its 88th residency with another exciting and eclectic programme of music. Performances this year include cellist Abel Selaocoe and Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with Ravinia’s chief conductor Marin Alsop at the helm.
Let’s take a look at some of the events visitors can enjoy with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at this year’s festival.
Ravinia: a festival with history
Ravinia was developed at the turn of the century as a high-end amusement park with a music pavilion, dance hall, theatre and baseball stadium. The Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad wanted to take Chicagoans out of the smoky city into a woodland respite and Ravinia became the destination.
The festival has since become the most programmatically diverse live music event in North America. It takes place across several stages, including the 3,350-seat open air Pavilion, the 450-seat Bennett Gordon Hall and the 850-seat Martin Theatre, which dates back to Ravinia’s inaugural event in 1904.
Ravinia is a magnet to A-list musicians from across the genres. Its illustrious history includes performances from a broad range of stars, from Tony Bennett to Bob Dylan to John Williams to Luciano Pavarotti and many more.
Alongside the allure of big-name performers, Ravinia welcomes guests to support its mission of developing emerging artists and new audiences. Its education programmes include Reach Teach Play, an initiative providing music education to disadvantaged schools and communities. The Ravinia Steans Music Institute, meanwhile, is an artistic training programme for young professional jazz musicians, classical singers, and piano and string players.
CSO at Ravinia, 2024: the highlights
The CSO launches its 88th residency at Ravinia 2024 with chief conductor Marin Alsop leading an evening of all-American music.
The orchestra opens this year’s residency with a beloved classic, Appalachian Spring, followed by music from early jazz piano leader James P Johnson’s Charleston. Opera singer Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha is in the spotlight for Samuel Barber’s portrait of a small boy in the American south, Knoxville: Summer of 1915. The evening ends in celebration of the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
CSO highlights continue throughout the festival and include:
▪️ Hayato Sumino: Japanese pianist Sumino joins Marin Alsop for his Ravinia debut. He performs Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
▪️ Abel Selaocoe: the renowned South African composer/cellist performs his concerto Four Spirits, exploring themes of ancestral wisdom, faith and community; the performance is followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67.
▪️ Carolyn Kuan makes her Ravinia debut to lead this year’s 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular'. Kuan and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Act I from The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture with cannons.
▪️ 'Mancini at 100': the music of Henry Mancini, from the small screen to the stage and beyond. Performed by the CSO.
▪️ 'Breaking Barriers': the highlight of a series of events celebrating female leaders in music and space. Holst’s The Planets leads into award-winning composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg’s The Moons Symphony Suite. Performed by the CSO with accompanying visual sequences of the Solar System’s satellites.
Ravinia: a festival not to be missed
With a full programme of music taking place throughout the summer, there are events for all tastes and ages at Ravinia 2024.
Full details of the rich array of performances on offer from the CSO at Ravinia can be found here.