Ravinia Festival

The Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States,[3] with a series of outdoor concerts and performances held every summer from June to September. In Ravinia Park's first summer of 1905, it hosted the New York Philharmonic, and the prairie style Martin Theater dates from this time period. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) since 1936.[4] Located in Highland Park, Illinois, the festival operates on the grounds of the 36-acre (15 ha) Ravinia Park, with a variety of outdoor and indoor performing arts facilities.

Ravinia Festival
One of the entrances to Ravinia Park
GenreClassical, jazz and popular music
DatesSummer
Location(s)Highland Park, Illinois
Coordinates42°9′29″N 87°46′37″W[1]
Years active1904–1931, 1936–2019, 2021–present
Founded byChicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad
Websitewww.ravinia.org

The Ravinia neighborhood, once an incorporated village before annexation in 1899, is known as Ravinia, and retained its own post office until autumn 2010. The business district on Roger Williams Ave., within walking distance from the Ravinia Festival grounds, includes neighborhood service businesses and restaurants.[5] Ravinia takes its name from the ravines found nearby along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Performance and other venues
The Martin Theatre
  • The Pavilion, a 3,400-seat venue where the park's major music events and concerts, including Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances, are held.
  • The Martin Theatre, an 850-seat indoor hall often used for chamber music, semi-staged opera performances, Martinis at the Martin cabaret series, and other shows.
  • Bennett Gordon Hall, the 450-seat home of Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, the $10 BGH Classics Series, and also used for pre-concert discussions and preview concerts. Ravinia's Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's pre-professional summer conservatory program. Three programs comprise the Institute's summer season: the program for jazz; the program for piano and strings, and the program for singers.

Overview

In 1904, the A.C. Frost Company created Ravinia as an amusement park intended to lure riders to the fledgling Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad. The amusement park had a baseball diamond, electric fountain and refectory or casino building with dining rooms and a dance floor. The prairie-style Martin Theatre (then called Ravinia Theatre) is the only building on the grounds that dates back to that original construction. When the park's existence became jeopardized following the railroad's bankruptcy, local residents (for the most part Chicago businessmen) formed a corporation in 1911 to purchase and operate the park. Music was a confirmed summer activity from then on, except for a brief hiatus during the Depression and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the festival announced that it had cancelled all concerts for the 2020 season.[6][7]

Ravinia Festival 2006

Over 100 years later, Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in North America. The festival attracts about 600,000 listeners to some 120 to 150 events that span all genres from classical music to jazz to music theater over each three-month summer season. Over the years, the festival has hosted many famous artists. In addition to symphony concerts, often with guest soloists, the festival presents opera, jazz, blues, folk, rock, and popular music performances, plus ballet, drama, and educational programs which take place year-round.

Recent artists who have performed at Ravinia include John Legend, Aretha Franklin, Bryan Ferry, Diana Ross, Maroon 5, Common, Carrie Underwood, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Josh Groban, Dolly Parton, Sheryl Crow, Patti LaBelle, Andrew Bird, Darius Rucker, Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight, James Taylor, Santana, Stevie Nicks, Patti LuPone, Smokey Robinson, and John Mellencamp among others.[8]

Grounds
Ravinia Park station

For most attendees, Ravinia is experienced on the 36 acre (150,000 m²) parkland and lawn. Ravinia is one of the few concert venues in the country to allow full meals to be brought in and consumed at concerts, even allowing alcoholic beverages. Accordingly, most grocery stores and specialty restaurants in and around the Highland Park area offer ready-to-eat "Ravinia picnics" for purchase.

The park is served by the Metra commuter railroad station Ravinia Park outside the front gate with special stops before and after concerts. (The noted British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, who guest-conducted the CSO there in 1940, referred to Ravinia as "the only railway station with a resident orchestra."[9]) Visitors get dropped off and picked up right at the front gate. Attendance often tops 600,000 annually.

Artistic leadership

James Levine was named "Conductor Laureate" in April 2017, to begin performances in summer 2018.[12] On December 4, 2017, the Ravinia Festival severed all ties with Levine, in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against him, dating back to decades earlier at the Ravinia Festival.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Ravinia Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. "Ravinia Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  3. "Ravinia - History" (Press release). Ravinia Festival. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  4. CSO Sounds & Stories » CSO at Ravinia
  5. Business District - Ravinia
  6. "Ravinia". Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. 1936-07-03. Retrieved 2014-03-29.
  7. "Ravinia Cancels 2020 Season Due to Covid Pandemic". Ravinia Festival. May 1, 2020. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  8. https://patch.com/illinois/highlandpark/2017-ravinia-schedule-announced
  9. Oestreich, James (May 6, 2001). "Ravinia Festival: Where the Trains Have a Voice in the Concerts". New York Times. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  10. James Conlon moves beyond Ravinia for new beginning - Chicago Tribune
  11. Ravinia Festival Names Jeffrey P. Haydon President and CEO - Ravinia Festival
  12. Rhein, John von (April 11, 2017). "Ravinia creates conductor laureate title for James Levine". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  13. "Ravinia Festival cuts all ties with former music director James Levine over sexual misconduct allegations," Chicago Tribune.

[1]

  1. "Ravinia Festival Names Jeffrey P. Haydon President and CEO" (PDF). Ravinia Festival. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
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