Ravinia Festival Association, Highland Park, IL
Ravinia Festival is the oldest music festival in North America, located in Highland Park, IL, 23 miles north of Chicago. The festival is lauded for presenting world-class music in an inviting, natural, outdoor environment. Ravinia attracts over 600,000 listeners to some 120 to 150 events that span all genres including the summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, classical, chamber music, jazz, rock, world, R&B, music theater, dance and kids programming every summer from June to September. Events are hosted in an open-air pavilion that seats 3,400 plus lawn; the 450-seat Bennett Gordon Hall; and the 850-seat Arts-and-Crafts-style Martin Theatre, the only building that survives from the park’s original 1904 construction.
Ravinia also enables gifted young artists to study under great teachers and perform in concert settings through the world-renowned Steans Music Institute, Ravinia's summer conservatory. Through its three programs—jazz, piano and strings, and singers—young artists attend master classes given by musical luminaries, have daily coaching with the institute's faculty, and present recitals offered as part of Ravinia Festival's summer programming.
The not-for-profit organization also connects music to thousands of families around Chicago through multi-tiered REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs comprising in-school training of teachers and students, including the RISE Orchestra, an after-school student orchestra at William G. Hibbard Elementary School; a community conservatory in Lawndale; and the Chicago-wide music appreciation program One Score, One Chicago. Through REACH*TEACH*PLAY, Ravinia serves more than 75,000 people throughout the region. For more information please visit www.ravinia.org. Ravinia welcomes all festival fans to follow, connect and interact online at backstage.ravinia.org, facebook.com (search Ravinia Festival) and twitter.com/raviniafestival.
