Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States,[1] with a series of outdoor concerts and performances held every summer from June to September. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1936. Located in Highland Park, IL, the festival operates on the grounds of Ravinia Park, with a variety of outdoor and indoor performing arts facilities.
The park takes its name from the ravines found nearby along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.
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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 boasted 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.
Over 100 years later, Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in North America and is lauded for presenting world-class music. 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 such luminaries as Louis Armstrong, The Ballet Russe, The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, Lucrezia Bori, Dave Brubeck, Montserrat Caballé, Pablo Casals, Van Cliburn, Joe Cocker, Aaron Copland, Chicago (band), Deep Purple, Doobie Brothers, Jackie Evancho, Horacio Gutierrez, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Dorothy Dandridge, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin, JosZÿ Greco, Herbie Hancock, Jascha Heifetz, John Houseman, Janis Joplin, Chaka Khan, Yo-Yo Ma, Maroon 5, Moody Blues, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Peter, Paul & Mary, Robert Plant, Oscar Peterson, Sandip Burman, Stephen Sondheim, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Isaac Stern, Sting, Donna Summer, Carrie Underwood, Sarah Vaughan, Orson Welles, Frank Zappa and Denis Matsuev.
The Festival includes symphony concerts, often with guest soloists, as well as opera, jazz, blues, folk, and rock performances, plus ballet, drama, and educational programs which take place year-round.
For most attendees Ravinia is experienced on the 36 acre (150,000 m²) parkland and lawn. The unique setting allows for open seating and picnicking, where families and attendees can choose to use as much (or little) space as they need, with a powerful sound system broadcasting the live performance throughout the park. Most attendees choose to bring complete picnics and dinners to shows, with various lawn chairs, coolers full of food, blankets, candles, and lawn accessories in tow. 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 and bottles of wine. Accordingly, most grocery stores and specialty restaurants in and around the Highland Park area offer ready-to-eat "Ravinia picnics" for purchase.
Once at the park, visitors can eat, listen to music and visit the Ravinia Gift Shop.
The park is served by the Metra commuter railroad with special stops before and after concerts. Visitors get dropped off and picked up right at the front gate. Attendance often tops 600,000 annually.
Ravinia’s education and community partnership programs connect music to thousands of families around Chicago through multi-tiered initiatives including teaming working musicians with teachers to integrate music into the public schools, running a community music conservatory in Lawndale, the Opportunity Lawn Pass Program and the One Score, One Chicago program. The Music Performance initiative allows professional musicians to work as mentors within the classroom, focusing on specific instruments to demonstrate standards for playing classical and jazz music. These role models strive to develop students’ self-esteem and increase their access to the cultural riches of the music world. This program is currently offered in 10 Chicago Public High Schools. The Music Discovery program targets children in kindergarten through third grade. This arts-integrated program sends accomplished teaching artists into classrooms for a 15-week period during which they introduce students to the magic of music, again complementing classroom curriculum. At the end of the school year, children from the Music Illumination and Music Discovery programs are brought to Ravinia to perform for each other and picnic together during “Ravinia Days.”
While reaching out through the schools, Ravinia is also active in Chicago’s under-served communities, particularly Lawndale, a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. The Ravinia Festival Lawndale Partnership helps community leaders and residents reinvest in the cultural health of their community through town meetings, conservatory classes and concerts. Currently in its 10th year partnership, the Ravinia Lawndale Community Music Conservatory currently offers free private lessons to more than 150 students in piano, violin, classical guitar and voice.
Stressing the importance of access, Ravinia’s Opportunity Lawn Pass Program is offered to organizations all across Chicago that serve those in need. Last year nearly 4,500 people attended jazz, pop, classical and kids concerts with free lawn passes provided through this program. In 2007 the Classical Invitations program allowed over 1,000 music students to attend classical concerts. Additionally, last year Ravinia donated over 50,000 lawn tickets to Chicago area libraries through the Words & Music Program with the Chicago Public Library,[2] which in turn distributed them free to their patrons. One of the most widespread community projects is Four Score, For Chicago, (Originally One Score, One Chicago.) Every year four different musical masterpieces are selected for this project designed to initiate a community-wide discussion among music aficionados and neophytes alike. Concerts are performed at Ravinia, lectures are given at public libraries, and related programs are performed in the public schools. Ravinia also creates and distributes a resource guide that further illuminates the topic.
The neighborhood, once an incorporated village before annexation, is variously known as Ravinia or Ravinia Park, 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.