Ravinia Festival

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The Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor - music festival in the United States , which held annually from June to September, a series of concerts of various genres of music under the stars. The performances range from classical music to rock and pop. The history of the festival in Ravinia Park and the contemporary prairie style Martin Theater began in the summer of 1905 with a concert by the New York Philharmonic . The Martin Theater has also been the summer venue of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Highland Park (Illinois) since 1936 on the grounds of the 150,000 m² Ravinia Park with a variety of possibilities for artistic performances either in pavilions or in the open air.

Restaurants and shops are in Ravinia, an independent parish until 1899 and then incorporated into Highland Park , from which the park takes its name, within a short walk via Roger Williams Avenue. Ravinia, in turn, is named after the Ravines , the English word for the German Tobel , which can be found near the coast of Lake Michigan ,

One of the entrances to the Ravinia Festival site

Venues

  • The pavilion is a 3,400-seated semicircle with an open-air stage as the main venue for classical as well as pop and rock concerts, which is also used intensively by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the festival . Guests on this site can watch the events in the traditional seating arrangement of an open-air theater with the most modern sound system, video and lighting technology or on the lawn during a picnic.
  • The Martin Theater is a hall with 850 seats, in which chamber music comes into its own and is also used for smaller opera performances, cabaret and variety shows.
  • The Bennett Gordon Hall with 450 seats, in which the Ravinias Steans Music Institute is based and where, in addition to smaller events, well-known artists from all musical genres, such as jazz and classical music, answer questions from the audience before and after the corresponding concerts and the students can ask and discuss with them.

history

Ravinia Festival 2006

Ravinia was located on the electrically operated intercity tram line built by the AC Frost Company in 1890 between northern Chicago and the southern districts of Milwaukee . To increase the attractiveness of the line, the consortium acquired land there in 1904 to build an amusement park with a baseball field, electrically operated fountains, dining restaurants and dance halls. The prairie-style Martin Theater (now the Ravinia Theater) is the building that still survives from this period. When the consortium slipped into financial crisis in 1911, a community of Chicago businessmen came together who not only took charge of the tram and the summer program in the park, but also provided artistic activities with minor cuts during the Great Depression even expanded.

After more than 100 years, the Ravinia Festival is the oldest open-air music spectacle in North America, and there are only a few well-known artists who have not yet given their calling cards there during the years of the festival's existence. More than 600,000 spectators are counted for 120 to 150 performances during the three-month annual festival weeks. The programs range from classical music to jazz to musical theater performances. At the festival, u. a. Marian Anderson , Louis Armstrong , the Association , Joan Baez , Anita Baker , The Ballet Russe , Burt Bacharach , the Beach Boys , Jeff Beck , Tony Bennett , George Benson , Luciano Berio , Leonard Bernstein , Victor Borge , Lucrezia Bori , Eric Burdon , Dave Brubeck , Sandip Burman , Montserrat Caballé , Glen Campbell , Pablo Casals , Chicago , Van Cliburn , Rosemary Clooney , Joe Cocker , Natalie Cole , Judy Collins , Harry Connick Jr. , Barbara Cook , Aaron Copland , Chick Corea , Bill Cosby , Elvis Costello , Sheryl Crow , Miles Davis , Deep Purple , Plácido Domingo , Doobie Brothers , Duran Duran , Jackie Evancho , Horacio Gutiérrez , Crosby, Stills and Nash , Dorothy Dandridge , Jack DeJohnette , Fats Domino , Duran Duran, Bob Dylan , Duke Ellington , Arthur Fiedler , Roberta Flack , Ella Fitzgerald , Renée Fleming , Aretha Franklin , Lady Gaga , George Gershwin , Dizzy Gillespie , Benny Goodman , José Greco , Josh Groban , Buddy Guy , Hall & Oates , Marvin Hamlisch , Herbie Ha ncock , Isaac Hayes , Jascha Heifetz , Don Henley , Lauryn Hill , John Houseman , Jennifer Hudson , Janis Joplin , the Judds , Kiri Te Kanawa , The Kingston Trio , Gladys Knight , Diana Krall , Chaka Khan , BB King , Patti LaBelle , Peggy Lee , Jerry Lee Lewis , Ramsey Lewis , Lyle Lovett , Patti LuPone , Lynyrd Skynyrd , Yo-Yo Ma , Seth MacFarlane , Maroon 5 , Chuck Mangione , Herbie Mann , Wynton Marsalis , Audra McDonald , Sarah McLachlan , Melanie , Yehudi Menuhin , Idina Menzel , Pat Metheny , The Mills Brothers , Joni Mitchell , Moody Blues , Willie Nelson , Aaron Neville , Dolly Parton , Mandy Patinkin , Luciano Pavarotti , Itzhak Perlman , Peter, Paul and Mary , Robert Plant , Bernadette Peters , Oscar Peterson , Billy Preston , Leontyne Price , Procol Harum , Bonnie Raitt , Leon Redbone , Kenny Rogers , Diana Ross , David Sanborn , Carlos Santana , Ravi Shankar , Diane Schuur , Beverly Sills , Paul Simon , Sly & the Family Stone , Stephen Sondheim , Steely Dan , Isaac Star , Sting , Elaine Stritch , Donna Summer , James Taylor , Train , Ike & Tina Turner , Carrie Underwood , Frankie Valli , Sarah Vaughan , War , Rufus Wainwright , Clara Ward , Dionne Warwick , Orson Welles , John Williams , Tianwa Yang , Frank Zappa and Denis Leonidowitsch Mazujew .

The symphony concerts of the orchestras at the festival are usually reinforced with soloists from all over the world. There are also opera , jazz , blues , folk and rock performances , as well as ballet performances and dramas that are part of the festival weeks .

terrain

The 150,000 m² festival area, designed as a park landscape with large lawns, gives visitors the opportunity to organize their concert visits individually. The unusual seating arrangement in the stands leaves space to relax and watch the performances while eating and drinking. Nevertheless, families in particular prefer to make themselves comfortable on the lawns with all sorts of picnic utensils and consume their own prepared meals. Ravinia is one of the few venues of this type in the United States that allows you to bring your own food and alcohol. Accordingly, grocery stores and restaurants in and around the Highland Park area have specialized in ready-to-eat “Ravinia picnics” for sale.

In terms of transport, the park is connected to the Chicago public transport network with a train station, the Ravinia Park station , near the main entrance to the park, operated by METRA .

Artistic director

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://csosoundsandstories.org/category/cso-at-ravinia/
  2. ↑ http://www.ravinianeighbors.org/business.html
  3. ^ Ravinia's Steans Music Institute (RSMI). Retrieved January 5, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Ravinia. Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org, July 3, 1936, accessed March 29, 2014 .
  5. ↑ James Oestreich: Ravinia Festival: Where the Trains Have a Voice in the Concerts. In: The NY Times. Retrieved July 14, 2016 .
  6. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/vonrhein/ct-james-conlon-ravinia-festival-chicago-symphony-20150721-column.html