CSO onstage at Ravinia Festival

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Opening Night

This year marks the eighty-ninth anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residency at Ravinia Festival. Chief conductor Marin Alsop leads an eclectic and diverse opening-night program that begins with African American composer Carlos Simon’s “Amen,” a gospel-infused salute to four generations of the Simon family’s affiliation with the Pentecostal church. Chinese Canadian pianist and International Chopin Piano Competition winner Bruce Liu makes his CSO and Ravinia debut as soloist for Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” The evening concludes with Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” a tour de force showpiece for the virtuosity of the CSO.
7:30pm July 11, Pavilion

Marin Alsop with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival

Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Mahler “Resurrection” Symphony No. 2

Continuing her multi-season Mahler cycle, Marin Alsop turns to Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2, the “Resurrection,” a work long associated with Alsop and also with Ravinia. Soprano Janai Brugger and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke are the vocal soloists and new CSO chorus director Donald Palumbo—only the third chorus director in the sixty-seven-year history of the CSO Chorus—makes his debut in that role as well as his Ravinia debut.

Donald Palumbo/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Palumbo first prepared the CSO Chorus at the special invitation of Riccardo Muti in 2022 for his downtown CSO performances of Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera.” Palumbo commuted from New York’s Metropolitan Opera as he was nearing the conclusion of a magical seventeen-year tenure there following sixteen spectacular years at Lyric Opera. It is an immense coup for Chicago to have him return. The mind boggles at what Palumbo will do with the choral finale of the Mahler Second.
7:30pm July 18, Pavilion

Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson

Breaking Barriers Festival: “Winds and Strings Tapas” 

Ravinia Festival chief conductor Marin Alsop and Food Network star and Juilliard-trained percussionist Molly Yeh co-curate this season’s Breaking Barriers Festival weekend, “Women in Food and Music,” celebrating women in culinary and music arts. The Saturday matinee event, “Winds & Strings Tapas” features French and pan-American pieces performed by musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guests. Audience members have the opportunity to build a box of tapas in the lobby of Bennett-Gordon Hall to bring into the concert, where each chef will introduce their culinary creation before the musical piece from which each drew inspiration. Music of Copland, Debussy, Bernstein, Victoria Bond and Astor Piazzolla will be performed. A particular highlight is CSO principal flute extraordinaire Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson performing Debussy’s solo flute piece “Syrinx” before departing Chicago for the Berlin Philharmonic during the 2025-26 season.
1:30pm July 26, Bennett-Gordon Hall

Ana María Martinez/Photo: Ashkan Roayaee

Ana María Martinez

Although the celebrated Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican soprano Ana María Martinez hasn’t performed in Chicago since her memorable portrayal of the title role in the Lyric’s “Florencia en al Amazonas” in late 2021, for many years she was a constant presence at Lyric as both performer and cultural ambassador. An intimate Martinez recital is a rarity, but voice lovers will have that experience when  she appears with pianist and artistic director of the Steans Institute Singers Program Kevin Murphy as accompanist in what is being described as an evening of classical song. Martinez’s recital repertoire has grown more personal, traversing her Cuban and Puerto Rican musical roots, her love of musical theater, her Juilliard training and her rise to the great opera houses and concert halls of the world, complete with stories and anecdotes.
7:30pm July 30, Martin Theatre

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience 

A touring roadshow collaboration between actor Morgan Freeman, blues artists from his Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi and a symphony orchestra—in this case, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—“Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience” seeks to cross the raw emotion of Mississippi Delta Blues with the grandeur of symphonic music. Freeman was born in Memphis but grew up in Clarksdale as a lover of Delta blues. When it became a rarity even there, Freeman opened his own club to preserve Delta blues in its original form. The evening incorporates performances of artists from the club along with orchestral arrangements played by the CSO and conducted by Martin Gellner, with Freeman himself hosting along with narrated history of the Delta blues.
7:30pm August 1, Pavilion

Nicole Cabell

Haymarket Opera Company, Handel’s “Alcina” 

From 1919-1931, opera was the mainstay of Ravinia, known during those years as Ravinia Opera. European opera stars would sail to America to perform at the Metropolitan Opera and would make a summer stop to perform at Ravinia. The festival’s only opera this season is Handel’s “Alcina,” presented by Haymarket Opera Company in its much-anticipated Ravinia debut. Soprano Nicole Cabell stars as the sorceress Alcina, who lures lovers to an enchanted island where she turns them into beasts or objects. Mezzo-soprano Emily Fons, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong, soprano Erica Schuller, tenor Eric Ferring and bass-baritone David Govertsen round out the all-star cast. Haymarket founder Craig Trompeter conducts Haymarket’s period-instrument ensemble which includes the return of virtuoso harpsichordist Jory Vinikour. Haymarket general director Chase Hopkins serves as stage director of this semi-staged production.
1pm August 24, Martin Theatre