“The beautiful thing about songs, as opposed to movies and books, is that they’re not filed based on what’s true and what’s not,” says Jason Isbell, arguably America’s best living troubadour. “First of all, everything is based on a true story, or else we wouldn’t even have a language for telling stories.” And with that simple declaration, it’s obvious: Here’s an artist who’s done serious internal work—a lot of deep thinking and intense feeling—and then emerged from that process with some profound insights. Not convinced? Isbell elaborated on his perspective two months ago in a conversation wit ..read more

For its latest appearance at Ravinia, Joffrey is presenting two programs on the Pavilion stage—an evening performance September 13 with live music and, reprising a tradition from the past, a morning presentation September 14 as part of the festival’s Kids Concert Series.  Joffrey’s first Ravinia visit took place in 1972, long before it was based in Chicago, and at that time it became something of a perennial presence, appearing in weeklong residencies each year through 1979. But subsequent returns were more sporadic: a series of multidate stands occupied the calendars of 1997 through 2000 ..read more

It’s no slight understatement to observe that the whole of Illinois left no stone—or stovepipe hat—unturned to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of the 16th President of the United States. Naturally, a great many Illinoisan academics and leaders came together under the interdisciplinary Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, including Ravinia’s team. Then president and CEO of the festival, Welz Kauffman brought a clear vision: “Lincoln is a figure of change. To celebrate Lincoln in a year that brought America its first Black president is more than serendipity; it’s reinforceme ..read more

Vocalists at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute get intensive coaching in their repertoire every summer. But in recent years, some audiences are getting a chance to learn extra background too. The Steans Institute will present three “curated” concerts this summer, on which the resident vocalists perform groups of songs that share some kind of theme while a faculty member explains the connections ..read more

To Jeannette Sorrell—groundbreaking artistic director, conductor, and harpsichordist of the esteemed baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire—“Vivaldi was a master of storytelling.” The group returns to where it began its now decade-spanning relationship with Ravinia on August 15, bringing a new edition of their internationally acclaimed program Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Rediscovered to the summery center of its second home in Chicago.  ..read more

Most conductors follow the classic symphonic and operatic repertory, some focus on a specialty like choral music or orchestral pops. But Anthony Parnther is a kind of conducting Renaissance man, who has cut a wide swath across the musical landscape, from helming the San Bernadino Symphony Orchestra to working with vocal sensations like Rihanna, Common, and Jon Batiste to leading myriad film soundtracks. “Disney in the morning, Dvořák in the evening,” the busy conductor said breezily ..read more

Vocalists at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute get intensive coaching in their repertoire every summer. But in recent years, some audiences are getting a chance to learn extra background too. The Steans Institute will present three “curated” concerts this summer, on which the resident vocalists perform groups of songs that share some kind of theme while a faculty member explains the connections ..read more

A pair. A duo. A twosome. That’s how everybody thinks about Emily Saliers and Amy Ray: They just naturally go together. Indeed, it points out the obvious to note they’ve notched nearly four decades of success as singer-songwriters, thanks to their incredible collaborative chemistry. Not for nothing, one of their most memorable songs is “Power of Two” (even if those lyrics are about a romantic rather than an artistic union). But here’s the thing about the Indigo Girls—their ineffable alchemy cannot be easily explained. As two individuals who craft magic together, they exemplify the arithmetic-d ..read more

Gustavo Dudamel, 43, has gone on to become a conducting superstar with crossover into movies and pop music and has led the Los Angeles Philharmonic—already respected under previous music director Esa Pekka-Salonen—to greater heights. “The ascendancy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the salient event in American orchestral life of the past 25 years,” wrote Alex Ross, the influential music critic for the New Yorker, in 2017. In February 2023, in what was seen a huge coup for the orchestra, the New York Philharmonic appointed him as its next music director, a position that—notably—Bernstein hel ..read more

Now there’s a new work of genius to elevate into this class: The Moons Symphony, composed by Amanda Lee Falkenberg. Yes, that’s Moons, plural. We earthlings have just one that typically captures our attention; unsurprisingly, that’s what initially fascinated Falkenberg. La Luna proved to be her “gateway drug” into a dazzlingly ambitious project mingling astronomy with music ..read more