Ravinia Festival's highly anticipated 2024 summer concert schedule was announced Thursday, with big names on the lineup including The Beach Boys, Norah Jones, James Taylor and Robert Plant & Alison Krause.
“With an extraordinary range of concerts and artists, we are excited to offer an inspiring and captivating season for everyone who comes to Ravinia,” Ravinia’s President and CEO Jeffrey P. Haydon said in a release. “Whether in Bennett Gordon Hall, Martin Theatre, Pavilion, Lawn, or Carousel, concertgoers will surely experience the spirit of summer with incredible music under the stars."
According to organizers, tickets for all 2024 events are set to go on sale to the general public April 24, with member pre-sales beginning March 19. Ravinia guests are permitted to bring their own picnics into the grounds, including food and liquor.
In 2023, Ravinia Festival saw performances from John Legend, Jethro Tull, Santana and Ms. Lauryn Hill.
Here's a look at the full 2024 schedule:
JAZZ, BLUES, FOLK, GOSPEL, and AMERICAN SONGBOOK
● Jazz in June: Battle of the Big Bands featuring Adonis Rose & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra* and Orrin Evans & the Captain Black Big Band, with special guests Kurt Elling and Rufus Reid, plus Ravinia Steans Music Institute Jazz Fellows. The student and professional musicians of the Ravinia Jazz Mentor Program, one of the Reach Teach Play programs, open the night on the Carousel Stage. – June 16 ● Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Big Boi and Danielle Ponder* – June 19
● Because of You starring Michael Feinstein and the Carnegie Hall Big Band in A Tribute to the Legendary Tony Bennett– June 23
● Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper* – June 27; Carousel Stage 7
● Norah Jones and very special guest Mavis Staples – July 14
● Victor Wooten & the Wooten Brothers – August 7; Carousel Stage
● Samara Joy* – August 25
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GLOBAL MUSIC and LATIN
● Little Feat and Los Lobos on the Can’t Be Satisfied Tour – June 22
● The Reset: An Immersive Sound Experience with Davin Youngs* – July 11; Carousel Stage
● Gipsy Kings featuring Nicolas Reyes and Choco Orta with Caribe Project, July 31
● Conductor Gustavo Dudamel leads the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela in two works by South American composers –Alberto Ginastera’s Dances from Estancia and Antonio Estévez’s Mediodía en el llano (Midday on the Plain)-- among other pieces on the program. – August 6
● Eighth annual Fiesta Ravinia, with Julieta Venegas* and La Santa Cecilia* featured for the main-stage performance of the day – September 15
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POP, ROCK, R&B, INDIE, HIP-HOP, COUNTRY, and DJs
● The Flock featuring Jerry Goodman* – June 7; Carousel Stage
● James Taylor & His All-Star Band – June 8 and 9
● Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and JD McPherson* on the Can’t Let Go Tour – June 12
● Hauser* on his Rebel with a Cello tour – June 14
● Michael Franti & Spearhead, Trevor Hall, and Bombargo on The Togetherness Tour – June 15
● Violent Femmes* play their debut album in its entirety with Chicago Philharmonic and conductor Stuart Chafetz* – June 21
● Ben Platt* – June 28
● Roger Daltrey and KT Tunstall* – June 29
● Lyle Lovett & His Large Band and Clint Black – June 30
● The Music of ABBA with Arrival From Sweden – July 5
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● Daryl Hall and Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton – July 6
● The Beach Boys with special guest John Stamos – July 7
● Norah Jones with very special guest Mavis Staples – July 14
● Killer Queen: Tribute to Queen featuring Patrick Myers* as Freddie Mercury – July 27
● Angélique Kidjo and Meshell Ndegeocello* – August 8
● Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge – August 11
● Robert Glasper* and J. Ivy* – August 14
● Gaelic Storm* and The High Kings* – August 22
● O.A.R., Fitz & the Tantrums, and DJ Logic* – August 23
● The Roots, Digable Planets, and Arrested Development – August 24
● ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd on The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour – August 29
● Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and Alejandro Escovedo – September 8
● Crowded House* – September 11
● Queen! featuring resident DJs Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, and Garrett David, hosts Lucy Stoole and Nico, and special guests – September 14; Carousel Stag
FALL PERFORMANCES
● Shelly Berg Trio* – October 26; Bennett Gordon Hall
● Alexander Hersh^, cello, Victor Santiago Asunción, piano, present Beyond Borders, with works by Debussy, Wiancko, Britten, Schumann, Say, and Sollima. – November 2; Bennett Gordon Hall
● PROJECT Trio* – November 9; Bennett Gordon Hall
● Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor, and Karina Kontorovitch, piano, present Letters to Jackie, a newly conceived song cycle based on the letters sent to Jacqueline Kennedy by the American people following the assassination of her husband, the 15 settings in Letters to Jackie represent the collective grief of a nation and the power of community and healing in a time of great tragedy. – November 16; Bennett Gordon Hall
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
● July 12 – The CSO opens its 88th summer season at Ravinia with Alsop and two featured
soloists, soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha* and pianist Michelle Cann.* In an
evening of American music, the orchestra opens with Aaron Copland’s beloved classic
Appalachian Spring followed by James P. Johnson’s Charleston, highlighting this early jazz
piano leader’s influence and the iconic dance of the same name. Rangwanasha is in the
spotlight for Samuel Barber’s evocative portrait of a small boy in the American South,
Knoxville: Summer of 1915. The program wraps with a celebration of the 100th anniversary
of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with Cann at the keyboard making her CSO debut.
● July 13 – South African cellist-composer Abel Selaocoe* joins Alsop and debuts with the
CSO performing his Four Spirits, which “takes the concerto format to thrillingly
unprecedented places” (Bachtrack). Themes of ancestral wisdom, faith, and community
permeate the program, as the piece is put in perspective alongside Ludwig van Beethoven’s
monumental Fifth Symphony and its distinct explorations of fate.
● July 19 – Conductor Ted Sperling joins the CSO with special guest vocalists to celebrate
two iconic pop songwriters, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.
● July 20 – Alsop and the CSO take the stage for Gustav Mahler’s final major work for
orchestra, Symphony No. 9. Voted as the greatest symphony of all-time in BBC Music
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Magazine, the evening-long work has beguiled audiences since its 1912 premiere by Bruno
Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic.
● July 21 – Winner of the gold medal at the International Chopin Competition and recipient
of many esteemed prizes, Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino* reunites with Alsop and
makes his Ravinia and CSO debuts performing Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In
the second half of the program, Alsop explores symphonic storytelling during the turn of the
19th century, leading the CSO in Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan and Maurice Ravel’s
choreographic symphony Daphnis et Chloé (Suite No. 2).
● July 25 – Mendelssohn's hit violin concerto, played by Augustin Hadelich^, is in the
spotlight as Alsop leads the CSO. Also featured on the program are Bernstein’s joyous
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Stravinsky's timeless Firebird Suite.
Conductor Alena Hron, the 2024–26 Taki Alsop Fellow, guests on the podium to lead Geroge Walker’s Icarus in Orbit. ● July 26 – The centerpiece of Breaking Barriers 2024 is a space-themed concert complete with visuals and introductions by NASA specialists. Alsop conducts the orchestra in Holst’s The Planets, followed by a suite from Falkenberg’s The Moons Symphony. Audiences will see science come alive and hear from planetary scientists, including Astronaut Nicole Stott together with the composer, as they discuss how Falkenberg’s symphony offers new perspectives for humanity to contemplate our home in the cosmos. ● July 28 – Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship alum Carolyn Kuan leads this year’s
Tchaikovsky Spectacular, complete with Ravinia’s signature cannons in the 1812 Overture.
Making her CSO debut, she opens the program with the complete music from the first act of
The Nutcracker. Desirée Ruhstrat also makes her CSO debut as the soloist for the
cherished Violin Concerto.
● August 2 – Conductor Valentina Peleggi, another TACF alum, returns to Ravinia and the
CSO, following a guest appearance during last summer’s Breaking Barriers Festival, to join
with esteemed pianist Jorge Federico Osorio on Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.
Peleggi will also lead Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini and Respighi’s Pines of Rome.
● August 4 – Music director, conductor, and arranger Kevin Stites explores the music of
legendary performer and film composer Henry Mancini for the annual Gala Benefit Evening.
Curated and hosted by actor Rob Lindley, “Mancini at 100: The Music of Henry Mancini,
from the big screen, to the small screen, to the stage and beyond” features Broadway
vocalists Jessie Mueller* (Waitress, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Norm Lewis*
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(The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables), and Karen Mason* (Sunset Boulevard), with
all three making their Ravinia and CSO debuts.
● August 9 & 11 – The CSO delves into operatic repertory as a semi-staging of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart’s Idomeneo is conducted by Los Angeles Opera (and former Ravinia) Music
Director James Conlon in the Martin Theatre. The work, set in Crete in 1200 BCE and
telling a story from the Trojan War, shines light on a talented group of singers. Starring are
tenor Matthew Polenzani as Greek king Idomeneo, soprano Andrea Carroll* as
princess Ilia, and soprano Alexandria Shiner* as princess Elettra.
● August 10 – Conlon will lead an all-Mozart program with the CSO in the festival’s Pavilion
between the opera performances. The program will feature both of the composer’s G-minor
symphonies—the “little” No. 25, K. 183, and the “great” No. 40, K. 550—along with the Violin
Concerto No. 5, welcoming James Ehnes as soloist on the violin.
● August 18 – Conductor Jonathan Rush, a frequent Ravinia guest in recent seasons and
former assistant to Alsop, returns to the CSO podium. Chicago native Rachel Barton Pine
takes the stage with Rush and the orchestra as the soloist for José White Lafitte’s Violin
Concerto and Niccolò Paganini’s La Campanella
