“A very special new relationship has been forged between the Ravinia Festival and the office that oversees the legacy of the famed composer Leonard Bernstein,” writes Bill Zwecker in Thursday’s (1/26) Chicago Sun-Times. “Last week, Ravinia hosted more than 20 Chicago cultural institutions—including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera, the Goodman Theatre and the Grant Park Music Festival—at a planning summit to celebrate the 2018 centennial of Bernstein’s birth. There Ravinia management announced that its two-year celebration of the longtime New York Philharmonic conductor will include having one of his final protégés, Marin Alsop, curate the 2018 Ravinia season and conduct Bernstein’s music-theater piece, ‘Mass,’ which she has championed … In addition, Ravinia will present the composer’s ‘Trouble in Tahiti.’ … Ravinia also announced it will open a new venue in 2019 with a major Bernstein museum exhibit.… The new building being added to Ravinia’s North Shore campus will include both museum spaces and a small theater venue.” Said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, “I wanted to tap into the brilliance of the Chicago arts community to make sure we’re presenting a well-rounded remembrance of both the common man and the superstar artist.”

Posted January 31, 2017