Friday, July 9 at 7:45 pm on 98.7FM, wfmt.com, and the WFMT app
Chicago’s classical radio station WFMT and Highland Park’s Ravinia Festival announced today that the two organizations will partner on a special live broadcast and stream of the official Ravinia season opener – a concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and pianist Jorge Federico Osorio, led by Ravinia’s Chief Conductor and Curator Marin Alsop. This performance will mark the first major post-pandemic classical music event in the Chicago area presented before a full audience.
Ravinia’s program, which will be presented without intermission, will feature Osorio as soloist in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, and will also include Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 by Joan Tower and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
WFMT’s special will begin at 7:45 pm with a 15-minute produced segment with WFMT General Manager George Preston in conversation with Alsop, Osorio, Ravinia Festival President and CEO Jeffrey Haydon, and a CSO musician. WFMT’s Kerry Frumkin will host beginning at 8:00 pm.
Throughout the pandemic, WFMT and Ravinia have collaborated to keep listeners connected with performances from the celebrated music festival. In the summer of 2020, WFMT presented Mondays at the Martin, featuring great performances from past seasons. In recent months, WFMT also presented two series of new recitals, recorded at Ravinia with no audience in attendance, which not only presented world-class musical talent to the radio audience, but provided meaningful opportunities for work and expression for artists during a uniquely challenging time.
“We are excited to celebrate this joyous reopening event with Ravinia, the CSO, and all of our WFMT listeners,” said WFMT General Manager George Preston. “This is a watershed moment for all music lovers.”
“We are thrilled to work with WFMT to extend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Opening Night at Ravinia this summer to listeners at home,” said Ravinia Festival President and CEO Jeff Haydon.
The WFMT presentation of CSO: Opening Night with Marin Alsop – Osorio Plays Mozart is generously made possible by The Negaunee Foundation. Sponsor: CSO Opening Night Consortium.
ABOUT WFMT
WFMT is one of the world’s most respected classical music radio stations, available on-air at 98.7 WFMT, online at wfmt.com, and on the WFMT app. WFMT showcases superlative programs, concerts, and live events—from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Music Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, Ravinia Festival, and many more. WFMT is also a leading producer and syndicator of a diverse selection of outstanding musical series, including Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, the Beethoven Network, and the Jazz Network. Connect with WFMT on Facebook and Twitter.
ABOUT RAVINIA
Ravinia, located just north of Chicago, is North America’s oldest and most diverse music festival, presenting over 140 different events every summer, including the annual residency of the nation’s finest orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As a nonprofit organization, Ravinia provides arts programs for over 85,000 people in communities within Cook and Lake Counties through its Reach Teach Play educations programs. The Ravinia Steans Music Institute is a summer conservatory that awards 60–70 fully paid fellowships each year to the most talented young professional musicians from around the world to work with an esteemed faculty and the headliners who frequent the festival. Ravinia welcomes all festival fans to follow, connect, and interact online with @RaviniaFestival on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as its blog, backstage.ravinia.org.