Ravinia Festival’s 2022 Lineup Brings Signature Music Mix, Bevy of Guests

Ravinia Festival has announced its 2022 season. Running from May to September, the lineup is replete with the Highland Park-based festival's characteristic mix of programming.

In its annual summer residency, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs with chief conductor Marin Alsop for three weeks — the final of which will be taken up by the previously announced Breaking Barriers festival, which celebrates diversity in classical music. The prior announcement also cast light on programming in the first two weeks of Alsop’s residency, which will open with pianist Stewart Goodyear on July 15.

What was announced today further fleshes out the Ravinia 2022 season. Prominent debuts include pianists Conrad Tao and Alexander Malofeev, conductor Wayne Marshall, as well as baritone Lucas Meachem and soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, , who star in a James Conlon-conducted Don Giovanni. Another Mozart opera, La clemenza di Tito, receives its first complete CSO performances — also under the baton of Conlon — in a cast that features tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role with supporting turns from sopranos Guangqun Yu and Janai Brugger as well as mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo.

Meanwhile, violinists Itzhak Perlman and Vadim Gluzman, pianist Garrick Ohlsson, and conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto and Peter Oundjian are just a few of the artists making return appearances in Highland Park this summer.

Ravinia will also play host to a spate of guest ensembles, including Music of the Baroque, The Knights, the Lincoln Trio, Chanticleer, the Chicago Philharmonic, and the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The legacy of Stephen Sondheim is a throughline this season; works of the late giant of musical theater appear on concerts featuring Wayne Marshall and Anthony de Mare as well as a CSO concert conducted by Kevin Stites. Alan Menken, the prolific EGOT winner who composed music for Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, also receives a CSO tribute concert, which will be conducted by Steven Reinecke. Other family friendly fare will include two film scores performed live: The Goonies and The Lion King.

Jazz highlights will see Ramsey Lewis, the Matthew Whitaker Quintet, and Esperanza Spalding taking the stage for separate engagements. Meanwhile, Emmylou Harris and Béla Fleck take the stage under the banner of “American songbook.”

In-demand global music artists appearing at the Ravinia Pavilion this summer will include guitar duo sensation Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Amjad Ali Khan Trio, Ziggy Marley, and Oscar-winning composer and performer A.R. Rahman.

Other summer highlights include appearance by Jackson Browne, Common, Diana Ross, Stevie Nicks, Erykah Badu, and Sting.

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Ravinia Festival’s 2022 season runs from May 20 to September 18, with tickets going on sale on May 4. For more information, visit ravinia.org.