Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Photo: Decca Classics/Ollie Ali)
The Ravinia Festival has announced its 2025 season. Based in North Shore’s Highland Park, the festival is the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and hosts concerts across genres all summer long.
This year’s festival runs from June to August. Ravinia announced last month that the season would be abbreviated to allow for infrastructure improvements to the festival grounds. And the 2026 season will start late so the upgrades can be completed.
CSO Residency
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be in residence for six weeks, beginning July 11 and continuing through August 17. The lineup features three weeks led by chief conductor Marin Alsop and three weeks led by guest conductors including Laura Jackson, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Louis Langrée, Peter Oundjian, and David Robertson.
The July 11 opener features the debut of pianist Bruce Liu, who’ll perform Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The orchestra also performs Carlos Simon’s Amen and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The concert will be shared live on WFMT.
The following week (July 18), Alsop will conduct the orchestra and Steans alumni soprano Janai Brugger and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.
Guest artists making their festival debuts with the CSO will include pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, musical theater royalty Sutton Foster, violinist Himari, and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Meanwhile Broadway’s Kelli O’Hara, cellist Zlatomir Fung (a Ravinia Steans alum), violinist Ray Chen, and pianists Lang Lang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Garrick Ohlsson return to the Highland Park festival grounds.
Cynthia Erivo (Photo: Mark Seliger)
Additional programming during the CSO’s Ravinia residency includes a concert featuring alt-rocker Beck, a Morgan Freeman-narrated exploration of the “music, culture, and legacy of the Mississippi Delta,” and screen and stage’s Cynthia Erivo, who was recently Oscar nominated for her role in Wicked.
Breaking Barriers Festival
The festival’s 2022-established programming block was conceived by Marin Alsop to celebrate women in music and other fields. This year’s focus is on women in food and music, and the proceedings include an appearance by Food Network’s Molly Yeh, a Juilliard-trained percussionist. Women celebrity chefs — including Maneet Chauhan and Sarah Grueneberg — will create dishes to pair with musical works.
Chamber Music and Visiting Ensembles
The festival’s chamber music series includes Angela Hewitt performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations (June 11), the Juilliard String Quartet (June 25), and Ana María Martínez (July 30).
Meanwhile, guest ensembles will include Apollo’s Fire (August 13), VOCES8 vocal ensemble (August 14), and a semi-staged, Nicole Cabell-starring presentation of Handel’s Alcina from Haymarket Opera Company (August 24).
Additional Programming
The Chicago Philharmonic will make several appearances over the course of the summer, including an August 29 presentation of music from the Marvel movies led by Anthony Parnther.
The summer’s family offerings include a program called Opera for the Young (June 28), a Sound of Music sing-along (August 28), and a performance of Chopin by Victor Santiago Asunción alongside animated feature Magic Piano (August 30).
Paquito D’Rivera (Photo: Geandy Pavon)
Ravinia’s summer offerings span genres. Other intriguing concerts include performances by Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe on June 7, Taj Mahal on June 14, and jazz greats Kurt Elling (June 15), and Diana Krall (June 22). Rapper Nas will be backed by the Chicago Philharmonic on July 2, and the band Chicago will take the stage on July 5. Chucho Valdés, Paquito D’Rivera, and Arturo Sandoval will perform on July 9, complete with a dance floor, while King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will perform with the Chicago Phil on August 6. Earth, Wind & Fire will perform on August 7, John Legend on August 23 and 24, and Buena Vista Orchestra and UB40 on August 27.
Individual tickets go on sale on April 24. For more information, visit ravinia.org.
