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ORCHESTRA CONCERTS
16
R A V I N I A F A M I L Y F U N G U I D E
5:00 p.m. Sunday, July 15
Pavilion
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Andy Einhorn,
conductor
Audra McDonald,
vocalist
Sunday in the Park with Audra
There are a few styles of music that
were created right here in the United
States, and one of the most famous
and beloved around the world is
the “musical,” a combination of
spoken-word acting (like in movies
or plays) and songs that tell you the
most important parts of the story. In
New York City, there’s a street called
Broadway that has a lot of the the-
aters where musicals really became
popular, so people frequently call
musicals “Broadway shows,” and that’s
also where all the best shows get per-
formed.
Just like the Oscars are awards
for the best movies every year, the
Tony Awards are for the best musicals
and plays, and the person who has
won the most Tony Awards ever as
a performer is Audra McDonald, the
star of Ravinia’s annual gala concert.
This is a special concert where a lot
of people get extra dressed up, not
only because Audra McDonald is
such a big star—she’s also made a
lot of movies, TV shows, and CDs—
but also because it raises money for
Ravinia’s Reach*Teach*Play programs
that make music more available to
school kids and families all around the
Chicago area.
Audra McDonald is especially
famous for singing in musicals by
Stephen Sondheim, and she starred in
several of Ravinia’s productions of his
works 15 years ago, including
Passion
,
Anyone Can Whistle
, and
Sunday in
the Park with George
. So because this
concert is on a Sunday, we’re calling it
“Sunday in the Park with Audra”!
8:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 18
Pavilion
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel,
conductor
Yuja Wang,
piano
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Overture to
Egmont
Piano Concerto No. 1
Symphony No. 7
It may seem pretty common around
here for kids to have a chance to learn
an orchestra instrument at school,
but it’s becoming less common than
you’d think, not only in the United
States but around the world. That’s
where a program called “El Sistema”
comes in, making sure that children
all over have an opportunity to learn
music; not just textbook stuff like
how to read it, but how to play instru-
ments that they want to play. A few
years ago, Ravinia started a program