Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

RAVINIA/PATRICK GIPSON (CAROUSEL PERFORMANCE) enough venues around the country giving it prominence.” IN RESPONSE to last summer’s protests over the death of George Floyd and intensified discussions across society surrounding gender and racial inequities, another big thrust in 2021 is diversity. Haydon praised his predecessor, Welz Kauff- man, for opening doors and taking important steps toward bringing a more inclusive representation of performers to the festival’s stages and attracting new audiences at the same time. “And that’s something I’m very excited to build on,” he said. Alsop and he had conversations about how to extend that diversity on the pop side of Ravinia’s offerings to the classi- cal side, and Haydon is excited about the results this season. “When you look at her programs—performers of color, composers of color, female performers, female composers—there is a lot of great work there,” he said. Elsewhere on the classical sched- ule, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, a rising star in the opera world who performed at Caramoor a few years ago, is presenting Recital No. 1: Mass , an innovative August 31 offering that he proposed to the new Ravinia leader. “His program is very person- al to him,” Haydon said. “It’s really looking back on the African Amer- ican experience in the 21st century, and he uses everyone from Bach to Caroline Shaw and Tyshawn So- rey, which is great.” Lara Downes, a boundary-busting pianist and Ravinia regular, will present a program titled Rising Sun: Migration and Renaissance on September 7 celebrating the Great Migration and the blossoming of the Chicago Black Renaissance with music by such composers as Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. “These are programs that should get a lot more visibility than they probably will, but it’s really important for us to offer that platform, and we’re definitely going to be connecting to our Reach Teach Play audiences,” Haydon said, refer- ring to Ravinia’s educational programs that extend to some 20,000 students across Cook and Lake Counties, plus an even broader number of their fam- ily members and other adults in those communities. The festival’s new Carousel Stage series emerged from an idea con- ceived by a group of staff members looking for a creative way to use one of the two buildings on Ravin- ia’s grounds that hark back to the site’s original incarnation in 1904 as an amusement park. The circular structure, built in 1995, is modeled after the gazebo that formerly stood adjacent to the Martin Theatre (the other original building) and once housed carousel horses in the park’s earliest years. Until recently, it was used as an ice-cream and refreshment stand. Ravinia has constructed a stage inside the building that looks out on the North Lawn, where general-ad- mission audiences will gather for solo or small-ensemble acts featured there. “It’s basically taking a show that you might have heard in the Martin Theatre outside,” said Haydon, who was quick to endorse the new concept. “It’s a more casual listening environment for people. It also gives us a chance to program other artists where we’re not looking to sell 15,000 seats.” This year’s series features five concerts, in the coming weeks includ- ing singer-songwriter Brett Dennen on August 4 and Sideline, a bluegrass band, on August 11. “This is an experi- ment this year, but we’re pretty excited about the response we are getting already,” Haydon said, adding that he’s planning to bring the series back in 2022 with six to 10 events. Asked when preparations will be- gin for Ravinia’s 2022 season, Haydon only half-jokingly responded, “Yester- day.” The festival already has dates on hold for some rock and pop acts who were unable to come to Ravinia this year because of all the uncertainties around the Coronavirus pandemic but are eager to be on the schedule next summer. Looking to the future, Haydon wants to build on Ravinia’s 85-year history as the annual summer home for the Chicago Symphony and make sure the festival continues to be a place where artists can experiment and try out new concepts. He cited a ground- breaking pair of concerts in June 2015 when venerable crooner Tony Bennett and pop diva Lady Gaga performed together. “That was a very new idea at that point,” he said, “and what a great place Ravinia had to offer for that.” The festival president would love see more “non-traditional mash-ups” like that. “The great thing with Ravinia,” he said, “is that there are a lot of different opportunities, and we are just going to keep exploring and opening up the world of music to people.” Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic for the Denver Post from 2000 through 2011. He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for such publications and websites as the Chicago Sun- Times , Early Music America , Opera News , and Classical Voice of North America . A new feature at Ravinia under Haydon’s leadership is the Carousel Stage, piloted this summer with a series of non-classical artists one might normally hear in a venue the size of the Martin Theatre, such as the Chicago Jazz Orchestra Sextet, which inaugurated the series on July 3 (top photo). The space takes its name from the building it was modeled after, a gazebo that was original to Ravinia’s 1904 opening and for a time housed carousel horses. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 24 – AUGUST 15, 2021 16