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Jennifer W. Steans
Chairman
Welz Kau man
President & CEO
Fried, along with such Ravinia favorites as James Conlon and
omas Hampson, will be among the leaders of RSMI’s live-
wire master classes, which are free and open to the public.
Earlier this year, the music world lost another towering
gure who was also music teacher to an entire nation—and
beyond. Conductor José Antonio Abreu invented the El
Sistema method of music education as social involvement to
keep kids o the mean streets of his native Venezuela. His
method of putting instruments in the hands of young people
ignited passions around the world. Ravinia follows El Sistema
in one of its own Reach*Teach*Play education programs,
which now serve more than ,
people each year in Cook
and Lake Counties. We’re ecstatic that the students in our own
Sistema Ravinia orchestras will have the opportunity to witness
Dudamel, the chief proponent and global ambassador for El
Sistema, at Ravinia this summer.
Of course, none of Ravinia’s mission—onstage or o —could
be achieved without the generous support of our individual
donors and corporate sponsors. Special shout outs go to
Northwestern Medicine for naming the Grand Entrance to our
park and to Allstate for returning for a second year as Lead
Reach*Teach*Play Sponsor. Ticket sales generate just over half
of the money it takes for Ravinia to help music enrich so many
lives. e balance is donated by supporters of the not-for-pro t
festival. Leading that charge are the all-volunteer boards that
oversee America’s oldest and most programmatically diverse
music festival, and so we thank the Ravinia Board of Trustees,
Life Trustees, Associates Board, and our largest funder, the
Women’s Board, whose annual gala bene t this year stars
Audra McDonald with the CSO.
A special thank-you goes to our hometown, which is
gearing up for its
th anniversary. When you visit Ravinia,
you also are visiting Highland Park, a proud city of ,
people and such local attractions as two shopping districts
with a variety of casual and ne dining restaurants, landscaped
parks designed by the legendary Jens Jensen, and homes
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Ravinia and Highland
Park have grown up together. A er investing more than
million over the past decade in improvements in and around
the park, our most recent growth is the major rejuvenation
of our Dining Pavilion, featuring the new Tree Top and
Lawn Bar restaurants. We are very proud to be a part of this
community, which we support in myriad ways, from hiring
local teens for their rst jobs to donating ve percent of our
gross ticket sales—more than a million dollars each year—to
the city. We bring around
,
guests to the community
each summer, and national studies show that for every dollar
spent at a cultural institution, is spent in the surrounding
neighborhood. Please support the businesses of Highland Park
and be courteous to our residential neighbors, especially when
arriving and leaving concerts.
Finally, we thank
you
, the Ravinia concertgoer. We hope
you, too, get a kick out of the
season. We appreciate your
support.
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION
Ravinia is an internationally renowned, not-for-pro t music
festival that presents outstanding performances by the world’s
greatest artists. Ravinia’s principal objectives are
• to present performances of a full range of classical music in
its open-air Pavilion and enclosed recital halls, by the world’s
greatest composers and musicians, along with a variety of
other kinds of light classical, jazz and popular music;
• to maintain a beautiful park that is welcoming to all and
attractive to families in which the music experience is
enhanced by a beautiful environment and excellent dining
opportunities;
• to enable gi ed young performers to study under great
teachers and perform in concert settings; and
• to develop broader and more diverse audiences for classical
music through education and outreach programs and by
maintaining a ordable ticket prices.
JUNE 18 – JULY 8, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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