Saturday, April 5, 2025
Civitas Ensemble
SUBHEADING
HH:mm PM
2:00 PM
3:00 PM
SPECIAL EVENT INFORMATION DESCRIPTION
Tickets:
No Lawn tickets are offered for this event.
Getting Here:/ Free Parking / No Park and Ride / Metra UP-N Park in the West Parking Lot at 201 Ravinia Park Road. The lot opens 1 hour before the gate opening time listed above. Park in the South Parking Lot at 201 St. Johns Avenue. The lot opens 30 minutes before the gate opening time listed above. Shuttles from the free Park and Ride lot in downtown Highland Park begin running 30 minutes before the gate opening time. More Parking Info Park and Ride shuttles are not running for this event. Parking on the residential streets surrounding Ravinia is strictly prohibited. More Parking Info The West Parking Lot is closed and Park and Ride shuttles are not running for this event. More Parking Info Ride the Metra Union Pacific North Line train to and from the main entrance for free with your Ravinia ticket. More Train Info Ride the Metra Union Pacific North Line train to and from Braeside station, a 5-minute walk from Ravinia’s South Entrance. More Train Info
Restaurants, Bars, & Concessions in the Park Dining and concessions facilities are closed at this performance. Make a Reservation
Views of the Stage Bennett Gordon Hall is an indoor venue. The stage is not visible from any location on the Lawn, nor is audio from the performance broadcast to the Lawn.
When Do Tickets Go On Sale? Public ticket sales open at 8:00 a.m. CT on DDDD, April DD, exclusively here at Ravinia.org. Ravinia donors receive online access to tickets as early as March DD or during mid-April.
About the Performance
Since 2011, Civitas Ensemble has combined the outstanding collaborative musicianship of multiple top Chicago Symphony Orchestra string chairs with a thirst for interdisciplinary exploration of new and traditional chamber music, including pairings with dancers, visual artists, and poets. Their Alla Zingarese project, released on Cedille in 2018, leaped to the whirlwind crossroads of Western classical and Romani folk traditions, creating “a trip through history … and a venture into new musical territory with surprises aplenty” (Chicago on the Aisle). In their first appearance at Ravinia as Civitas—though all veterans of the festival’s stages—the core trio of CSO Asst. Concertmaster Yuan-Qing Yu, CSO Asst. Principal Cellist Kenneth Olsen (an early 2000s alum of Ravinia’s Steans Institute), and Chicago College of Performing Arts Piano Program Head Winston Choi bring a program of Turina and Tchaikovsky headed up by a picturesque recent work by longtime Chicagoan Stacy Garrop.
In Garrop’s Beacon of the Bay, Civitas presents a familiar sight to Chicago locals and tourists: historic lighthouses that are mysteriously artful anachronisms in simpler, unhurried time but also stalwart sconces providing guidance when all else is chaos. The trio then turns to the landmark Spanish composer Turina, whose stage and concert works helped define a national musical language. With his Second Piano Trio, they luxuriate in the character of nocturnes before leaping to the stylized song and dance of Castilian rueda and Basque zortzico. The trio concludes with Tchaikovsky’s homage to the great pianist Nikolay Rubinstein, featuring a series of celebratory variations that characterize moments of rustic ambience and energetic dance, but above all sweeping scenes of powerful piano playing in the hallmark style of his close friend.
Performers
Civitas Ensemble
Kenneth Olsen, cello #
Winston Choi, piano
# Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum
Program
| Stacy Garrop: | Beacon of the Bay | |
| Joaquín Turina: | Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor, op. 76 | |
| –Intermission– | ||
| Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: | Piano Trio in A minor, op. 50 | |
Videos
Plan Your Visit
Traffic and wait times are nothing to worry about when you plan ahead.
