Ravinia is the verdant summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The CSO has been at the heart of live music at Ravinia since 1905, and the artistic partnership has been evergreen since 1936, when Ravinia Festival concerts were reinaugurated with a full season of orchestral programs.

Each year, the orchestra headlines more than a dozen unique concerts over six weeks, featuring music that stirs emotions from the first hearing to the fiftieth. Whether up close in seats or relaxed across the Lawn, enjoying the CSO at Ravinia is an idyllic setting for experiencing some of the most moving music from history and today.

In Summer 2026, Ravinia Chief Conductor Marin Alsop leads three weeks of programs with guests ranging from star pianists Emanuel Ax and Yunchan Lim to violinist María Dueñas and spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, as well as the can’t-miss drama of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and the idyllic soundscapes of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.

Several guest conductors and soloists also join the orchestra onstage throughout the summer, including Klaus Mäkelä with violinist Daniel Lozakovich, Earl Lee with violinist Stella Chen, and James Conlon with an all-star cast for Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. Conductor Jules Buckley joins the CSO for several exceptional performances, including an evening with alt-rock icon St. Vincent and a tribute to music icon and Chicago native Quincy Jones. Additional highlights include a salute to two centuries of American song curated and conducted by Ted Sperling, Steve Hackman leading his “Brahms X Radiohead,” and the 2026 edition of Breaking Barriers, which will celebrate women in film.