About the Performance
Featuring Chief Conductor Marin Alsop and award-winning pianist Yunchan Lim
With a very special guest performance by global superstar and flautist
Lizzo
Ravinia is grateful for the support of
The Dancing Skies Foundation
Concert Sponsor
Jazz Scholars Performance Sponsor
Ravinia is grateful for media support from
An international star as the youngest-ever Van Cliburn Competition winner, Yunchan Lim returns to Ravinia for the highly anticipated Grand Opening of the Hunter Pavilion, adding gleams of Art Deco style as he performs Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major. Joined by the CSO and Marin Alsop, the “one-in-a-million talent” (Dallas Morning News) performs Ravel’s classic, a work brimming with Parisian jazz, Basque soulfulness, and American spirit.
Marking Ravinia’s 60th Gala Evening and the 90th CSO Opening Night, the event illuminates the festival’s legacy of artistic excellence, celebrating decades of unforgettable performances while opening a bold new chapter on the Hunter Pavilion stage.
Global superstar Lizzo plays flute arrangements with the CSO, sharing her spark for transforming lives with music. Alsop brings her own fanfare to the grand opening, proclaiming this stage “the best of all possible worlds” with Bernstein’s Candide Overture and giving the pavilion its flowers with the concert suite of Strauss’s Rosenkavalier.
Woven around this concert are spotlights on our Reach Teach Play programs and the access to music they create, and our Women’s Board hosts the Gala before and after the performance to raise funds for Ravinia and these initiatives.
Gala Benefit Tickets
4:30 p.m. Cocktails
7:30 p.m. Dinner Party
Surrounding this special concert is the annual Gala hosted by the Women’s Board to support Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education programs, which provide transformative musical experiences for young minds. Premium reserved seating locations are available with Gala tickets, but many reserved seats, as well as Lawn tickets, are available for simply enjoying the concert!
Performers
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Yunchan Lim, piano
Lizzo, flute
Janai Brugger, soprano #
# Steans Institute alum
Program
6:00 PM – Hunter Pavilion
John Stafford Smith / Francis Scott Key: “The Star-Spangled Banner” (arr. Frederick Stock)
Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide
Works featuring Lizzo with the CSO
Richard Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, TrV 227d (arr. Artur Rodziński)
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
–No Intermission–