Ravinia Festival

Ravinia Festival
One of the entrances to Ravinia Park
Dates	Summer
Location(s)	Ravinia Park Highland Park, Illinois
Years active	1904 to present
Founded by	Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad
Website
www.ravinia.org

The Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, with a series of outdoor concerts and performances held every summer from June to September. In Ravinia Park's first summer of 1905, it hosted the New York Philharmonic, and the prairie style Martin Theater dates from this time period. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) since 1936. Located in Highland Park, IL, the festival operates on the grounds of the 36 acre (150,000 m²) Ravinia Park, with a variety of outdoor and indoor performing arts facilities.

The Ravinia neighborhood, once an incorporated village before annexation in 1899, is known as Ravinia, and retained its own post office until autumn 2010. The business district on Roger Williams Ave., within walking distance from the Ravinia Festival grounds, includes neighborhood service businesses and restaurants. Ravinia takes its name from the ravines found nearby along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

In 1904, the A.C. Frost Company created Ravinia as an amusement park intended to lure riders to the fledgling Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad. The amusement park boasted a baseball diamond, electric fountain and refectory or casino building with dining rooms and a dance floor. The prairie-style Martin Theatre (then called Ravinia Theatre) is the only building on the grounds that dates back to that original construction. When the park's existence became jeopardized following the railroad's bankruptcy, local residents (for the most part Chicago businessmen) formed a corporation in 1911 to purchase and operate the park. Music was a confirmed summer activity from then on, except for a brief hiatus during the Depression.

Over 100 years later, Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in North America and is lauded for presenting world-class music. The festival attracts about 600,000 listeners to some 120 to 150 events that span all genres from classical music to jazz to music theater over each three-month summer season. Over the years, the festival has hosted such luminaries as Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, the Association, Joan Baez, Anita Baker, The Ballet Russe, Burt Bacharach, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, Victor Borge, Lucrezia Bori, Eric Burdon, Dave Brubeck, Sandip Burman, Montserrat Caballé, Glen Campbell, Pablo Casals, Chicago, Van Cliburn, Rosemary Clooney, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole, Judy Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Barbara Cook, Aaron Copland, Chick Corea, Bill Cosby, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Miles Davis, Deep Purple, Plácido Domingo, Doobie Brothers, Duran Duran, Jackie Evancho, Horacio Gutiérrez, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Dorothy Dandridge, Jack DeJohnette, Fats Domino, Duran Duran, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Arthur Fiedler, Roberta Flack, Ella Fitzgerald, Renée Fleming, Aretha Franklin, Lady Gaga, George Gershwin, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Jose Greco, Josh Groban, Buddy Guy, Hall & Oates, Marvin Hamlisch, Herbie Hancock, Isaac Hayes, Jascha Heifetz, Don Henley, Lauryn Hill, John Houseman, Jennifer Hudson, Janis Joplin, the Judds, Kiri Te Kanawa, The Kingston Trio, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Chaka Khan, B.B. King, Patti LaBelle, Peggy Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ramsey Lewis, Lyle Lovett, Patti LuPone, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yo-Yo Ma, Seth MacFarlane, Maroon 5, Chuck Mangione, Herbie Mann, Wynton Marsalis, Audra McDonald, Sarah McLachlan, Melanie, Yehudi Menuhin, Idina Menzel, Pat Metheny, The Mills Brothers, Joni Mitchell, Moody Blues, Willie Nelson, Aaron Neville, Dolly Parton, Mandy Patinkin, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Peter, Paul & Mary, Robert Plant, Bernadette Peters, Oscar Peterson, Billy Preston, Leontyne Price, Procol Harum, Bonnie Raitt, Leon Redbone, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, David Sanborn, Carlos Santana, Ravi Shankar, Diane Schuur, Beverly Sills, Paul Simon, Sly & the Family Stone, Stephen Sondheim, Steely Dan, Isaac Stern, Sting, Elaine Stritch, Donna Summer, James Taylor, Train, Ike & Tina Turner, Carrie Underwood, Frankie Valli, Sarah Vaughan, War, Rufus Wainwright, Clara Ward, Dionne Warwick, Orson Welles, John Williams, Tianwa Yang, Frank Zappa, and Denis Matsuev.