HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) — Ravinia Music Festival has launched its full 2026 schedule Thursday.
This yr’s lineup consists of Paul Simon, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Jacob Collier, Hugh Jackman, Rod Stewart, Kool & The Gang, Chance the Rapper, Ricky Martin, Alabama Shakes, and Ray LaMontagne.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra may even be celebrating its ninetieth anniversary at Ravinia.
“The grand opening of the Hunter Pavilion marks a historic milestone for Ravinia,” says President and CEO Jeffrey P. Haydon. “It is particularly meaningful that this state-of-the-art venue will serve as the inaugural stage for our debut artists, including conductor Klaus Mäkelä, Ricky Martin, Miranda Lambert, Alabama Shakes, Rod Stewart, and many others. We are finding that the pavilion’s enhanced acoustics and sophisticated production capabilities are a powerful draw for world-class talent eager to perform in a venue that doesn’t just host music but creates an atmosphere that leaves both artists and audiences equally inspired.”
Tickets go on sale at Ravinia.org on Thursday, April 23.
FULL SCHEDULE
MT = Martin Theatre
BGH = Bennett Gordon Hall
SKC = Sandra Okay. Crown Theater
CSL = Carousel Stage
Family programming and movie
-August 1 Laurie Berkner
-August 8 Black Moon Trio: “The Great Lakes”: A companion to Barb Rosenstock and illustrator Jamey Christoph’s image ebook The Great Lakes, Black Moon Trio’s live performance is a family-friendly journey by means of the scientific surprise of our 5 freshwater jewels, providing an approachable strategy to achieve appreciation for his or her position in sustaining nature and tradition. (SKC)
-August 15 Okee Dokee Brothers (CSL)
-August 22 Divi Roxx Kids (CSL)
-August 23 Grease Sing-Along
-August 29 JAM Orchestra*: Dr. Seuss Goes to the Opera: JAM Orchestra provides a joyful introduction to opera, that includes skilled opera singers in an interactive efficiency of the whole Green Eggs and Ham and Gertrude McFuzz Dr. Seuss tales paired with playful music to enchant all ages. (MT)
Jazz and Bues
-June 3 Terence Blanchard & Ravi Coltrane* (MT)
-June 4 Stella Cole* (BGH)
-June 6 & 7 Wildflowers: Kurt Elling with Fred Hersch (SKC)
-July 14 Squirrel Nut Zippers (CSL)
-July 15 Harry Connick Jr.
-August 12 Joe Bonamassa*
Pop, Hip-Hop, Rap, Latin and Reggae
-July 12 Billy Idol*
-July 28 Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band* with particular visitor The Docksiders*
-August 4 Magic City Hippies* (CSL)
-August 8 Chance the Rapper*
-August 11 Brian McKnight & Gladys Knight
-August 20 Ricky Martin*
-August 27 Kool & The Gang* with particular visitor Morris Day & The Time* and ConFunkShun*
-September 5 Rod Stewart* with particular visitor Richard Marx
-September 13 tenth Fiesta Ravinia: Los Tigres del Norte
-September 17 Ziggy Marley and Thievery Corporation*
-September 18 Tom Jones
Rock, Indie, Country and Folk
-July 17 & 18 Paul Simon
-July 26 Emmylou Harris & Graham Nash
-July 29 The Kody Norris Show* (CSL)
-August 15 moe.* and Umphrey’s McGee on the moe.mentUM Tour
-August 21 Alabama Shakes* with particular visitor Liam Kazar*
-August 22 Bonnie Raitt
-August 25 Deep Purple with particular visitor Kansas
-August 26 Brandi Carlile
-August 28 Alabama
-August 29 Ray LaMontagne* (Trouble twentieth Anniversary Tour) with particular visitor The Weather Station*
-August 30 Miranda Lambert*
-September 6 Squeeze with particular visitor Adam Ant*
-September 12 Alison Krauss & Union Station that includes Jerry Douglas (Arcadia Tour) with particular visitor Theo Lawrence*
-September 19 Martina McBride*
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The CSO’s annual six-week residency-July 11 by means of August 16 this season-includes applications led by Marin Alsop and distinguished visitor conductors.
-July 11 An worldwide star because the youngest-ever Van Cliburn Competition winner, Yunchan Lim returns to hitch the CSO and Marin Alsop in including gleams of Art Deco model to the Hunter Pavilion’s first live performance with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G main, brimming with Parisian jazz, Basque soulfulness, and American spirit. Lizzo* performs flute with CSO, sharing her spark for reworking lives with music.
-Woven round this live performance are spotlights on our Reach Teach Play applications and the entry to music they create. Our Women’s Board hosts the Gala earlier than and after the efficiency to boost funds for Ravinia and these initiatives.
-July 16 & 18 James Conlon returns to guide Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, a story of love’s unimpeached loyalty profitable out over fame and achieve. Mozart constructed his theater legacy on this comedian opera, not lengthy earlier than Figaro, tweaking norms of energy by giving every man a hapless streak and displaying girls as brokers of fidelity. Kathryn Lewek and Miles Mykkanen star with scene-stopping songs in German and motion narrated in English. (MT)
-July 19 Gramophone’s Young Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year for 2025, María Dueñas* makes her CSO and Ravinia debuts becoming a member of Marin Alsop for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, lending “memorable, highly individual” aptitude with “bold, languorously romantic” cadenzas (The Strad). Alsop additionally units out the country tranquility of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, the place storm music swirls and brightly passes with Midwestern power and beauty.
-July 23 “A symphony must be like the world,” Mahler mentioned. “It must contain everything.” Marshaling the profound power of the CSO for Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, Marin Alsop leads a riveting seek for which means in a posh, quickly altering world. Moving by means of moments of idyllic nostalgia to devastating fanaticism and fateful blows, this monumental work completely anticipates the challenges and longing of the twenty first century.
-July 24 Marin Alsop and Emmy-winning composer Laura Karpman co-curate spotlights on unique orchestral music’s magic in display storytelling. A 30-year veteran of status TV, documentary, sport, and Marvel scores, Karpman demonstrates how music can information the interpretation of a movie scene, with performances by Alsop and the CSO. Together, in addition they concentrate on girls composers-long under-represented on the screen-sharing music by the likes of Shirley Walker, Hildur Gunadóttir, Rachel Portman, and Chanda Dancy. Alsop premieres Karpman’s Unsung, that includes music for iconic feminine characters who by no means earlier than had a theme, and Taki Alsop Fellow Chi-Yuan Lin* leads Star Wars themes by John Williams and Natalie Holt, the primary girl to compose for the storied franchise.
This centerpiece of the fifth Breaking Barriers Festival is bookended by a pre-concert panel and, earlier than July 25’s live performance, an prolonged dwell demonstration of music setting movie moods.
-July 25 One of probably the most modern artists in fashionable music, six-time Grammy winner St. Vincent gives audiences a kaleidoscope of sonic and visible exploration. In a restricted, first-ever run of performances with orchestra, she joins the CSO alongside orchestrator/conductor Jules Buckley* to share a brand new dimension of favorites and deep cuts from her complete catalog, from Marry Me to All Born Screaming.
-July 31 Marin Alsop returns to Dvoák’s well-known Ninth Symphony, which borrows themes of Indigenous and Black American music to depict the essence of our “New World” dwelling. Carlos Simon’s Good News Mass, a Ravinia co-commission, has its Midwest premiere with the CSO, spreading gospel-music spirituality of thanks, loss, pleasure, and hope layered with Black Catholic custom and classical-music liturgy.
-August 1 The “always thoughtful, lyrical, and lustrous” (Washington Post) pianist Emanuel Ax celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of his CSO debut by becoming a member of Marin Alsop and the orchestra on John Williams’s new concerto, every motion an homage to a jazz icon. Alsop wraps the all-American program in Rachmaninoff’s jazzy Symphonic Dances and John Adams’s driving Short Ride in a Fast Machine.
-August 2 Tony Award-winning orchestrator and conductor Ted Sperling mines more than 200 years of widespread songs to share enchanting gems that heart our nation’s triumphs and challenges, that includes the CSO and vocalists Micaela Diamond*, Bryonha Marie*, and Noah Ricketts* gleaming like amber waves of grain on “Summertime,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Shenandoah,” “Over the Rainbow,” the hoedown from Copland’s Rodeo, and more requirements and modern anthems.
-August 6 Hailed as “a rivetingly energetic presence” (New York Times), CSO Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä* leads the polar expedition of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with soloist Daniel Lozakovich*, whose “exceptional talent” (Le Figaro) made their joint debut downtown in 2022 a landmark second reprised tonight. Mäkelä additionally scales the mountainous tone-tale of Strauss’s Alpine Symphony.
-August 7 Dedicated to sharing the famend artistry of the CSO, Klaus Mäkelä reignites his history-launching debut with Stravinsky’s full, storied rating for The Firebird. Mäkelä retains the highlight on the orchestra with works by Debussy that weave charming themes round every part, from the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun to Ibéria, referred to as an “intoxicating spell of Andalusian nights” by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla.
-August 13 One of historical past’s most versatile musicians, Quincy Jones amassed 30 Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Awards because the composer/producer behind iconic music like “Soul Bossa Nova,” “P.Y.T.,” and “Stuff Like That”; scores for The Wiz, The Italian Job, and The Color Purple; and the Thriller, Bad, and The Dude albums. Decade-long Jones collaborator Jules Buckley leads the CSO in a tribute to the groundbreaking catalogue of the Chicago-born artist.
-August 14 Polymathic conductor and producer Steve Hackman* coils collectively 150 years of musical pathos and rigidity in his fusion of Brahms’s First Symphony with the equally anxious tracks of Radiohead’s OK Computer, main the CSO and three visitor vocalists to confront each the 1876 fears of following up Beethoven and the 1997 fears of getting into the web age in seamless counterpoint. Note: Radiohead doesn’t carry out on this live performance.
-August 16 The CSO’s ninetieth summer time residency concludes with the almost 50-year Ravinia custom of an all-Tchaikovsky night, including the triumphant exhilaration of the 1812 Overture punctuated with cannons for the finale. Solti (*90*) Award winner Earl Lee# returns with the irresistible Romeo & Juliet love theme and the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin, and Stella Chen# brings “brilliant command” (The Strad) to the Violin Concerto.
Recitals, Chamber Music and Guest Orchestras
-June 5 From over 20 years in live performance collectively, Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk# have “developed the sixth sense” for shared musicality (New York Times). This particular performance-Bell’s first chamber live performance at Ravinia since 1995-features the luxurious Romanticism of duo sonatas by Schubert, Grieg, and Ravel, plus a solo work every. (MT)
-June 7 Alisa Weilerstein, “one of the most characterful cellists around” (The Times), and Inon Barnatan#, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (New York Times), come collectively for a day of sweeping emotion, performing Falla’s Suite populaire espagnole, a number of Shostakovich preludes, and sonatas by Chopin and Rachmaninoff. (MT)
-July 22 A Grammy winner and Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year, Augustin Hadelich# returns to “revel in (his) myriad ways of making a phrase come alive on the violin” (Washington Post), fusing Baroque and blues types in works on the pinnacle of solo music, from Bach and Telemann to Paganini and Ysae to Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. (MT)
-July 26 Known as “an orchestra of voices,” Chanticleer shines its “pure and deeply felt singing” (New York Times) on the varied lyrics, harmonies, and rhythms within the musical heritage of the U.S. The male refrain traces from African American spirituals by means of bluegrass and folksong to the legacy of these songs in modern classics. (MT)
-August 2 Music, verse, and visuals coalesce in Black Moon Trio’s* premiere of Lakenotes, a multi-dimensional tribute to the thriller and majesty of Lake Michigan. A brand new work by Stacy Garrop facilities this program of richly textured soundscapes and sweeping video that painting our Great Lake as a dwelling, respiratory presence. (SKC)
-August 5 “There are simply two kinds of string quartets: the Danish, and the others,” writes Boston Classical Review of Danish String Quartet. The 2020 Musical America Ensemble of the Year romps across the jovial closing quartet by Beethoven, in addition to youthful Mozart and Shostakovich’s profoundly inquisitive Third Quartet. (MT)
-August 9 An almost annual Ravinia visitor artist since age 22, pianist Misha Dichter triumphantly marks his fiftieth season on the pageant with the alternating vigor and sentimentality of Brahms and Prokofiev sonatas. He additionally pays homage to his Polish-immigrant dad and mom with performances of polonaise and mazurka dances by Chopin and Beethoven. (BGH)
-August 9 Making his Ravinia debut, beloved Tony- and Grammy-winning singer/actor Hugh Jackman* showcases his “endless charm, energy, and charisma” (New York Stage Review) with the Chicago Philharmonic.
-August 16 Hailed as “one of America’s finest artists” (New York Times), Frederica von Stade shares a uncommon post-retirement efficiency, becoming a member of the “vocally resplendent” (Schmopera) Susan Graham for a really legendary live performance of artwork music with pianist Kevin Murphy, Artistic Director of the Singers Program on the Steans Institute. (BGH)
-August 19 “A Gregory Alan Isakov show is a kind of spell, no matter where you see him play,” writes American Highways. In his first efficiency at Ravinia, singer/songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov* takes the viewers on a journey with the Chicago Philharmonic, below the baton of Christopher Dragon.
-September 3 Highly regarded amongst Chicago’s classical jewels, Music of the Baroque and Dame Jane Glover summon the complete voice of their orchestra and refrain in 18th-century grandeur. Handel’s Royal Fireworks music and coronation anthems adorn the spectacle of Steven Isserlis* performing Haydn’s First Cello Concerto.
-September 5 A cellist and composer with “tremendous heart … joy and captivating sound” (The Strad), Karen Ouzounian# recurrently collaborates with the Silkroad Ensemble, amongst different singular musicians. Her chamber-music challenge, Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian), lifts three generations of household voices in songs and tales from their post-genocide dwelling and weaves them round historic Armenian music and new compositions on resilience, rage, and roots. In this enhanced version, Mayrig options deeper chamber music with oud, viola, and bass alongside cello, piano, and electronics, plus an immersive, new bodily dimension including hand-drawn illustrations built-in with the efficiency. This is the primary manufacturing powered by the Steans Institute Alumni Catalyst Fund, which helps creative innovation by Steans alumni. (SKC)
-September 6 “A decisive, powerful player … with exquisite nuance and shadings” (Seattle Times), pianist Olga Kern musters microcosms of drama and comedy, from the masked faces of Schumann’s Carnaval and Rachmaninoff’s breathless miniatures to songful Scriabin études and Beethoven variations, then sparks off hot-jazz Gershwin for a finale. (BGH)
-September 23 Coldplay’s Chris Martin as soon as referred to as Jacob Collier “the best musician in the world” (Rolling Stone). The six-time Grammy winner comes to 1 of Ravinia’s most intimate areas, providing an opportunity to expertise his genre-defying musicality up shut. (MT)
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