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Ravinia Festival lineup announced for summer 2017

Written by
Kris Vire
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The Ravinia Festival, the annual, summer-long outdoor music fest in north suburban Highland Park that emphasizes classical concerts, adult contemporary rockers, baby-boomer R&B acts and elaborate picnic setups by lawn attendees, has revealed its lineup for 2017, which will kick off June 3 with a series of kids’ shows by Catskill Puppet Theater and extend through September 17’s Fiesta Ravinia, a daylong celebration of Mexican culture.

As is the case every year, a good deal of the schedule will be taken up by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s yearly North Shore residency and other classical and jazz programming (much of which takes place in Ravinia’s smaller indoor venues, the Martin Theatre and Bennett Gordon Hall). Among the largely AC pop acts on the docket for the outdoor Pavilion stage, several are—some surprisingly so—making their Ravinia debuts, including Stevie Nicks (Sept 9, 10), John Mellencamp (Aug 26, 27), Alanis Morissette (Aug 25), Hamilton breakout star Leslie Odom Jr. (Aug 13) and the oddly ubiquitous a cappella group Pentatonix (Aug 28).

Returning artists include Willie Nelson (June 16), Aretha Franklin (June 17), Diana Krall (June 28), Tony Bennett (Aug 4) and Sheryl Crow (July 7). The Pavilion lineup also sports some interesting double– and triple-bills (some of them previously announced as part of larger summer tours), such as John Legend and Gallant (June 10), Michael Bolton and Gladys Knight (Sept 1), and Garbage, Blondie and exes and X-ers Exene Cervenka and John Doe (July 22).

Other tantalizing items on the Highland Park bill: Ravinia will screen all three movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with their scores performed live by the CSO, Chicago Children’s Choir, Chicago Chorale and the Lakeside Singers (Aug 18–20), while the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra will come south to provide live accompaniment for a screening of Oscars Best Picture runner-up La La Land (June 18). Ravinia will also mark the 70th birthday of composer John Adams with several events across the season, including the Ravinia debut of conductor Kent Nagano on July 25, leading the CSO in Adams’s Harmonielehre (The Book of Harmony).

Ticket prices for Ravinia shows vary widely; the full season will go on sale to the general public on May 9 at ravinia.org, where you can also check out the complete schedule now.

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