The Ravinia Festival’s 2025 season, announced Thursday, balances ambitious new initiatives — like a weekend-long collaboration with famous chefs — within a slightly compressed timeline.
The festival, which usually ends in mid-September, will run from June 5 to Aug. 31 to clear the way for a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Ravinia Pavilion. The renovation is scheduled to be completed by next summer, at which point the festival will begin updating other structures on its Highland Park campus.
But much is packed into those 12 weeks. Pop highlights in the Pavilion this summer include Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe, performing together and making Ravinia debuts (June 7); James Taylor (June 19); Diana Krall (June 22); a packed three-day run of The Roots (June 27), Al Green (June 28) and “Weird Al” Yankovic (June 29); Nas, also making a festival debut with Chicago Philharmonic (July 2); Chicago (July 5); DJ Kygo (July 6); Beck with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (July 23); Earth, Wind & Fire (Aug. 7); Cynthia Erivo, singing with the CSO (Aug. 15); Lenny Kravitz (Aug. 21); John Legend (Aug. 23-24) and Ray LaMontagne (Aug. 30).
Additionally, this year’s festival claims to host the most orchestral programming in the park’s history, owing to an increase in pop-orchestra crossover concerts. Those bookings are split between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing its customary six-week residency (July 11 to Aug. 17), and appearances by the Chicago Philharmonic (June 26, July 2, Aug. 6 and Aug. 29).
In her penultimate season as chief conductor, Marin Alsop leads three of the CSO’s six weeks at Ravinia, including those associated with its Breaking Barriers festival-within-a-festival (July 25-26). Like last season’s focus on women in the sciences, this year’s Breaking Barriers combines culinary and musical arts. The festival will serve sample-able bites by female chefs, all inspired by the weekend’s symphonic and chamber programming. Said programming ranges from local composer Tim Corpus’s “Great Lake Concerto,” for percussionists Vadim Karpinos and Ed Harrison (July 25, Pavilion, $75 add-on for food), to Leonard Bernstein’s “La Bonne Cuisine,” sung by rising Steans Institute singers (July 26, Bennett Gordon Hall, build-your-own-tapas box included in $75 ticket price).
Helping curate the concerts is Food Network star and cookbook author Molly Yeh, a Juilliard-credentialed percussionist and the daughter of CSO clarinetist John Bruce Yeh. Father and daughter get spotlights on the July 26 concert, the former with his East-meets-West ensemble Birds and Phoenix.
Other CSO highlights, all in the Pavilion: an opening weekend of 2021 Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu and piano veteran Jean-Yves Thibaudet, in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” (July 11) and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, respectively (July 12); Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” with soprano Janai Brugger, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and the Chicago Symphony Chorus (July 18); pint-sized violinist Himari performing two showpieces (July 20); Ray Chen in Bruch’s Violin Concerto, under the baton of debuting Chicago conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya (Aug. 9); the CSO debut of Van Cliburn–winning pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, who has been blind since birth (Aug. 16); and British phenom Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 (Aug. 17).
When he’s not playing Lucius Fox, Nelson Mandela, or God Himself, Morgan Freeman is a Delta blues enthusiast who co-owns a music venue in Mississippi. He makes his Ravinia debut narrating “The Symphonic Blues Experience,” performed by the CSO and to-be-announced blues artists (Aug. 1).
Before your favorite artists were stars, they were kids with a dream. The CSO supports two Pavilion programs built around that idea. Broadway stars Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara both sing songs that set them on the path to showbiz for opening weekend (July 13). Later, pianist Lang Lang offers up arrangements of music from Disney films, which he credits with leading to his “life-long love of classical music”; singers Celeste Morales and Edmond Rodriguez, erhu player Yimiao Chen, and guitarist Plínio Fernandes join him (July 31). Fernandes returns later in the season for a solo recital featuring music from his native Brazil (Aug. 26, Bennett Gordon Hall).
Other classical highlights: the young, gifted Isidore String Quartet performing by themselves (June 22, Bennett Gordon Hall) and then with their mentors, the Juilliard Quartet, in Mendelssohn’s Octet (June 25, Martin Theatre); soprano Ana María Martínez in recital with pianist and Steans Singers director Kevin Murphy (July 30, Martin Theatre); chamber choir VOCES8, in their Ravinia debut (Aug. 14, Martin Theatre); a “dueling” double-concerto program by Apollo’s Fire that brings an actual fencing match to the Ravinia Lawn (Aug. 13, Martin Theatre); and a semi-staged production of Handel’s “Alcina” by local Baroque opera troupe Haymarket Opera, making its festival debut. Soprano Nicole Cabell stars (Aug. 24, Martin Theatre).
Two of the season’s jazz highlights are tribute concerts, the first to the late Wayne Shorter’s Weather Report with Kurt Elling, Peter Erskine and Steans Music Institute fellows (June 15, Martin Theatre). Another celebrates the Cuban jazz unit Irakere’s 50th anniversary, with a can’t-miss joint appearance by three legendary founding members: Chucho Valdés, Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval (July 9, Pavilion).
The ninth Fiesta Ravinia also comes with a tribute attached: “Como La Flor,” a Selena tribute (Aug. 31, Carousel Stage). La Original Banda El Limón and an additional artist, to be announced in the spring, also headline.
Tickets go on sale to the public on April 24. A spokesperson for the festival said that ticket prices are determined per show, based on each artist’s contract, and that Ravinia has reduced the price of lawn admission for 2025 CSO programs to $15.
The 2025 Ravinia Festival runs June 5 to Aug. 31 at Green Bay and Lake Cook Roads in Highland Park; complete season information and tickets ravinia.org
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
RAVINIA FESTIVAL PAVILION STAGE
June 6: Heart
June 7: Grace Jones and Janelle Monáe
June 8: The Mohan Sisters
June 12: The Allman Betts Band and The Record Company
June 13: Counting Crows’ “The Complete Sweets!” tour with Gaslight Anthem
June 14: Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’s “Room on the Porch” tour
June 18: The Black Crowes
June 19: James Taylor and His All-Star Band with Tiny Habits
June 20: David Foster and Chris Botti, featuring Katharine McPhee
June 21: Dispatch and John Butler
June 22: Diana Krall
June 26: Lindsey Stirling with the Chicago Philharmonic
June 27: The Roots
June 28: Al Green
June 29: “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Bigger & Weirder” tour with Puddles Pity Party
July 2: Nas with the Chicago Philharmonic
July 5: Chicago with Stevie McVie
July 6: Kygo with Victoria Nadine
July 9: Chucho Valdés, Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo Sandoval celebrate Irakere 50, featuring Emilio Frías
July 11: CSO opening night with Carlos Simon’s “Amen,” Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” with pianist Bruce Liu and conductor Marin Alsop
July 12: Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Montgomery’s “Strum,” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 with the CSO, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and conductor Marin Alsop
July 13: Sutton Foster and Kelli O’Hara with the CSO and conductor Marin Alsop
July 15: Juanes
July 18: Mahler’s Second Symphony with the CSO, soprano Janai Brugger, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, the Chicago Symphony Chorus and conductor Marin Alsop
July 19: Classic Albums Live performs The Eagles’ “Hotel California”
July 20: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, and Kreisler’s La Gitana with the CSO, violinist Himari and conductor Marin Alsop
July 23: Beck with the CSO and conductor Edwin Outwater
July 25: Breaking Barriers Festival with Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sheherazade,” Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, and Tim Corpus’s Great Lake Concerto with the CSO, percussionists Vadim Karpinos and Ed Harrison, and conductor Marin Alsop
July 26: Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms with Spin Doctors
July 27: Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, and Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” with the CSO, clarinetist Stephen Williamson and conductor Marin Alsop
July 31: Lang Lang performs “The Disney Book” with the CSO, erhu player Yimiao Chen, guitarist Plínio Fernandes, singers Celeste Morales and Edmond Rodriguez, and conductor Edwin Outwater
Aug. 1: “The Symphonic Blues Experience” with the CSO, conductor Martin Gellner and narrator Morgan Freeman
Aug. 2: Train with Edwin McCain
Aug. 3: “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” with the CSO, cellist Zlatomir Fung and conductor Laura Jackson
Aug. 6: King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s “Phantom Island” tour with conductor/music director Sarah Hicks and the Chicago Philharmonic
Aug. 7: Earth, Wind & Fire
Aug. 9: Laurie Berkner
Aug. 9: Debussy’s “La mer,” Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, and Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with the CSO, violinist Ray Chen and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya
Aug. 10: “A Night of Mozart” with the CSO, pianist Garrick Ohlsson and conductor Louis Langrée
Aug. 15: Cynthia Erivo with the CSO
Aug. 16: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Joan Tower’s Suite from Concerto for Orchestra, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 with the CSO, pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and conductor Peter Oundjian
Aug. 17: Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1, Chabrier’s “España,” Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio espagnole,” and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Something for the Dark” with the CSO, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and conductor David Robertson
Aug. 21: Lenny Kravitz
Aug. 22: Maren Morris
Aug. 23-24: John Legend for the 20th anniversary of “Get Lifted”
Aug. 27: UB40 with the Buena Vista Orchestra
Aug. 28: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” Sing-Along
Aug. 29: Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga Concert Experience with the Chicago Philharmonic
Aug. 30: Ray LaMontagne with the 20th anniversary of “Trouble”
Aug. 31: Fiesta Ravinia, featuring La Original Banda El Limón, “Como La Flor: The Ultimate Selena Experience Tribute” at the Carousel Stage, and more to be announced.
