“Music returned to the Highland Park grounds of the Ravinia Festival last summer. But this summer might more accurately be called its grand return,” writes Hannah Edgar in Friday’s (3/25) Chicago Tribune. “All the festival buildings and food vendors will reopen, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Chorus will both return for their usual six-week residency, and the festival will resume its usual performance load…. Just a few of those performances are still holdovers from the 2020 festival that never was. For the most part, the 2022 season is the first mostly programmed under the aegis of Ravinia’s new leader, president and CEO Jeff Haydon…. Major new initiatives [include] Ravinia’s Breaking Barriers series [focusing] on trailblazers in classical music…. The inaugural series focus this year, women conductors, takes inspiration from Ravinia chief conductor and curator Marin Alsop…. Former festival music director James Conlon [will lead] concert versions of ‘Don Giovanni’ … and ‘La clemenza di Tito.’ … Jessie Montgomery—the current CSO composer-in-residence whose music is featured twice during Ravinia’s Breaking Barriers series,” will serve as resident composer of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Piano and Strings division. Featured ensembles to perform at Ravinia include the Chicago Sinfonietta and Chicago Philharmonic.
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