Ravinia Festival News

CHICAGO—The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) released its fiscal year 2013 results at its Annual Meeting today at Symphony Center. The 2012/13 season marked the CSOA's third consecutive year of record-breaking fundraising, with ticket sales at an all-time high, according to Jay Henderson, chairman, and Deborah F. Rutter, president of the CSOA, who also presented the artistic and financial highlights of the season.

Laura Benanti - the Tony Award-winning actress and singer, also known for her TV roles on 'Go On,' 'The Playboy Club' and 'Law & Order: SVU' - will follow the recent release of her debut album, In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention with a slate of projects through the next year.

Boston Baroque has announced its New Directions Series for 2013 - 2014 Season, featuring two chamber concerts at Longy School of Music today, October 19, 2013 and Saturday, March 29, 2014: TIME CURVES and MONOLOGUES.

CABRILLO MUSIC THEATRE welcomes Davis Gaines (Southern California's Longest-running PHANTOM) and Victoria Strong in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza premiere of Cole Porter's most raucous, sexy, and best loved musical ever, KISS ME, KATE! Cabrillo Music Theatre's 20th Anniversary Season kicks off with the popular favorite tonight, October 18th, 2013, playing until Sunday, October 27th, at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.

CHICAGO-Promoroma, the special agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, announced today that it awarded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's (CSO) eminent music director, Maestro Riccardo Muti, with the "Ambassador of the Culture of Rome in the U.S." award during a presentation recently at Symphony Center.

Just last week, Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group announced the casting and initial tour schedule for their spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera launching a major North American Tour in Providence, R.I. at the Providence Performing Arts Center. With newly reinvented staging and stunning scenic design, this new version of PHANTOM, the most successful musical of all-time, will be performed by a cast and orchestra of 52, making this one of the largest productions on tour in North America. Meet the cast below!

Today, the star released a promotional video for the album, to give fans a taste of what tunes and styles they can expect.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation will be presenting Soyeon Kate Lee, 2010 Piano Award winner, on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lee will be performing the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank's Sonata Andina No. 2, a Naumburg commission.

Bernard Labadie will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's “Let the Bright Seraphim” from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Fre?de?ric Antoun in his Philharmonic debut, bass Andrew Foster- Williams, and the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey, replacing Principal Trumpet Philip Smith, who is on temporary leave from the Orchestra, will make his Philharmonic solo debut in these performances. The concerts will take place Thursday, November 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m.

Boston Baroque and its Founder/Music Director, Martin Pearlman, have chosen to acknowledge a monumental moment in their history with a monument of music: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the 'Choral' Symphony, which concludes with the uplifting Ode to Joy.

For the first DG Conservatory event of the fall, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, today, October 8, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Dramatists Guild's New York office, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Suite 710. This free seminar is opening a limited number of seats to the public and reservations are required.

For the first DG Conservatory event of the fall, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, on Tuesday, October 8, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Dramatists Guild's New York office, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Suite 710. This free seminar is opening a limited number of seats to the public and reservations are required.

Kicking off its 26th Season, Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere stage adaptation of Marguerite Duras' The North China Lover, translated byLeigh Hafrey and adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman. The North China Lover runs September 25 - November 10, 2013 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. You never forget your first lover. The affair plays like a moving picture over and over in your mind: passionate, consuming, secret, taboo.

Bernard Labadie will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Frédéric Antoun in his Philharmonic debut, bass Andrew Foster- Williams, Philharmonic Principal Trumpet Philip Smith, and the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The concerts will take place Thursday, November 7, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m.

CABRILLO MUSIC THEATRE announces its full cast to join the previously announced Davis Gaines (Southern California's Longest-running PHANTOM) and Victoria Strong in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza premiere of Cole Porter's most raucous, sexy, and best loved musical ever, KISS ME, KATE! Cabrillo Music Theatre's 20th Anniversary Season kicks off with the popular favorite on Friday, October 18th, 2013, playing until Sunday, October 27th, at the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, located at 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.

Popular recording artist, Broadway star, and concert performer Linda Eder announced today that 'Christmas Where You Are', the follow-u pto her 2000 CD 'Christmas Stays the Same' (on which her 2001 Bravo-TV special and DVD were also based) will be self-released on Monday, October 14, 2013. The CD will be sold exclusively via Eder's web site at www.LindaEder.com and the star promises CD signings and sales at concert dates from November 1 through the end of the year.

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) announced casting today for two theatrical productions in November: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, the Iranian absurdist play about isolation co-presented with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), running Nov. 3-9, 2013, and Birds Do It, Bees Do It..., the annual cabaret performance Nov. 5, 2013, created by Rob Lindley and Doug Peck.

The Dallas Opera has announced the opening production of their 2013-2014 “By Love Transformed” Season: Georges Bizet's colorful, sensual and passionate 19th century masterpiece, CARMEN, one of the most beloved and popular works in the entire opera canon.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Sting's 'The Last Ship' and the Broadway In Chicago spring season, 'Oz' in 3D, updates on TV's 'The Sound Of Music' and 'Glee,' plus Groff at Ravinia, 'Lanyard Skynerd' at Martyrs, a road trip 'Ragtime' and more!

Tony Award winner and Broadway star Patti LuPone returns to Carnegie Hall on Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, presenting her solo show, Far Away Places-a travelogue of styles and stories that traces the actress's wanderlust with songs from the likes of Kurt Weill, Cole Porter, and Edith Piaf, conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, and with music direction and arrangements by Joseph Thalken.