Ravinia Festival News

Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin will perform their concert 'An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin' at the Mayo Center on October 1.

After a fast online sell-out of the Aug. 21 show, rock band Counting Crows will return for a second concert at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 24. Pavilion tickets for the show are $65, and lawn tickets are $27.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the second extension of Oh Coward!, words and music by Noel Coward, devised by Roderick Cook. The production, which began its run in November 2009 is directed by Jim Corti, with musical direction by Doug Peck. The production has been extended through April 18, 2010, at Writers' Theatre, 664 Vernon Avenue in Glencoe.

The award-winning and multi-talented Patti LuPone makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut, Saturday, May 15, at 8 p.m. In her concert 'Matters of the Heart,' LuPone takes the audience on a tour of the crimes, affairs and mysteries of the heart, and explores love in its various iterations in performances of more than two dozen songs.

Ravinia Festival celebrates its patrons with Customer Appreciation Day on Saturday, May 22, during a day filled with discounts and the chance to purchase added seating to some sold-out pavilion concerts, as well as promotions and samples from some of Ravinia's supporters.

In honor of Margaret Wise Brown's 100th Birthday, GPR Records (Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, Richard Cohen, artistic directors) will release a live recording of the concert based on Brown's two best selling children's books Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

In honor of Margaret Wise Brown's 100th Birthday, The InterSchool Orchestra of New York (ISO) (www.isorch.org) in association with GPR Records (Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, Richard Cohen, artistic directors) have announced a live concert based on Brown's two best selling children's books Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

In honor of Margaret Wise Brown's 100th Birthday, The InterSchool Orchestra of New York (ISO) (www.isorch.org) in association with GPR Records (Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, Richard Cohen, artistic directors) have announced a live concert based on Brown's two best selling children's books Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

The award-winning and multi-talented Patti LuPone makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut, Saturday, May 15, at 8 p.m. In her concert 'Matters of the Heart,' LuPone takes the audience on a tour of the crimes, affairs and mysteries of the heart, and explores love in its various iterations in performances of more than two dozen songs.

Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman has been selected to lead a team of Illinois decision-makers-including leaders from the Illinois State Board of Education, The Polk Brothers Foundation and the University of Illinois-at a multi-state Education Leadership Institute convened by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Illinois team joins four others-led by the Oregon Arts Commission; Washington States Arts Commission; New Hampshire State Council on the Arts; and the Ohio Arts Council-at the NEA Institute in Chicago on July 26-28. The goal is to create strategies to strengthen arts education. The Illinois team will explore the role of the arts in developing 21st-century skills.

Marin Theatre Company Presents WOODY GUTHRIE'S AMERICAN SONG 5/27-6/20

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce that A Minister's Wife, Writers' Theatre's musical adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Candida, will be produced by Lincoln Center Theater in the 2010-11 season. The original musical was conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, adapted by Austin Pendleton with music by Joshua Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen. The Lincoln Center production will be directed by Halberstam. Performances begin on Thursday, April 7, 2011 and opens on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street, New York City).

In honor of Margaret Wise Brown's 100th Birthday, The InterSchool Orchestra of New York (ISO) (www.isorch.org) in association with GPR Records (Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, Richard Cohen, artistic directors) have announced a live concert based on Brown's two best selling children's books Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

Stowe Arts Academy University Preparatory has selected Ravinia Festival President and CEO Welz Kauffman to receive its prestigious 'Voices of Freedom' Award. The prize goes to an individual whose work stands out in providing creative and educational outlets that empower students to build a better world. Kauffman was chosen by Stowe's local School Council to receive the prize for developing Ravinia Festival's REACH*TEACH*PLAY educational programs.

In honor of Margaret Wise Brown's 100th Birthday, The InterSchool Orchestra of New York (ISO) (www.isorch.org) in association with GPR Records (Glen Roven, Peter Fitzgerald, Richard Cohen, artistic directors) have announced a live concert based on Brown's two best selling children's books Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

Timothy Nolen (Phantom, Cyrano), Lisa Vroman (Phantom, Les Misérables), and Rob Berman (Broadway, regional, and Encores! Music Director) have been named judges for the 2010 Lotte Lenya Competition, an annual international competition that recognizes talented young singer-actors, aged 19-32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire.

Writers' Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce that A Minister's Wife, Writers' Theatre's musical adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Candida, will be produced by Lincoln Center Theater in the 2010-11 season. The original musical was conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, adapted by Austin Pendleton with music by Joshua Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen. The Lincoln Center production will be directed by Halberstam. Performances begin on Thursday, April 7, 2011 and opens on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street, New York City).

As previously announced, this year's Ravinia Festival includes a new production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun; a gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and featuring highlights from Ravinia's Sondheim productions; Ravinia Music Director James Conlon's 60th birthday celebration taking the Chicago Symphony Orchestra into the Martin Theatre for two Mozart operas, featuring mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in Così fan tutte and baritone Nathan Gunn in The Marriage of Figaro; Leonard Bernstein's Vocal Suite from Candide; Broadway vocalist Kelli O'Hara and pianist Hershey Felder in intimate solo shows in the Martin Theatre; world premieres with Concert Dance, Inc. and the debut of Delfos Danza Contemporánea; the presentation of Ballet Folklorico de Mexico; and a national radio broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Today, the Ravinia organization revealed that George Hearn has been added to the cast of Annie Get Your Gun as Buffalo Bill Cody, joining Patti LuPone as Annie Oakley and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler. Paul Gemignani will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the show's three performances, Aug. 13-15. Hearn and LuPone also reunite with Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and the CSO for an all-Sondheim gala concert on July 31.

Appearing together again after their Tony Award® winning performances in Evita, Patti LuPone joins Mandy Patinkin onstage for An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. These Broadway legends will bring their critically acclaimed theatre concert to the Joe R. and Theresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts for one performance only on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 8 p.m.

Christoph Eschenbach will conduct the New York Philharmonic in a program of music by German and Austrian composers from three centuries: the U.S. Premiere of Matthias Pintscher's towards Osiris, Berg's Violin Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist, and Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 1, arranged by Schoenberg, Thursday, March 18, 2010, at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 19, at 2:00 p.m., and Saturday, March 20, at 8:00 p.m.