Ravinia officially opens May 31 with a concert by Chicago jazz legend Ramsey Lewis & the Urban Knights, the venue announced early Thursday.
One of Ravinia Festival’s mottos has long been “something for everyone,” and this year’s lineup comes pretty close to that goal, judging by the lineup of classical, pop, country, jazz, hip-hop and R&B artists slated to perform at the venerable, summerlong music fest.
Ravinia officially opens May 31 with a concert by Chicago jazz legend Ramsey Lewis & the Urban Knights, the venue announced early Thursday.
Among the more than 140 concert events planned for the season are pavilion headliners Kesha (Sept. 8), Lionel Richie (June 11-12), Queen Latifah and Common (Aug. 31), Morrissey (Sept. 14), Lady Antebellum (July 10), T. I. (July 2), Josh Groban (June 7), Weird Al Yankovic with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra (July 28), the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (Aug. 19-20), the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (Aug. 16), Pentatonix (Aug. 15), Tony Bennett (June 21, in his 40th Ravinia concert), Counting Crows (June 29) and Buddy Guy with Blues Traveler and Shemekia Copeland (June 14).
Renee Fleming returns to Ravinia July 28 to star in the Chicago premiere of “Penelope,” a one-act piece by Tom Stoppard and the late Andre Previn (with his final commissioned work), described as an “opera of sorts.”
Lionel Richie performs on November 4,2018, in Mountain View, California.| Steve Jennings/Getty Images
In all, more than 70 acts will be making their Ravinia debuts this year.
“I’m not sure I ever really start off planning any season with a specific thought in mind when it comes to the programming other than the driving force that is our mantra: something for everyone,” said Ravinia CEO Welz Kauffman.
