Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn Set for Ravinia Festival, 8/31

Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin and opera superstar Nathan Gunn combine their vocal talents to create a unique and powerful evening at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 31, in the pavilion. Featured in People magazine's 2008 list of "The Sexiest Men Alive," baritone Gunn has performed in opera houses around the world and last appeared at Ravinia in the festival's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Tony and Emmy award-winner Patinkin has appeared in the Broadway productions of Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, The Wild Party, The Winter's Tale and The Knife, as well as in CBS's Chicago Hope and Criminal Minds. They will be joined by pianists Julie Gunn and Paul Ford. 

Ravinia presents a free screening of the award-winning documentary A Good Man at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 30, in Bennett Gordon Hall. From 2007 to 2009 Directors Gordon Quinn (Hoop Dreams) and Bob Hercules (Forgiving Dr. Mengele) documented choreographer Bill T. Jones's struggles and triumphs in creating a commissioned full-evening dance-theater work for Ravinia Festival. The movie was co-produced by American Masters, which will air it nationally Nov. 11 on PBS. Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, who hired the Tony-winning Jones to create a work celebrating the Lincoln bicentennial in 2009, also invited the filmmakers in at the very beginning so they could capture the two-year creative process in bringing Fondly Do We Hope ... Fervently Do We Pray from concept to stage. After the screening join Jones, Quinn, Hercules, Kauffman and set designer Bjorn Amelan for a discussion about the film. Tickets for the screening are sold out.

Ravinia's 2011 season celebrates the bicentennial of composer Franz Liszt focusing on his piano works, including a Bennett Gordon Hall recital featuring pianist Eldar Nebolsin at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 4. The program includes the composer's solo piano version of Totentanz as well as the Ravinia premieres of Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's Das Wandern, Wohin and Der Müller und der Bach and Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte song cycle. A faculty member of the International Institute of Chamber Music in Madrid, Nebolsin has appeared with some of the most famous orchestras of the world. In 2005 he was awarded the Sviatoslav Richter Prize in the first outing of the International Piano Competition in Moscow, where he was also honored for best classical concerto performance.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 4, superstar and Country Music Awards Entertainer of the Year Carrie Underwood returns to the festival in a brand-new show with orchestra. With number-one singles including "Before He Cheats," "I Told You So" and "Last Name," Underwood continues to win awards from the Country Music, American Country, American Music, People's Choice, Billboard and Grammy awards, as well as CMT. A Grand Ole Opry inductee, Underwood recently collaborated with Tony Bennett on his Duets II album.

Having become one of the most successful alternative rock bands to hit the east coast in the late 1990s, Guster makes its festival debut at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, on a double bill with Jack's Mannequin, also making its debut. Jack's Mannequin's most recent album, The Glass Passenger, reached number eight on the Billboard 200 chart.

Iconic rock artists bring the music and the memories to the festival including the Ravinia debut of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lynyrd Skynyrd at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1. The band has sold over 30 million albums featuring such hits as "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama."

American band and Grammy award-winners Doobie Brothers return to Ravinia at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2. With 16 albums producing such hits as "Black Water," "Listen to the Music" and "Rockin Down the Highway," the Doobie Brothers have earned gold and platinum status for several of their albums.

Ravinia Festival is located at Lake Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park, IL. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit Ravinia.org or call the Ravinia Box Office at 847-266-5100. All summer long Ravinia will accept donations of non-perishable food and toiletry items for local food depositories; donations can be dropped off in the plaza of the main entrance of the park. Ravinia Festival welcomes all fans to follow, connect and interact online at backstage.ravinia.org, facebook.com (search Ravinia Festival) and twitter.com/raviniafestival. Listen to the music of Ravinia artists at the festival's free online radio station at Raviniaradio.org, which is available 24 hours a day.

Ravinia Festival is a not-for-profit organization.

Tuesday, August 30, 7:30 p.m. - Bennett Gordon Hall
Screening of Documentary Film A Good Man including post-screening discussion with
Bill T. Jones, Founder, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Bjorn Amelan, Creative Director/Set Designer, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Welz Kauffman, Ravinia President and CEO
Gordon Quinn, Artistic Director/Co-founder/Co-director, Kartemquin Films
Bob Hercules, Co-director, Kartemquin Films
Admission: SOLD OUT/Park opens at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, August 31, 8 p.m. - Pavilion
An Evening with Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn
Paul Ford, Piano +
Julie Gunn, Piano +
In Honor of Sandra K. Crown
Tickets: $75/Lawn $15/Park opens at 5 p.m

Thursday, September 1, 8 p.m. - Pavilion
Lynyrd Skynyrd +
Media Support: WDRV
Tickets: $65/Lawn $27**/Park opens at 5 p.m.Friday, September 2, 8 p.m. - Pavilion
Doobie Brothers
Season Sponsor: Abbott
Tickets: $70/Lawn $27**/Park opens at 5 p.m.

Saturday, September 3, 7:30 p.m. - Pavilion
Guster +
Jack's Mannequin +
Media Support: WTMX
Tickets: $60/Lawn $22**/Park opens at 5 p.m.

Sunday, September 4, 6 p.m. - Bennett Gordon Hall

Liszt 200

Eldar Nebolsin, Piano
Schubert:
Sonata in A Major, D.664
Beethoven: Sonata No. 4 in E-Flat Major, Op. 7
Schubert/arr. Liszt: Das Wandern *

Wohin *
Der Müller und der Bach *
Beethoven/arr. Liszt: An die ferne Geliebte, S. 469 *
Liszt:
Totentanz (version for solo piano), S. 525

Tickets: $10/No Lawn Sales/Park opens at 5 p.m.

Sunday, September 4, 8 p.m. - Pavilion
Carrie Underwood
Ravinia Festival Orchestra
Charlie Judge, Conductor +
Featured Sponsor: United Airlines
Tickets: SOLD OUT/Park opens at 5 p.m.

Repertoire being performed at Ravinia for the first time is marked with an asterisk (*). Artists making their Ravinia debut are marked with a plus sign (+). Lawn ticket prices are increased by $5 on the day of the show when marked by a double asterisk (**).

 

Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia

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