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Ravinia Music Box to Open with Theater Experience Celebrating The Legacy Of Leonard Bernstein
Posted July 21, 2021
On Saturday, August 7, the Ravinia Festival and Jeffrey P. Haydon, its President and CEO, will officially unveil the Ravinia Music Box (RMB) and its immersive theater experience, titled Bernstein’s Answer, and fully open the experience center to the public.
The RMB features an immersive, 65-seat, wraparound 4D theater with a museum gallery space, created by BRC Imagination Arts, the experience design and production company behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, and the Ryman Auditorium Backstage Tour in Nashville, among many other projects.
BRC worked closely with Ravinia’s then-President and CEO Welz Kauffman, whose creative inspiration for this project launched the decade-long collaboration with the festival’s leadership, board, staff, and donors, as well as Jamie Bernstein—the eldest daughter of the iconic composer, conductor, educator, and humanitarian, Leonard Bernstein. The goal of the project is to introduce, in an engaging, fun, and interactive way, new listeners to classical music, as well as to perhaps offer new insights to those who are already fans.
Admission to the RMB will be free to concertgoers at any performance, but tickets are required and will be available at the Ravinia Box Office and at the experience center. The RMB will be open on all concert nights from the time the park opens until the concert starts. It will also be available for field trips during the school year.
In celebration of this opening, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performance that evening, Saturday, August 7, features an all-Bernstein program titled Unboxing Bernstein: A Live Revue, led by rising American conductor Teddy Abrams in his Ravinia and CSO debuts, with guest artists Morgan James, Sheléa, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Tony Yazbeck, and Vocality. Author and narrator Jamie Bernstein will also participate. The program features selections from Leonard Bernstein’s expansive catalogue of stage and orchestral works, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, West Side Story, and Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’).