Marin Alsop mixes it up for her six CSO concerts at Ravinia this summer

One of the great pleasures of witnessing Marin Alsop’s six-year tenure as Ravinia’s chief conductor has been the unpredicted breadth of her interests. Simply programming standard repertoire in standard formats has never held much interest for her.

But amid the variety, it’s possible to define a typical Marin Alsop Ravinia season. Introducing audiences to exceptional young soloists? Bringing a bit of pop-star magic to Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts? Exploring the intersections of classical music, jazz and blues? Partnering with other Chicago-area groups? Premiering new works? Digging deep into CSO specialties? All of the above will be showcased during Alsop’s six concerts July 11 to Aug. 1 that anchor the CSO’s 2026 Ravinia season.

The first CSO concert of any Ravinia season is always festive, but the performance July 11 carries special weight. Not only does it open the orchestra’s 90th season at Ravinia, but it marks the 60th year of the annual gala benefit hosted by the festival’s indefatigable Women’s Board. More important, it will introduce audiences to the CSO’s newly upgraded summer home at Ravinia.

Now named the Hunter Pavilion, honoring Maxine and Thomas B. Hunter III, Ravinia’s familiar open-air amphitheater has been thoroughly updated and redesigned. Everything from its ventilation systems and artists’ dressing rooms to its onstage capabilities and the look of the stage have been rethought. The architectural design replaces the stage’s spare modernism with softer-edged wood and design motifs inspired by the Arts and Crafts style also seen in the Martin Theatre and Tyler Gate.

Alsop has put together a sparkling program for the opener. Lizzo, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, rapper and classically trained flutist, will join the CSO for a star turn. Alsop hatched the plan to feature Lizzo with esteemed flutist Sir James Galway. “I haven’t worked with Lizzo before,” said Alsop during an interview in May. “I had, of course, worked with Jimmy many, many times, and originally he and Lizzo were interested in doing something [together with the CSO]. He wasn’t feeling well, but she stayed in, which was nice.” 

In addition to an orchestration of one of her songs, “If You Love Me” from the album “Special” (2022), Lizzo is set to be featured on flute for two classical pieces: Galway’s edition of 19th-century Italian flutist-composer Giulio Briccialdi’s Carnival of Venice and the popular “Flower Duet” from Leo Delibes’ opera Lakmé, for which she will be joined by an alumna of Sistema Ravinia, one of the Reach Teach Play® programs supported by the festival’s annual gala.

Lizzo studied flute from elementary school through her college years at the University of Houston. She doesn’t hide her classical chops from her young fans. (Indeed, several flutists in the Sistema Ravinia orchestras cite Lizzo as sparking their interest in joining the program.)

“Anyone who can promote an interest in classical music to younger generations,” said Alsop, “they’re definitely high on my list.”

Furthering the youth movement, Alsop has invited the acclaimed young South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim back to Ravinia for the July 11 opener as soloist in Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. Lim stunned audiences at his Ravinia debut in 2023 with Alsop and the CSO in Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto.

Alsop met Lim during the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — the leading American competition for pianists, held every four years in Fort Worth, Texas, since 1962 — where for the past two editions she has conducted the final round, which features the competitors in orchestral works with the Fort Worth Symphony. In 2022, at age 18, Lim became the youngest pianist to win the prestigious competition’s gold medal. He has since become one of classical music’s most exciting stars.

“Yunchan wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” said Alsop. “He really came out of nowhere and wowed everyone throughout the competition. Some of what he played was almost superhuman. His technical level and prowess are incredible.

“But for me, he’s just a beautiful poet. And to be that kind of artistic poet at such a young age, it’s really hard to wrap your arms around. He said to me, ‘All I really want to do is go to a mountaintop and play my piano.’ He’s just devoted to the music and his instrument. I’m so glad I could talk him into coming back for this special event.”

Alsop’s second Ravinia concert, an all-Beethoven program on July 19, marks the Ravinia/CSO debut of another ascendant artist, Spanish violinist María Dueñas. The concert opens with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) and Dueñas will be the soloist in the composer’s Violin Concerto. Alsop grew acquainted with her performing on the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra’s tour last year; Alsop is the ensemble’s principal guest conductor.

“María is super-talented and one of the up-and-coming young soloists,” Alsop said. “She does her own cadenzas, which is quite impressive as well.”

Since 2018, Alsop and the CSO have been working their way through Gustav Mahler’s nine symphonies. On July 23, she will lead the CSO in the composer’s Symphony No. 6, leaving only Nos. 3 and 7 for future seasons.

“The CSO is legendary of course,” she said, “and this is their repertoire — really meaty and deep and complex. And the symphonies for me are so symbolic of the world we’re living in right now. They’re filled with darkness, but also that glimmer of hope that we all need.”

Early in Alsop’s career, Leonard Bernstein, the legendary composer-conductor renowned for championing Mahler’s music, became a mentor and close friend.

“Mahler was such an important composer to my teacher,” said Alsop, “and we talked a lot about Mahler, so I’ve enjoyed working on the Mahler symphonies with the CSO.”

She is in the process of recording a complete Mahler symphony cycle with the Vienna Radio Symphony on the Pentatone label. She was the orchestra’s chief conductor for six seasons and was appointed the ensemble’s honorary conductor at the end of her tenure.

“The lovely part of it is that we’re recording in the Musikverein,” said Alsop, referring to the fabled Vienna hall where Bernstein made some of his famed Mahler recordings.

Mahler regularly revised his symphonies, and arguments rage over the order of the Sixth Symphony’s movements and the number of hammer blows in the final movement. The symphony is one of Mahler’s most turbulent and tragic, and the blows have come to signify fate’s unpredictable cruelty. Mahler originally included five blows, then cut it back to three and eventually two. Most conductors choose three, but Alsop is planning on two, which Mahler called for in the symphony’s final revision.

“That’s what Mahler arrived at himself,” she said. “Perhaps, for the time we’re living in, we should do more,” she added with a rueful smile.

The July 24-25 weekend also marks the fifth annual edition of Breaking Barriers, a project Ravinia and Alsop introduced to explore fields where women’s contributions have been historically overlooked. This year’s focus is women film composers. On July 24, Alsop conducts a concert that opens with a “mini masterclass” using video to illustrate how different music can change our perception of a single movie scene. The concert includes excerpts from film scores by women, including “Encanto” and “Cider House Rules,” along with the Symphonic Suite from Bernstein’s score for “On the Waterfront.”

The concert closes with the premiere of a Ravinia commission, Unsung, by composer Laura Karpman. The piece combines music and brief spoken excerpts from four movie scripts, among them “Spartacus” and “Imitation of Life,” to shine an unexpected spotlight on the movies’ women characters.

A major premiere of Alsop’s Ravinia season comes July 31 with Carlos Simon’s rousing, gospel-inflected Good News Mass. Like Bernstein’s Mass, which Alsop twice led at Ravinia, including for a PBS “Great Performances” taping in 2019, it bears little resemblance to the Roman Catholic Latin mass that inspired composers from Mozart to Verdi. Ravinia co-commissioned the piece, which had its world premiere last year by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to the orchestra, onstage forces include a gospel choir, vocal soloists and a speaker, as well as visual art from filmmaker Melina Matsoukas. Text and libretto are by Courtney Ware Lett and Marc Bamuthi Joseph.

“Carlos is a composer I’ve worked with a few times,” Alsop said. “The piece is a celebration of American gospel music, and I thought doing it with Dvořák’s New World Symphony, which is so heavily influenced by spirituals, could be a really nice pairing. It’s very listenable.”

Alsop is bringing back the 12-member Adrian Dunn Singers as the piece’s gospel choir. Based in Chicago, the choir made its Ravinia debut in 2022, singing an arrangement of the New World Symphony’s poignant “Going Home” theme before Alsop and the CSO performed the complete symphony. In 2023, the Dunn Singers returned in a piece by Reena Esmail. Titled See Me, it served as a prelude to the concert’s main work, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

“The Chicago Symphony Chorus is a joy to work with, of course,” said Alsop, “but it’s nice to get this different perspective. Sometimes we work with just Adrian Dunn’s group, sometimes we mix the two. When I first started my [chief conductor] role at Ravinia, I really wanted to figure out the landscape. I wanted to see who was around, who I could partner with, what collaborative project we could make together. It’s been very rewarding.”

Alsop’s final concert of the summer, on Aug. 1, also includes a Ravinia premiere, but the soloist is a longtime Ravinia favorite, pianist Emanuel Ax. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his debut with the CSO, both downtown and at Ravinia. The premiere, a concerto that John Williams wrote especially for Ax, includes hints of the styles of such jazz greats as Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson. It had its world premiere last summer at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts.

“I’ve only heard a recording of the concerto,” said Alsop, “but I love it. I’m so glad Manny will be doing it. I’ve worked with Manny many, many times, but it’s been a while.”

The entire Aug. 1 program has an all-American feel, opening with John Adams’ headlong Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The concert closes with Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, written in the United States just before the composer became an American citizen.

Young soloists in old favorites, old friends in brand-new works. Another Alsop/CSO Ravinia summer.