Ravinia announces 2014 summer schedule

By Greg Kot, Howard Reich, John von Rhein

7:04 a.m. CST, February 27, 2014

The Ravinia season of more than 130 classical, pop, rock, jazz and dance events will run June 5 to Sept. 14 at Ravinia Park in Highland Park.

Here are some of the highlights:

Jazz Music

Jazz pianists Chucho Valdes, Ramsey Lewis and Dan Tepfer will play the Ravinia Festival this summer, though each in somewhat unconventional contexts.

Valdes, a Cuban jazz master, will be soloist in Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” during a Chicago Symphony Orchestra program conducted by James Conlon at 8 p.m. July 29 in Ravinia's Pavilion. Valdes also will share a bill with vocalist Bebel Gilberto at 8 p.m. July 30 in the Pavilion.

The Ravinia Festival crowd exits the gala celebrating the 80th birthday of Stephen Sondheim with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Shaun Sartin / Chicago Tribune)

Chicagoan Lewis, artistic director of jazz at Ravinia, will appear in performance and conversation at 8 p.m. June 24 in the Martin Theatre.

Tepfer will perform “Goldberg Variations/Variations,” his jazz-inspired transformations of J.S. Bach's masterpiece, at 4 p.m. Aug. 30 in Bennett Gordon Hall (Tepfer released this music as a recording in 2011). Tepfer also will play a jazz program at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 in Bennett Gordon Hall.

Among vocalists, Tony Bennett will return to Ravinia at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 16 to perform in the Pavilion; he will have turned 88.

Singers Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn will perform with pianists Julie Gunn (the singer's wife) and Paul Ford at 2 p.m. July 6 in the Pavilion.

Chicagoan Maggie Brown will present “A Legacy of Jazz and Poetry: Tribute to Oscar Brown Jr.,” a salute to her father, at 6 p.m. Aug. 22 in Bennett Gordon Hall.

Violinist Itzhak Perlman will appear with cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, the Chicago Philharmonic and the Klezmer Conservatory Band in “Eternal Echoes,” 8 p.m. Aug. 18 in the Pavilion.

-Howard Reich

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-ravinia-2014-summer-season-20140226,0,2936495.story?track=rss