This season, Marin Alsop returns to the Ravinia Festival for another summer of innovative programming with the Chicago Symphony. Highlights include a season-opening reimagining of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, showcasing African drumming and original text by former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith (July 14); a pairing of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony with songs by Alma Mahler, featuring Grammy-winning mezzo Sasha Cooke (July 19); and Ravinia’s second annual “Breaking Barriers” festival: “Celebrating Women Composers” (July 21–23). Together with Valentina Peleggi, a graduate of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Alsop leads the three-day mini-festival’s opening concert: a program of CSO premieres from Gabriela Ortiz, Roxanna Panufnik and Gabriela Montero, who appears as soloist in her own Latin Piano Concerto (July 21).

Alsop closes her time at the Festival with two performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute on August 4 & 6. Directed by James Robinson, performers include Janai Brugger (Pamina), Matthew Polenzani (Tamino), Joshua Hopkins (Papageno), and Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night).