Ravinia celebrates all things Lincoln

One of the Ravinia Festival's most well-received recent innovations is its free "family fun day," and this summer's all-day event, set for Sept. 7, will offer a glimpse into Ravinia's full-scale 2009 celebration of the Lincoln bicenntennial.

The Sunday event will offer a "Lawn of Lincoln" display, with a wide range of music and family activities throughout the park, with young people offered a variety of "fun" things such as face painting, moon jumps, balloon artists and crafts.

Other Lincoln-themed events scheduled throughout the day will include an interactive mock news conference with the 16th president, staged by a member of the Association of Lincoln Presenters. Youngsters and their parents are encouraged ask questions of "Mr. Lincoln."

Ravinia will also display an eight-foot-long wood carving of the Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, created by 96-year-old Manny Shellist. The address will also be read by actor Michael Krebs as Lincoln. Krebs will also perform throughout the day in the park, with Debra Ann Miller in the role of Mary Todd Lincoln.

The Ravinia Festival commissioned Chicago composer Elbio Barilari to create a new work that chronicles the connection between Abraham Lincoln and his Mexican counterpart, Benito Juarez. Barilari will perform this work with the seven-piece Ondas Ensemble, featuring special guest jazz trumpeter Orbert Davis, singer Juan Rivera of Sones de Mexico and narrator Henry Godinez from the Goodman Theatre, at 6:30 p.m. in the National City Bank Private Dining facility in Ravinia's dining pavilion.

The world premiere, tentatively titled "Lincolnania," features texts by Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and will be sung in Spanish and English as part of Chicago's Latin Music Festival. The performance will also be broadcast live on WFMT 98.7-FM.

Another major event will take place at 3 p.m. in the Pavilion, when Karen Deal conducts the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in a concert of American works, including pieces by John Philip Sousa and Aaron Copland, along with an excerpt from Antonin Dvorák's "New World" Symphony.

Other musical performances will include:

• The Lincoln Trio, an ensemble-in-residence at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston, will perform at 1:30 p.m. in the Martin Theatre. In 2009, Ravinia will collaborate with The LincolnTrio for performances throughout Illinois as part of the state's year-long bicentennisl celebration. Featured will be newly composed works for piano trio that Ravinia commissioned through the festival's first composition competition.

• Chris Vallillo, a member of the Illinois Arts Council, will perform music on six-string and slide guitars at 4 p.m. in the Martin Theatre. His CD, "With Abraham Lincoln in Song," takes the audience on a musical journey, making history come alive with a blending of music and storytelling.

• Six-year-old pianist Emily Bear, whio made her Ravinia Festival debut in 2007, will give a recital at 3:15 p.m. in Bennett-Gordon Hall. Emily has already performed with such musical luminaries as Ramsey Lewis, Corky Siegel and Ravinia president and CEO Welz Kauffman.

• Chicago-based jazz singer, songwriter and pianist Patricia Barber will perform at 7 p.m. in the Martin Theatre. Ms. Barber was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship to create her ninth CD, "Mythologies."

• Other performances in the Pavilion will include Be the Groove, a high-energy rhythm ensemble comprising dancers from all over the Chicago area, at 1:15 p.m.; mezzo-soprano Tracie Luck performing excerpts from the opera "Margaret Garner" at 4:45 p.m.; and the North Shore Concert Band, a 110-member symphonic band of Chicago-area musicians, at 6 p.m.

• Additional Bennett-Gordon Hall performances will feature sopranos Elizabeth Norman and Michelle Areyzaga, tenor Bryan Griffin, baritone Jonathan Beyer, oboist Anne Bach and percussionist Tina Laughlin joining Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, on piano, in a performance of Chicago composer Lita Grier's songs, including "Songs from Spoon River,"originally commissioned by Ravinia in 2004, at 12:15 p.m.; Young competition winners, comprising students who attend the Music Institute of Chicago or Midwest Young Artists who have previously won local competitions, at 2 p.m.; the Harlem Quartet, comprising first-place Laureates of the Sphinx Competition who made their acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2006, at 4:15 p.m.; and Child's Play Touring Theatre, a company based in Chicago dedicated exclusively to performing works written by children, at 6:45 p.m.

• A stage on the north lawn will feature popular-music and gospel performances during the day, and the Jessie White Tumblers will perform on the lawn at 3:15 p.m.

• Other activities throughout the day will include "Balloon Man" Aaron Hays and comedy juggler Guy Collins. Ravinia's instrument-petting zoo, featured throughout the summer in the festival's family space before selected Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts, offers children of all ages a chance to try and play the instruments.

Although there is no admission, families are encouraged to bring a non-perishable or canned food item to be donated to the Moraine Township Food Pantry and Northern Illinois Food Bank. Also, new and slightly used general-interest books for kids from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade are also desired for donation to Chicago public schools, distributed by Book Worm Angels, in association with the Rock for Reading organization.

There are no advance ticket sales this free all-day event, with seating in the Pavilion, Martin Theatre and Bennett-Gordon Hall available on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, visit ravinia.org