mus eums The show is designed to bring classical music to new listeners
PLAY ON The Ravinia Music Box experience uses emotion, illusion and technology to enable new listeners to ‘bump into’ classical music. Here’s how they did it
O
riginally built as an amusement
Experience Center has opened, featuring an
Park, Illinois, US, was a
immersive, 65-seat, wraparound 4D theatre
premier summer opera
with a museum gallery space and an immersive
venue between 1919 and
theatre experience called Bernstein’s Answer,
1931, and has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1936. It now hosts a wide variety of concerts, from
that celebrates the life of Leonard Bernstein. “Our key aims were to create something that would allow audiences who were already at
pop and cabaret to jazz and classical and while
Ravinia to see Sting, Lady Gaga, or Common,
visitor numbers have grown, ticket sales for its
say, to have an unforgettable, transformative
classical offerings have been dwindling for years.
opportunity to ‘bump into’ classical music,
Welz Kauffman, president and CEO of
and to use Bernstein’s incredible life and
Ravinia from 2000 to 2020, wanted to address
work as a throughline to answer a question
this. Realising that audiences were arriving
we’ve probably all asked at some point: What
several hours early for non-classical concerts,
does music mean?” Brad Shelton, creative
he wondered how he could take advantage
director at BRC tells Attractions Management.
of this. When he visited the Abraham Lincoln
“We got to create an emotional installation art piece with some of the best musicians
Illinois, he was blown away by the multimedia
on the planet to tell a story that inspires
show about Abraham Lincoln, and wondered
people to find common ground and come
if something similar could be created to
together, at a time when it feels as though
celebrate the life of composer, conductor and
almost everything is trying to tear us apart.
musician Leonard Bernstein. He got in touch
That’s a win, and it’s hard to imagine a better
with BRC Imagination Arts – the creators
place to have done it than at Ravinia.”
and Museum – and they loved the idea.
attractionsmanagement.com ISSUE 3 2021
Here we speak to those involved to find out more about this exciting project...
photo: BRC Arts
Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield,
of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
48
Fifteen years later, the Ravinia Music Box
park, Ravinia, in Highland
