Ravinia Music Box
Even Leonard Bernstein took a sabbatical.
More than a dozen weeks each year during the 1960s, Bernstein was occupied with conducting the New York Philharmonic. In between dates of making music, there was precious little time to make music. So in 1965, he took a year off to compose.
The Ravinia Music Box has been busy for over a dozen weeks a year for a few years running now too. So we’re having a little sabbatical for the rest of 2024.
Thank you for making the Ravinia Music Box part of your Ravinia experience. We’re composing some great things for the festival, and we look forward to sharing them with you.
Experience Music in a Brand-New Way!
The Ravinia Music Box features a wraparound holographic theater and an interactive gallery space that together provide an immersive encounter with music’s history and inspirational power. The experience introduces all lovers of music, especially new and young listeners of classical music, to its immense, unexpected impact and further powers of music to stoke the imagination. Recently named a Gold Winner at the Muse Awards for Creativity, the Ravinia Music Box was created by BRC Imagination Arts, the experience design and production company behind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Ryman Auditorium Backstage Tour in Nashville, among many other projects.
Visit Before Your Concert Starts
The Ravinia Music Box is open at many Pavilion concerts, from gate opening through intermission, with shows starting every 20 minutes from the top of the hour. Admission is free to all patrons in the park. New This Year: During or after a concert ticket purchase, an advance reservation can be made online as an “add-on” to skip the line at the door.
How to Reserve a Pass
- While adding concert tickets to your order, free “Music Box Experience” reservations are offered as an add-on within the same prompt for rental chairs.
- If you have already purchased tickets, you may still reserve a pass online until 24 hours before the concert by visiting the that date’s information page from the season schedule.
- Click the “Add-on items” button to order your free “Music Box Experience” reservations. You will receive a confirmation message to show at the door for Ravinia Music Box staff to place you in the reserved entry queue.
In the Sandra K. Crown Theater: Bernstein’s Answer
Throughout his life, Leonard Bernstein used his compositions to confront big questions about the world around him, but for all his encouragement of listeners to find and use meaningful connections to brighten existence, there was at least one riddle that he couldn’t unravel through music alone. In the multi-sensory journey of Bernstein’s Answer , a cast of special guests combine with surreal visuals and a soundtrack of his works to guide audiences to feel out a deeply personal answer through the experience of this iconic musician.
But before Bernstein was “Big Stuff,” he wrote that bluesy song (which put him on Broadway’s map) in admiration of the brilliant voice—in music and politics—of Billie Holiday.
In the Ravinia Associates Board Gallery: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill
Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic is a vivid, intimate, compelling portrait of the consummate jazz and blues singer—one of 20th–century music’s most iconic figures—in April 1957, a significant moment in her life just two years before her death at the age of 44. Beautifully captured through the lens of photographer Jerry Dantzic, the 375 running foot exhibition provides a rare glimpse into Billie Holiday’s public and private life through 65 pigment prints with labels, curated panels, ephemera, projected video, and vinyl excerpts from the work of renowned writer and author Zadie Smith.
Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the Jerry Dantzic Archives.
Frequently Asked Questions
During Ravinia’s summer concert season, the Ravinia Music Box is open on many nights with an event in the Pavilion, from the time the park opens through intermission, with shows starting every 20 minutes from the top of the hour. Unless otherwise noted on the webpage for an event, the experience center is not open at Carousel, Martin Theatre, or Bennett Gordon Hall performances.
During the school year, the Ravinia Music Box is available for field trips.
Admission is included with your concert ticket! Check in at the door to the Ravinia Music Box. Valid Ravinia park admission is required for entry.
New This Year: During or after a concert ticket purchase, an advance reservation can be made online as an “add-on” to skip the line at the door.
The building is located just north of the Dining Pavilion, facing the northernmost section of the Lawn and near the park’s north gate. The entrance is on the ground level. See the location (#4) on the park map.
No food or drink (except water) is allowed in the building. The Ravinia Music Box is open to all ages.
While Ravinia is currently developing an exhibit for the gallery, there will not be a touring exhibit shown during the 2024 season.
The gallery is the concluding experience in the Ravinia Music Box, following the 15-minute theater program. The gallery is designed to receive visitors directly from the theater, which begins a new showing every 20 minutes on the hour.
