Free Concert At Ravinia Festival To Support Highland Park Community

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Ravinia Festival is set to host a free concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Sunday to help provide the community with comfort and connection in the wake of last week's massacre of July 4 paradegoers.

"We are proud to be a space where families and friends reach across generations to enjoy celebrations of life as well as find moments of peace and healing," festival officials said in a message to the community. "We invite you, our Highland Park neighbors, to join us in this musical sanctuary with complimentary tickets for this Sunday’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert."

The performance will feature performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's “Pastoral” Symphony No. 6 and Richard Strauss' "An Alpine Symphony" conducted by Chief Conductor Marin Alsop, according to Ravinia Festival Association representatives.

Free tickets remained available to both the pavilion and the lawn as of Friday afternoon, according to the festival website. A Ravinia account is needed to order tickets, and there is a four-ticket-per-person limit on orders.

Ravinia representatives encouraged the public to donate to the July 4th Highland Park Shooting Response Fund established by the Highland Park Community Foundation, which has pledged to distribute all contributions directly to victims and survivors or the organizations that support them.

Last Wednesday, festival officials announced the cancellation of all live shows through Sunday in response to the shooting, which included scheduled performances from Sheryl Crow, John Fogerty, Michael Franti and Spearhead and a show with Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak.

Ravinia re-opened on Tuesday with Mac Saturn opening for the Black Crowes, whose lead singer Chris Robinson introduced “My Morning Song” as a song about optimism, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“Optimism that maybe one day we’ll be able to wake up and be in a country where your leaders care more about our health and our rights than [expletive] guns and [expletive] like that," Robinson said, according to the Tribune. "And maybe we’ll live in a country where our mothers and our sisters and our daughters can be proud to be Americans because they [expletive] can’t today.”

Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were scheduled to return to the Ravinia stage Friday evening for their 86th annual summer residency, with the entire show set to be broadcast on WFMT, at 98.7 FM and online.

Related: Billy Corgan Hosts Benefit Concert For July 4 Parade Shooting Victims