Ravinia 2025 Issue 2

PAVILION 7:30 PM THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2025 LINDSEY STIRLING with CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC GEORGE STELLUTO, conductor LINDSEY STIRLING Growing up in Arizona, Lindsey Stirling be- gan playing the violin at age 5 and during high school performed in a rock group called Stomp on Melvin. She began to combine a nascent interest in dance with her original rock-violin music, creating her YouTube channel “lindsey- stomp” in 2007 and three years later compet- ing on America’s Got Talent . After reaching the quarterfinals, Stirling collaborated with cinema- tographer Devin Graham on creating a video for her song “Spontaneous Me” and began writing and recording more original music (building on her 2010 EP) for her 2012 self-titled debut album. The video for the single “Crystallize,” co-direct- ed by Stirling and Graham, became YouTube’s eighth-most viewed video that year. Her debut disc was re-released in 2013 and made Billboard ’s top 25, and later that year her collaboration with Pentatonix on a cover of Imagine Dragons’ “Ra- dioactive” won a YouTube Music Award. This all paved the way for her sophomore disc, Shatter Me , to hit number two upon its release in 2014, holding the top spot on Billboard ’s Classical Al- bum chart for 21 weeks and finishing the year as the number two Dance/Electronic Album, earn- ing her a 2015 Billboard Music Award. Stirling published the autobiography The Only Pirate at the Party in early 2016 and announced that a third album, Brave Enough , would be released later that year. With guests such as ZZ Ward, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Christina Perri, and Andrew McMahon, the disc debuted at number five, also topping both the Classical and Dance/ Electronic Albums charts. In 2017, she competed on Dancing with the Stars (finishing in second place) and released the Christmas disc Warmer in the Winter , featuring Trombone Shorty on her original title track. Stirling released the all-orig- inal album Artemis in 2019, featuring Evanes- cence’s Amy Lee on “Love Goes On and On” and Elle King on “The Upside,” then returned to hol- iday tunes with 2022’s Snow Waltz , again mixing in several original tracks. Her latest album, Du- ality , was released last summer, featuring Royal & the Serpent on “Inner Gold” and Walk Off the Earth on “Survive,” a reimagination of themes from the Gloria Gaynor hit. Lindsey Stirling made her Ravinia debut in 2018 and is returning to the festival for the first time. GEORGE STELLUTO A former longtime Associate Conductor at Ra- vinia and now 13 years into his tenure as Mu- sic Director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, George Stelluto also maintains an extensive schedule as a guest conductor, having earned such honors as ASCAP’s Adventurous Program- ming Award, the Bruno Walter Fellowship, and the Nevada Regents Creativity Award. He made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at Ra- vinia in 2021, and he has also led the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Philhar- monic at the festival in a variety of family and special programming. Under his direction, the PSO made its Ravinia debut in 2018 in collab- oration with Jamie Bernstein on “Bernstein 100 Years Young: A New Young People’s Concert.” Stelluto hosted the PBS series SoundBites from 2014 to 2021, bringing the PSO to thousands while exploring music in relation to medicine, society, business, and education alongside renowned guest artists. Another highlight of the PSO’s growth of under his leadership was its 2021 Betty Friedan 100th birthday tribute, featuring its first woman composer-in-residence, Stephanie Ann Boyd, and repertoire entirely about and by women. Stelluto’s guest conducting credits include debuting with the San Francisco Symphony in 2019 as well as ap- pearances with the Atlanta, Hartford, Milwaukee, Pasadena, and San Diego Symphonies, the Cham- ber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Germany’s Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Romania’s Transylvania State Philharmonic, and the Ukrainian National Orchestra. His concert collaborators have included violinists Hilary Hahn, Charles Yang, and Sarah Chang; pianists Ramsey Lewis, Jorge Federico Os- orio, and Orion Weiss; vocalists Ryan Speedo Green, Michelle DeYoung, and Samuel Ramey; and versatile artists Victor Wooten, Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck, and Time for Three. An inaugural recipient of Juilliard’s Artist Diploma in conducting, he also holds degrees in violin and conducting from Yale and West Virginia Universities. Over his 12-year association with Juilliard as resident conductor, Stelluto led performances by its orchestral, dance, vocal, drama, and jazz divisions and prepared the Juilliard Orchestra to work with numerous guest conductors, including Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as for three international tours. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 16 – JUNE 29, 2025 74