Ravinia 2025 Issue 5

Rosamunde String Quartet Oct. 23 • 7:30 p.m. / Bennett Gordon Hall All four members of this decade-veteran ensemble hail from top international orchestras—two in Germany and two in the United States—and the two based on this side of the Atlantic have notable Ravinia ties. Violist Teng Li took over the principal chair in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at this time last year, and cellist Nathan Vickery , a member of the New York Philharmonic , is an alum of Ravinia’s renowned Steans Institute (where Li spent a week on faculty before the CSO took residence for the summer). Rounding out the ensemble are Noah Bendix-Balgley , first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic , and Shanshan Yao , a violinist with the Kammerakademie Potsdam in Germany. With their packed orchestral sched- ules, the quartet can only perform together two or three times a year to deliver thoroughly unique performances—like their seven-city tour last March that included stops at the University of Michigan and Chamber Music Pittsburgh. For its Ravinia debut, the Rosamunde is shaping a program around the String Quartet No. 1 ( Lyric ) by George Walker (1922–2018), who became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996. [The nickname Lyric ? It comes from the movement that’s taken on a life of its own as orchestral music, similar to the Adagio for Strings .] Take 6 Oct. 24 • 7:30 p.m. / Martin Theatre Take 6 touts top billing as the most-awarded a cappella group ever, and it has quite an array of honors to back up the claim, including 10 Gram- my Awards, 10 Dove Awards, a Soul Train Award, and membership in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The group regularly traverses myriad musical genres, including jazz, doo-wop, blues, and R&B, and their most recent recording and new touring project—“Rhapsody”—sees the sextet layering their signature harmony around songs that grew from jazz origins to transcend genre, from Rhapsody In Blue and Mood Indi- go to Giant Steps and Blue Skies . Their previous album, Iconic , stormed seven Billboard charts simultaneously with ingenious covers of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Christopher Cross’s “Sailing,” and more. The group has also recently been featured on Grammy Salutes to Paul Simon (“Homeless”) and The Beach Boys (“Don’t Worry Baby”). Justin Roberts & the Not-Ready For Naptime Players “Trick or Treat”: Halloween show for kids and the whole family! Oct. 25 • 11:00 a.m. / Martin Theatre The New York Times calls Roberts the “Judy Blume of kiddie rock.” This five-time Grammy Award–nominated musician has built a joy-filled niche in the rock world with two decades’ worth of soundtracks to families’ lives—sharing the joys and sorrows of growing up while giving parents a window back to their childhoods— this past April releasing his 17th album, titled Brain Freeze . Also a children’s book author, Roberts writes “feel-good songs” with themes of inclusion, acceptance, and self-discovery. Alongside his longtime band, the Not Ready For Naptime Players, Roberts is serving up a heaping handful of his hooky power-pop for a Halloween special with tasty hits like his “Trick or Treat.” RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 21 ROBBDAVIDSON(ROSAMUNDE);JOHNABBOTT(TAKE6);TODDROSENBERG(ROBERTS)