In Chicago, One Piece of Music Brings a City Together

 
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In Chicago, One Piece of Music Brings a City Together

Christine Taylor Conda, Executive Director of Education & Community Engagement, Ravinia Festival

06-04-2025

Moving and grooving to Beethoven’s 7th. Photo: Bitter Jester.

During the two magical years I spent in Jamaica as a child, my aunt would visit our house every Thursday evening after work. I remember our family spending dinnertime on orange pleather cushions, listening to broadcaster Leonie Forbes recite poetry on the radio as classical music played in the background. That dinner table is where I first fell in love with Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, and my family still talks about those Thursday nights we spent together.

Now, as Ravinia searches for inventive ways to reinvigorate interest in great musical works, those Thursday evenings come to mind. Can multifaceted engagement with a musical masterwork enhance the experience of performing the piece, for students in our youth orchestras? Can the sense of belonging we strive to foster for our students be felt by audiences as well? Can a shared, fun exploration of a great piece of music amplify the energy between performers and audience during a live concert?

Can one piece of music bring communities—audiences, performers, students, families, neighborhoods, an entire city—together?

These are the questions we seek to answer through Ravinia’s annual One Score, One Chicago initiative. And, so far, the answer is a resounding yes.

Borrowing a page from Chicago Public Library’s “One Book, One Chicago” initiative, One Score, One Chicago promotes the enjoyment of classical music and cultivates a sense of community around a particular piece of music each year. One Score takes concepts familiar to El Sistema—community, joy, the ensemble, and musical excellence—and extends them beyond the performers to audiences and listeners as well.

Over the years, we’ve explored an wide array of pieces. With Porgy and Bess, we went to Charleston, South Carolina to study the music and culture of the Gullah people and their influence on George Gershwin’s influential opera. For Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird, we partnered with a Latina-focused dance company to bring the story to life in classrooms across the city. When we studied Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, our teachers and students visited the Art Institute of Chicago to explore connections between art forms. Our selection for the 2025 season is Beethoven’s iconic and beloved 7th Symphony.

Two students rehearse Beethoven’s 7th. Photo: Ravinia Festival.

One Score is a thematic initiative that is woven through several of Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play programs, including teaching artist residencies, guest artist visits, interdisciplinary projects, and our El Sistema-inspired program Sistema Ravinia. This year, in partnership with the eclectic PROJECT Trio, our students were able to experience Beethoven’s 7th through dances, beatboxing, and jazz improv. This spring, we held interdisciplinary workshops for arts teachers, an orchestra clinic for high schools, and youth concert performances by and for young students. A series of engaging video shorts, available on the Ravinia website, guides the general public through the drama, universality, and joy of the piece. 

As a result, Beethoven is setting the city abuzz—from orchestra students excited to pull out the sheet music for the second movement to elementary schoolers cheering for PROJECT Trio like they’re at a rock concert. All this excitement will culminate in a day-long festival at Ravinia on July 20, featuring a performance of the piece by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by the estimable Marin Alsop.

An educator promotes some Beethoven artwork. Photo: Ravinia Festival.

Not only are we giving kids and community members from all walks of life easy access to cherished classics, but we’re also adding to the traditional classical canon with our selections each year. One Score, One Chicago pieces are chosen not for their era or style but because they are great works—pieces worth thinking about musically. With that in mind, we are delighted to announce our 2026 One Score selection: contemporary composer Carlos Simon’s Good News Mass, a piece influenced by gospel music and the African American experience.

As each piece is different, so too are the ways in which we explore them. Next year might be a deep dive into the history of gospel music or Chicago’s gospel roots; it might include a celebration of our choral community, and we might focus on interviews and live discussions with Carlos Simon himself. Each piece of music lends itself to new and creative modes of exploration, and we can’t wait to listen along with our communities throughout Chicago. 

When I was six years old, I fell in love with Beethoven’s 7th sitting around a dinner table with my family. This year, a fourth grade girl in Sistema Ravinia fell in love with the same piece through One Score. What kind of communal experiences can we continue creating to foster that love in more children, families, neighborhoods, and cities?

One Score, One Chicago® and One Score® are registered trademarks of the Ravinia Festival Association. 

African American Experience, Art Institute of Chicago, Arts Access, Arts Integration, Beatboxing, Beethoven, Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Carlos Simon, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Childhood Memories, Choral Community, Christine Taylor Conda, Classical Music, Community Building, Community Engagement, Contemporary Classical Music, Cultural Memory, El Sistema, Elementary Music, Gershwin, Good News Mass, Gospel Music, Gullah Culture, Interdisciplinary Arts, Jamaica, Jazz Improv, June 2025, Leonie Forbes, Marin Alsop, Music and Belonging, music and culture, Music and Dance, Music and Identity, Music and Joy, Music Appreciation, Music Education, Music Exploration, Music Festivals, Music Outreach, Music Pedagogy, Music Workshops, Mussorgsky, One Book One Chicago, One Score One Chicago, Orchestra Clinics, Pictures at an Exhibition, Porgy and Bess, PROJECT Trio, Ravinia, Sistema Ravinia, Stravinski, Teaching Artist Residencies, The Firebird, Urban Arts Education, Youth Orchestras

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