Ravinia Festival Music Box Experience Center

Going to a show at Ravinia Festival, North America’s oldest music festival, brings together several kinds of pleasure — the pleasure of great music, the pleasure of a memorable night under the stars, and the pleasure of good friends sharing their time together. Now, Ravinia offers a new pleasure: the Ravinia Music Box Experience Center, featuring a unique immersive theatrical experience, “Bernstein’s Answer.”

The challenge was to create an attraction that encouraged guests already on the lawn to see an artist like Sting, Common, or Bob Dylan to “bump into” classical music in such a surprising way that they’d later want to seek out classical music on their own.

To achieve this, the creative team sought to meet the audience where they are. Employing tools like immersive media, 360 digital sound, astonishing visuals and rich storytelling, the guest is placed at the center of an adventure into the heart of music, transcending speech and touching every heart. The team also embraced the narrative tools often associated with more modern kinds of popular music, welcoming guests into the revelation that music—ALL music—is one of life’s greatest miracles.

The Ravinia Music Box Experience Center is elegant, open, inviting, and contains a 65-seat wraparound “magic box” theater with a museum gallery space. The whole center is designed for flexibility and features modern architecture that is playful, engaging, and eco-friendly. It expands the offer at Ravinia by providing a multi-purpose modern experience venue that invites visitors all year round.

The new space is home to a multi-media, multi-sensory spectacular that seeks to answer the unanswerable question “What Is Music?” by immersing guests in the magic of Leonard Bernstein’s music. Hosted by vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin, the show is a transformative journey that reveals the power of great music to thrill, transport, and heal mankind, seen through the eyes, heard through the ears, and created through the heart of Leonard Bernstein. Accompanied by mesmerizing audiovisual effects and a performance by the Chicago Children's Choir, there has simply never been anything like this experience at any music venue anywhere.