Contact
Jessica Mackinnon
jmack@dom.edu
(708) 524-6289
February 25, 2010
Dominican presents Ravinia’s Welz Kauffman with Bravo Award
Dominican University will present Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman with the 2010 Bravo Award during the 30th Annual Trustee Benefit Concert on Sunday, March 14. The Bravo Award is bestowed each year to an individual or organization for supporting and enhancing the Chicago arts community. Past recipients have included Maria Tallchief, Ardis Krainik, Sir Georg and Lady Valerie Solti, and Danny Newman.
Kauffman enjoyed an extensive career as an arts administrator with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony before assuming leadership of Ravinia in 2000. Since then he has developed a reputation for presenting ambitious, innovative programming while helping Ravinia consistently break attendance records.
A creative force in melding art forms such as jazz and dance with classical music, Kauffman last year presented as part of Ravinia’s Abraham Lincoln celebration a commissioned dance work by choreographer Bill T. Jones with music by Christopher Lancaster, George Lewis Jr. and Jerome Begin. In 2003, he audaciously combined salsa and symphonic versions of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and in 2004, during the Festival’s centennial season, he commissioned four musical works celebrating the railroad that regularly passes by Ravinia each night. That same year he presented the U.S. premiere of the first Zulu opera, Mzilikazi Khumalo’s Princess Magogo.
A committed supporter of music education, Kauffman introduced in 2003 “One Score, One Chicago,” a program based on “One Book, One Chicago” to get people throughout the Chicago area thinking and talking about classical music. The program includes an outreach component which brings music to children in Chicago’s underserved public schools.
Kauffman has also expanded Ravinia’s Stearns Institute for Young Artists with a vocal chamber discipline which was launched in 2002 by commissioning Ned Rorem to write the acclaimed song cycle Aftermath. He also oversaw the introduction of an instrument bank and touring ensemble under the Institute’s auspices.
Under Kauffman’s leadership, Ravinia, North America’s oldest music festival, continues to break attendance records, with audiences regularly exceeding the 600,000 mark.
Kauffman will receive the Bravo Award at the intermission of the university’s Annual Trustee Benefit, which this year features an intimate recital by critically acclaimed opera singers Nathan Gunn and Elizabeth Futral. The concert, which will be held in Dominican University’s 1,200-seat Lund Auditorium, will begin at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $55 and $75. Proceeds benefit scholarships to the university.
For more information or to order tickets, please call the university’s box office at 708-488-5000 or visit www.dom.edu/benefit. Dominican University is located at 7900 W. Division Street in River Forest.
