Today we’d like to introduce you to Luciano Pedota.
Luciano, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I came to Chicago from Venezuela to get a degree in Performing Arts Management from Columbia College. I always imagined bringing my education back home to work for a cultural institution or to establish my own production company. As headlines these days demonstrate, things in Venezuela have actually worsened. I couldn’t go home, but I could still share my passion for culture. I accepted an internship at Grant Parky Music Festival, which led to a full-time job as that festival’s business manager, all the while not only growing my job skills but immersing myself in American life and culture. My next job took me to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where I applied my knowledge of intercultural relations and social justice, implementing a Community Engagement Plan to help the CSO reach and serve ethnic communities that traditionally had been disenfranchised from the bountiful resources offered by a cultural hub like Chicago. I managed partnerships with the National Museum of Mexican Art and People’s Music School designing programs to serve their constituents while promoting music for the CSO. The experience of both of these two jobs became helpful when I moved to my most treasured job at Ravinia Festival, 15 years ago, in what was then called the Department of Education and Community Partnerships.
Today, we work under the much more descriptive moniker “Reach Teach Play” because that’s what our education programs do for about 85,000 people in Cook and Lake Counties every year. My work entails planning, implementing, managing and evaluating programs that seek to promote music education at different levels, especially at CPS schools that do not have music programs of their own. One such program, Guest Artists in the Classroom, brings in-school live performances by local and international musicians who are performing at Ravinia. The Music Discovery Program, for K-3 students, provides multi-tiered music residencies that pair a Teaching Artist with a classroom teacher, who has also received professional training from Ravinia. Our Professional Development Institute provides training for teachers and artists collaborating to bring music into the classroom. Having the opportunity to combine so many interests (love of music, education, community relations, intercultural relations, and social justice) in my job is a privilege, The are two things that that have always kept me motivated: seeing children perform their end-of-the-year residency performances, as well as, bringing live performances to young ones while offering professional musicians, who have worked very hard at mastering their instruments, the opportunity to perform for an audience that will surely react with excitement or joy to their music. Music played a significant role in my life – it was always there, especially during the most challenging times, and it helped me get through with joy. So, I want children to have the same experience, to resort to music when the going gets tough!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges along the way. Over the years, arts education has somehow been politicized and such programs are often first to fall under the budget axe. When I first started in this field, I can remember getting a sense that music was not necessarily a priority when I organized a performance by a CSO ensemble at a Chicago Park and only about 6 people showed up. Establishing partnerships and working with schools and community organizations wasn’t easy. Often there were colliding priorities or downright skepticism that the arts mattered and that they should not be part of a core curriculum. The good news in my view is that we’re embarking on an Arts & Culture Renaissance. Leaders from organizations like Ingenuity Inc. have made the case about the importance of Arts Education in our schools and have even helped cultural institutions work effectively together. Ravinia Festival, for example, has committed considerable resources, hired staff, and initiated new programs to get young ones interacting with music. We have augmented the number of teachers with whom we work and the schools we partner with, increasing significantly the number of students we serve. I think educators, school administrators and the community at large see more clearly the role played by the arts in a good and well-rounded education. I feel very proud of the work I do. We have come along way as a field.
Tell us about Ravinia Festival – what else should we know?
Ravinia ®, North America’s oldest music festival, stands today as its most musically diverse, presenting over 140 different events throughout the summer. These concerts run the gamut from Yo-Yo Ma to John Legend to the annual summer residency of the nation’s finest orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The 36-acre park is nestled in a gently wooded area that makes it an enchanting place to experience music. Guests can bring their own picnics or eat at one of the park restaurants. Children up to age 15, high school and college students are admitted free to the lawn for classical performances.
Being an internationally renowned, not-for-profit music festival that presents outstanding performances by the world’s greatest artists. Ravinia’s principal objectives are:
• To present performances of a full range of classical music in its open-air Pavilion and enclosed recital halls, by the world’s greatest composers and musicians, along with a variety of other kinds of light classical, jazz and popular music;
• To maintain a beautiful park that is welcoming to all and attractive to families in which the music experience is enhanced by a beautiful environment and excellent dining opportunities;
• To enable gifted young performers to study under great teachers and perform in concert settings; and
• To develop broader and more diverse audiences for classical music through education and outreach programs and by maintaining affordable ticket prices.
Furthermore, the festival has a strong reputation for its commitment to music education. Over 85,000 community members are served through Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY® Programs each year, ensuring that music education remains accessible to all. Its programs are designed to educate, foster diverse audience involvement, and provide the population with equitable access to live music experiences in their communities and at Ravinia.
Its music education efforts expand to ensure that music performances by professionally trained musicians continue into the future. Concert halls, opera houses, orchestras, chamber ensembles, and headlines are filled with alumni of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI), the summer conservatory at America’s oldest summer music festival. Each season, talented young musicians from around the world come together at (RSMI) to make music with an internationally renowned performing faculty. Through the institute’s three programs—jazz, piano and strings, and singers—these young artists give performances as part of Ravinia’s summer main-stage programming as well as participate in master classes led by musical luminaries and daily solo and ensemble coaching with the faculty.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
There’s no time to get a big head when you have to wear so many hats at once. It is a multidisciplinary area of work in the sense that it requires to have the artistic sensibility and affinity for musical appreciation; knowledge of music concepts, musical styles, and instrumentation, but also administrative, communication, people relation skills, as well as, program management and supervisory skills. I should also mention that a passion for education, in general, and arts and culture because they often times inform the context in which any piece of music is created.
Contact Info:
- Address: Ravinia Festival
Reach.Teach.Play Education Programs
418 Sheridan Road
Highland Park, IL 60035 - Website: www.ravinia.org
- Phone: (847) 266.5000
- Email: lpedota@ravinia.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raviniafestival/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaviniaFestival/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RaviniaFestival
Image Credit:
All pictures taken during Ravinia’s Reach.Teach.Play Education Programs
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
