Ravinia's Women’s Board will mark its 50th anniversary with a Gala Benefit Evening July 21. The evening, entitled Leading Ladies, will team Broadway favorite and Tony winner Patti LuPone with Metropolitan Opera soprano Patricia Racette for the biggest songs and arias from both worlds. The concert will also feature orchestral masterworks.

Tony winner Idina Menzel, star of Wicked and "Glee," will make her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut with conductor Marvin Hamlisch July 8; Ashley Brown, who won raves as Mary Poppins and is now making her Lyric Opera debut in Show Boat, will sing American favorites July 4; and Barbara Cook will celebrate her 85th birthday with her CSO debut on July 15, with Richard Kaufman on the podium.

Jazz singer Nnenna Freelon will pay tribute to the late Lena Horne in a June 22 concert, and Tony nominee Ann Hampton Callaway and the acclaimed jazz group the John Pizzarelli Quartet will join forces with the CSO, conducted by Ted Sperling, to pay tribute to songwriter Harold Arlen in a program titled Over the Rainbow on Aug. 5.

Tickets are on sale now with a donation to the not-for-profit festival. General sales begin on April 26 exclusively at Ravinia.org. Phone sales begin May 20 at (847) 266-5100. Ravinia Festival is located at Lake Cook and Green Bay roads in Highland Park.