Company Description
Ravinia® is both North America’s longest-running not-for-profit music festival and its most artistically diverse. Over 100 different events by a mix of classical, rock, pop, jazz, R&B, indie, and country performers make up a typical summer season on our two open-air and two indoor stages. Each year the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is featured in six weeks of concerts, many with Chief Conductor Marin Alsop. During the same summer months, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute provides young professional classical and jazz musicians with career-advancing training and concert settings.
Offstage and year-round, Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education programs engage 85,000 children and adults—in schools with little to no music curriculum, in our Chicagoland communities, and at our 36-acre park—in our mission to make music equitably accessible to all.
Ravinia embraces diversity in all forms and is committed to providing an equitable and inclusive environment for all staff, musicians, guest artists, audiences, and community members. Ravinia is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We encourage individuals of all identities and abilities to apply.
Job Description
The Ravinia guest experience is more than the performance on stage. Our beautiful, welcoming park is what makes listening to music at Ravinia truly special, and we’re excited to open our gates to concertgoers. From morning to night, each of our employees contributes to making live music at Ravinia extraordinary.
Shuttle Ambassadors are stationed at offsite park and ride locations to provide concert and park information as well as shuttle bus loading assistance. They are asked a wide variety of questions and must have good knowledge of the park. May be required to return to the park to assist with guest departure at the end of the concert. Shifts vary from park open to end of concert.
General Responsibilities:
- Welcoming guests and answering questions in a friendly way
- Becoming very familiar with the park
- Knowing who to ask for help when not able to answer a question
- Assisting guests exit the park after the concert
Qualifications
- Excellent customer service and communication skills
- Ability to address concerns and show empathy towards others
- Must enjoy interacting with the public
- Ability to work unsupervised
- Willingness to ask questions and learn
- Flexible with scheduling that includes evening hours on weekdays and weekends
- Shuttle Ambassadors must be at least 18 years of age
Additional Information
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.
- The Ravinia season runs from June through September. Priority in hiring will be given to applicants who are available to work the entire season.
- This position is outdoors and in all weather conditions with prolonged periods of standing.
- It requires mostly afternoon/evening hours. Applicants must be available for both weekday and weekend hours.
Ravinia is an Equal Opportunity Employer
As an equal opportunity employer, Ravinia strongly believes that diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives is essential to our success. We strive to create and sustain an equitable and inclusive environment for all our employees. Ravinia does not discriminate on the basis of any protected status under federal, state, or local law. We encourage individuals of all identities and abilities to apply.
What We Do
Ravinia®, North America’s oldest music festival, stands today as its most musically diverse, presenting over 100 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.
Jeff Haydon is Ravinia’s President and CEO, bringing more than two decades of arts management and programming experience to the top job, as well as a lifelong love of music as both an avid audience member and musician. Haydon is dedicated to building on the “Ravinia experience,” including inspiring and enabling communities to engage with music through the festival’s Reach Teach Play programs. One of the world’s most accomplished conductors, Marin Alsop is Chief Conductor and Curator for multiple weeks of concerts with the CSO.
The festival employs a full-time staff of about 55 year-round, but that number grows tenfold when summer arrives and seasonal jobs go to ushers, food service, phone center operators, and others who help the show to go on.
Ravinia also runs its prestigious summer music conservatory, the Steans Music Institute, on its grounds. Each year, 60–70 talented young professional musicians from around the world are awarded fully paid fellowships to come work with an esteemed faculty and the headliners who frequent the festival.
The 36-acre park, just north of Chicago, is nestled in a gently wooded area that makes it an enchanting place to experience music, whether in the 3,350-seat open-air Pavilion and the surrounding Lawn, or indoors in the 850-seat Martin Theatre or 450-seat Bennett Gordon Hall. Guests can bring their own picnics or enjoy food and drinks from the restaurants and bars in the park. Children up to age 15 and high-school and college students are admitted free to the Lawn for classical performances.
