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June 11 - August 16, 2025

Welcome

The Grant Park Music Festival is a ten-week classical music concert series held annually in Chicago, Illinois’ Millennium Park.

It features the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, along with guest performers and conductors, and is one of the only free outdoor classical-music concert series in the US.

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Advocate for the Arts Awards Benefit

The 13th Annual "Advocate for the Arts Awards Benefit" Raises a Record-Breaking $1.3 Million

Close to 500 of Chicago’s prominent civic leaders joined friends of the Grant Park
Music Festival at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago on Wednesday, October 15
for the Festival’s annual fundraising event: the Advocate for the Arts Awards Benefit.
The event raised a record-breaking $1.3 million in support of the Festival’s ten-week
season of free classical music concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park,
as well as help to underwrite Festival Connect, the Festival’s education and community
engagement initiative; together they benefit more than 500,000 people around
Chicago and beyond.

Special thanks to the evening's emcee, CBS Chicago's Irika Sargent, benefit chair
Karen Zupko, our esteemed honorees: Amy Lee Boonstra and Amsted Industries,
recognizing its Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Smith, and his late predecessor
Robert Reum.

Honorees

  • Amy Lee Boonstra
    Amy close up

    Amy Lee Boonstra

  • Amsted Industries
    Amsted logo

    Amsted Industries

Thank You to Our 2025 Sponsors

Presto $25,000+

Sandra Allen and Jim Perlow
Amsted Industries Foundation
Amy and Brian Boonstra
Robert J. Buford
Nancy Dehmlow
Patrick and Jenny Nicole Fisher
Charles Lee
Reum Family Foundation
Sheli and Burt Rosenberg
Stephen and Linda Smith
Karen Zupko

Vivace $12,000 - $24,999

Sue and Paul Freehling
James and Eileen Friestad
Jeannette and Jerry Goldstone
Freddi Greenberg and Dan Pinkert
Kirkland & Ellis Foundation: Keith Crow, Jim Mutchnik, Bob Hayward
Nora Jaskowiak and Matthew Hinerfeld
Northern Trust
Julian Oettinger
Jeffrey Rappin and Penny Brown
Lisbeth Stiffel
LaRue Robinson and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
John and Joan Wories

Allegro $6,000 - $11,999

Anne Barlow
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres
The Crown Family
Pamela Crutchfield, Philip Lumpkin, and William Tedford
Bruce Czuchna and Paul Winberg
Leslie Delany and John Yeoman
Kate Donaldson and Ryan Whitacre
Honorable Rhoda Sweeney Drucker and Fred Drucker
Janet and Craig Duchossois
Epstein Becker Green
Fifth Third Bank
Ginny and Peter Foreman
Adam Grais, McDonald Hopkins LLC
Marilynn and Ronald Grais
Nancy and Tom Hanson
David Hiller and Darcy Evon
Jones Day and The Sedlak Family
Kay and Malcolm Kamin
Sandra Kamin
Peter and Maria Lagios
Elise and Ron Magers
McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd.
Mike McCahon
Jill and Jeff Mueller
Tom and Shellane Mulcahy
Abby McCormick O'Neil and D. Carroll Joynes
Thomas Orlando
Hedy M. Ratner
Ramon and MJ Stewart
Resolute Consulting
Lauren Streicher and Jason Brett
Maureen Sullivan Taylor and Terry Taylor
Andria van der Merwe
David Whitney and Juliana Chyu
Jenny Willcox
Ruth D. Williams, MD

Friends $1,000 - $5,999

Anonymous (3)
Phillip and Gabriela Acevedo
Kiran Advani
Rebecca and Jamie Ahern
David Allen
Howard Alport and Sherry Peller
Chris Athas
Elizabeth Bach
Thomas Baltz
Stuart Barnett
Jake Barton
Jonathan Becker
Marlys A. Beider
Vern Broders and Francia Harrington
Maree Bullock
Barbara and Edward Burnes
Dennis Carlin
Michael and Kimberly Carter
Mary and David Chang
Joyce Chelberg
Gay-Young Cho
Mimis Cohen
Samantha Cohen
Maryclaire Collins
Matt and Nichole Cook
Michael W. Cusick
Rebecca Deaton
Carol Gies Dietz
Jonah Dipane
Grace Drease and Chris Kleihege
Nehama Dresner
Marilyn Duginger
Nancy and Bernard Dunkel
Robert Early
Barbara Joanne Edwards
Larry and Marlene Elowe
Amanda Felt
Donald Fetzer
Bonnie Fong
Susan Fortino-Brown
James and Sylvia Franklin
Marc and Marilyn Franson
Ray Frick
Colleen and Lloyd Fry
John and Elizabeth Gable
Ruth Geller
Neil Gerald
Julie Giese
Susan Fox Gillis
Ethel Gofen
Robert Greenspoon and Jennifer Yorke
David Grossman
Amy and Dennis Han
Peggy Harper
David Helverson
Hobson Lucas Family Foundation
Kim Hoopingarner
Charles and Caroline Huebner
Mariana and Paul Ingersoll
John Jendras and Judith Paice
Praveen Jeyarajah
Alok Jhamnani
Henry and Susan Johnson
Paula R. Kahn
Esta Kallen
Christian and Julie Kemnitz
William Kerfin
Goeun Kim
Linda Klein
Beth Loeb
Tristan Lopez
Michael and Lisa LoVallo
Wayne and Lynda Luce
Barbara and Jim MacGinnitie
Paul and Anna Marks
Kathryn McCann
Kevin McCoy
Craig McCrohon
Janet E. McKay
Mary McLean
John and Lisa Merlock
Chris and Kristen Meyers
Dave Miller
Jeff Miller
David Moscow
Katherine Mutchnik
Jen and Steve Nahn
Michael W. Nelson
Letitia Noel
Annette O'Connor
Michael and Stephanie Oettinger
Kyu and Cynthia Oh
Janet and Rodger Owen
Angela Pace-Moody
Richard and Lucy Park
Allen Pavia
Jayne Bell Pekin
Janie Petkus
PJH & Associates, Inc.
Avi and Joan Porat
Joy and Jerry Randich
Allan and Lynne Reich
David Reithoffer
Anita Rogers
Luba Romantseva
Joanna Rupp
Sandra K. Rusnak
Stephen and Leatrice Sandler
Peter Shakula
Liz and Jeff Sharp
Pauline Sheehan
Kyle and Stacy Sherlock
Louise Silberman
Lisa Skolnik
Janet Carl Smith and Mel Smith
Laura and Scott Stern
Katie and Erich Sternberg
Eric Strickland
Dana Suskind
Peter Vale
Gregory and Colleen Webb
Tom Weidemeyer
Craig and Mary Whitehead
Stephen Wolff and Marla Mendelson
Halla Yang
Mark Yee
Helene Zimmer-Loew
Thomas D. Zoells

Ensemble Up to $1,000

Matthew and Maryann Allee
Elliott Bacon
Steve Baskin
Oscar and Tammi Bedolla
Holly Birnbaum
Judith and Keith Boonstra
Jean Broday
Bob and Amy Castaneda
Anand Christopher
Jennifer Chung
Marceline Corbin
Clark Costen
Frances DeBlasio
Diana DuBois
Win Eggers
John Feyerer
Joe and Meg Flippin
James Freund
James Ginsberg and Patrice Michaels
Linda Ginzel
Rebecca Grais
Virginia Guerrero
Mary Hain
Jeffrey Haushalter
Ja Lee Hee
Jeremy Heuer and Victoria Godinez Puig
Mary Houston
Jill Hurwitz
Susan Irion and Rob DeLand
Janet Joy
Tom Jozwiak
Bruce Kaskel
Stephanie Kim
Christina and Lucas Kmiec
Michael and Rebecca Krautner
Soo Young Lee
Hannah Lehman
Bradley Levy
Fei Liu and Yuhong Wu
Pierre Lockett
Billy Markovitz
John and Bozena McLees
Laura Miller and Jon Boen
Sally and Ted Miller
Jeremy Moeller
Jennifer and Reggie Montague
Connie Ng
Susan Noel
Christa Ojeda
Mark and Mary Oliphant
Vaughn Olthof
Sarah Forbes Orwig
Mark Pelletier and David Berrier
Tanja Pleis and Michael Ladi
Teresa Quinn
Gary Ropski and Barbara Schleck
Trudy Schwartz
Lindsey Shavers
June and Zhuangjun Si
Catherine Sigmar
Matthew Simmons
Armando Smith
Kristen Smith
Stephen Smith
Tamara Sokolec and David Frank
Marshall Sparberg
Roz Supera
Art Susman and Carole Stone
Michael Streicher
Steven Stryker
Audrey Tatar
Cindy Wilson
Harvey Wolf
Chad Workman
Thomas and Jean Yang
Christine Zrinksky