Ravinia's Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival’s professional studies program for young musicians, providing participants the opportunity to study with an internationally known faculty of performing artists and to appear in recitals as part of the festival’s summer concert schedule. The program for singers exists to promote the art of song, focusing upon the central repertoire of German and French art song. Participants study with each faculty member, thus receiving advice from a variety of musical traditions. Vocal study is available, and language professors offer detailed study of each song’s text in addition to providing diction coaching. The 15 singers selected for the program find a supportive, collegial atmosphere as well as a distinctive international community drawn from around the world. Many participants already have flourishing careers in opera and find the luxury of total immersion in art song an experience that they wish to share, thus helping to build new audiences for this rich and intimate repertoire.