RSVP Competitors

The Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) is the statutory State Fire Academy for Illinois. It serves as the oldest continuous fire training institution in the United States. Since 1925, first responders from across the state and world have relied on IFSI to deliver hands-on, innovative, and top quality training, education, and research. Our Mission: Helping Firefighters Do Their Work Through Training, Education, Information, and Research Located in Champaign, the main IFSI campus offers a 28-acre training ground with class-A live fire props and training equipment. Courses are delivered on campus, at state regional training centers, and local fire departments across the United States and internationally.

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. In collaboration with the best conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over one hundred concerts each year at its downtown home, Symphony Center and at the Ravinia Festival on Chicago’s North Shore. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through best-selling recordings and frequent sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert in 1881, realizing the dream of its founder, the Civil War veteran/businessman/philanthropist Henry Lee Higginson, who envisioned a great and permanent orchestra in his hometown of Boston. Today the BSO and Boston Pops reach millions of listeners through not only their concert performances in Boston and at Tanglewood, but also via digital programs on BSO NOW, radio, television, educational programs, recordings, and tours.