Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 6 Tosca 2

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 25 Chicago. Founded in Hyde Park in direct response to the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, CCC has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs driven by one mission: to inspire and change lives through music. CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 62-year history. Since its founding, CCC has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of youth served are from low-moderate income homes, with over 4,000 students annually participating completely free of charge. All singers in CCC programs receive some level of subsidy. High school seniors enrolled in CCC have a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on CCC’s core values in a wide array of professional fields. JOSEPHINE LEE | CHILDREN’S CHORUS MASTER Previously at Lyric: 14 productions since 2000/01, most recently The Queen of Spades , Dead Man Walking (both 2019/20). As the president and artistic director of Chicago Children’s Choir (CCC), Josephine Lee has revolutionized youth music education, infusing their experience with cutting-edge performances of diverse repertoire, ongoing partnerships with leading cultural institutions such as Lyric, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Ravinia Festival, and extensive national and international tours. For her work on the documentary Songs on the Road to Freedom (2008), Lee was honored with an Emmy Award. Among Lee’s recent projects are two world premiere theatrical pieces ( Long Way Home with the Q Brothers Collective and Sita Ram with David Kersnar of Lookingglass Theatre), several collaborations with Chance the Rapper (including 2016’s Grammy Award- winning project, Coloring Book ), and an original piano and cello composition, Ascension , with choreographer Frank Chaves for Ballet Chicago in 2017. Lee earned a Grammy Award nomination as a soloist in the world premiere of Ted Hearne’s Place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival (2018). In 2019, Lee conducted Lisa Fischer and members of the National Philharmonic at Strathmore. In 2015, Lee founded Vocality (2015), a festival chorus comprising young vocal artists from a wide array of communities in the city of Chicago. Among her current projects is a new theatrical work by David Kersnar, J. Nicole Brooks, and CCC composer-in-residence Mitchell Owens III. EUN SUN KIM | CONDUCTOR Lyric debut The internationally acclaimed Korean conductor began her tenure as Music Director of San Francisco Opera in August 2021, leading productions of Tosca and Fidelio . Kim is also Principal Guest Conductor of Houston Grand Opera, where she conducts a new production of Turandot this spring. She has continued a series of important operatic debuts this season, leading performances of La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera and Wiener Staatsoper. Kim is a regular guest conductor at many European opera houses, including Staatsoper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Frankfurt, Royal Swedish Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, and Teatro Real Madrid. She has appeared with major orchestras including Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, and Stuttgart Philharmonic, and is slated to conduct symphony orchestras around the globe, including concerts this season in Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, Portland, and the United Kingdom. LOUISA MULLER | DIRECTOR Previously at Lyric: Three productions since 2012/13, most recently Madama Butterfly (2019/20, 2013/14); Carmen (associate director, 2016/17). Director Louisa Muller returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago for this production of Tosca . Also this season, she returns to Garsington to reprise her production of The Turn of the Screw that was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Her upcoming engagements include a new production of The Wreckers for Houston Grand Opera, a new Rinaldo for Pinchgut Opera, bringing her production of Amadigi di Gaula —originally staged for Boston Baroque—to the Philharmonia Baroque, and a return to Lyric next season to direct Ernani . Among her recent performances are concert stagings of Ariadne auf Naxos (Edinburgh Festival) and Das Rheingold (New York Philharmonic); Tannhäuser and Don Carlos (LA Opera); and four new productions for Wolf Trap Opera: Roméo et Juliette , Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles , The Rape of Lucretia , and Tosca . JEAN-PIERRE PONNELLE | SET DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Ten productions since 1972, most recently Idomeneo (2019/20); Don Pasquale (2012/13). The French director-designer (1932-1988) created his first production design in Hannover, Henze’s Boulevard Solitude (world premiere). He made his directing debut with Tristan und Isolde in 1963 in Düsseldorf, thereafter designing and directing all his productions. Ponnelle made his international breakthrough with The Barber of Seville at the 1968 Salzburg Festival. His success led to a remarkable series of productions for La Scala, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the major houses of San Francisco, Munich, and Zurich, and the festivals of Salzburg and Bayreuth. Among his greatest achievements were the three Monteverdi operas in Zurich; Tristan for Bayreuth; the Mozart/da Ponte operas in Paris; the world premieres of Reimann’s Lear and Troades in Munich; and three Rossini works at La Scala. Many of his productions have been remounted repeatedly worldwide, and he adapted many of them himself for video.