Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 3

RHYS LLOYD TALBOT, bass-baritone Bass-baritone Rhys Lloyd Talbot was at RSMI in 2017 and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa, where he studied with John Hines, and a master’s degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where he studied with Vinson Cole. While in Kansas City, he portrayed Garibaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda and was an apprentice artist at the Lyric Opera, where he appeared as Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni . Talbot has also participated in such apprentice programs as Wolf Trap Opera, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy, Des Moines Metro Opera, Central City Opera Studio, and the Glimmerglass Festival, where he sang Colline in Puccini’s La bohème . A top-three finisher in the Sun Valley International Opera Competition, Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition, and the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition, he has also competed as a regional finalist in the Met- ropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Sara Tucker Study Grants, and the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. Talbot recently reprised his performance of Ma- setto in concert with the Jacskonville Symphony Orchestra and also sang Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. KEVIN COVAL, poet Kevin Coval is a poet and author of A People’s History of Chicago , Everything Must Go: The Life & Death of an American Neighborhood , and more than 10 other full-length collections, an- thologies, and chapbooks. He is the founder and editor of The BreakBeat Poets series on Hay- market Books; artistic director of Young Chica- go Authors, which won a MacArthur Award in 2016; and founder of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, the world’s larg- est youth poetry festival, now a feature in more than 19 cities around North America. Coval also is the recipient of the 2019 Gwendolyn Brooks Youth Advocacy Award, the 2018 Studs Terkel Award, and the 2017 John Peter Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award. He co-hosts the podcast The Cornerstore for WGN Radio and can be found on the interconnected networks @kevincoval. PATRICIA FRAZIER, poet Patricia Frazier is a filmmaker, activist, and stu- dent, born and raised in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. She studied and honed her craft in the Young Chicago Authors program, where she was a member of its Louder Than a Bomb Squad. Frazier’s writing addresses the intersec- tions of young, queer, and colored identities living in marginalized areas. Frazier’s work has appeared in Breaking the Chains Magazine , South Side Weekly , and the Voices of the East Coas t Anthology. She was also recently profiled by Vogue . Her first poetry chapbook, Graphite , was released by Haymarket Press last summer. Frazier has performed her work at the Library of Congress and New York’s Federal Hall. She is a Davis-Putter scholar and currently attends Co- lumbia College Chicago, where she is studying Cinema Arts and Sciences. JACOB SAENZ, poet Jacob Saenz was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, IL. He is the author of Throwing the Crown , winner of the 2018 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize, selected by Gregory Pardlo. His work has appeared in PANK , Poetry , Tammy , and other journals. A CantoMundo fellow, he’s been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency and a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He serves as an associate editor for RHINO . JUNE 17 – JUNE 23, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 99