Ravinia 2019, Issue 2, Week 3

ALEXANDER PLATT, conductor Before he entered college, Alexander Platt was a research scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities, eventually attending Yale University. Afterward he became a conducting fellow at both Aspen and Tanglewood, going on to study at King’s College Cambridge on a Mar- shall Scholarship. Platt’s earliest assignments were as apprentice conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Minnesota Opera, and in 1993 he assumed his first music directorship, with the Racine Sym- phony. He has since held that same position with the Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra and Marion (IN) Philharmonic, and he maintains directorships of the Wisconsin Philharmonic and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Maverick Concerts inWoodstock, NY, the oldest summer chamber music festival in the US. Platt has also been a guest conductor of the Scottish and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestras; Camerata Chicago; City of London Sinfonia; Banff and Aldeburgh Festivals; Aalborg, Hous- ton, Charlotte, and Indianapolis Symphony Or- chestras; Freiburg, Illinois, Riverside (CA), and Hudson Valley Philharmonics; and the Boca Raton Symphonia, of which he was principal conductor 2007–10. He made his New York debut in 2007 with the Brooklyn Philharmon- ic on a Central Park concert, his first of several engagements with the orchestra. Having made his first appearance with Chicago Opera Theater in 1997 conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni , Platt became its resident conductor and music advi- sor from 2001 until 2012. There he led the Chica- go premieres of Britten’s Death in Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream , John Adams’s Nixon in China , Shostakovich’s Moscow Paradise , and Peter Brook’s adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen , as well as the world premiere of Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak’s version of Krása’s Brundibár . Platt also conducted Chicago Opera Theater’s double-bill of Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Samuel Ramey and Nancy Gustfason and the premier recording of Kurka’s The Good Soldier Schweik . Alexander Platt made his Ravinia debut in 2013 leading the world premiere of his co-arrangement of Leon- ard Bernstein’s Songfest for chamber orchestra. ANTONINA CHEHOVSKA, soprano Soprano Antonina Chehovska was at RSMI in 2018 and won several honors in 2016, including a George London Award, first prize from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and a grant from the Gulio Gari Foundation. She has also twice been a finalist in the Great Lakes Regional com- petition of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Last season, Chehovska was a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Camerata New York Orchestra and New Jer- sey’s Symphony in C, in Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass with Manhattan Concert Productions, and in the New York Festival of Song’s 30th anniver- sary celebration. She recently performed in Vi- valdi’s Gloria and Fauré’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of Manhattan Concert Productions, and next season she will star as Ta- tiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Liv- ermore Valley Opera. While at the University of Michigan, where she earned master’s degrees in both vocal performance and conducting, she appeared in productions of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (title role) and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) and The Marriage of Figaro (the Countess). Chehovska subsequently starred as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen with Opera Columbus and as Mimì in both Puccini’s and Leoncaval- lo’s La bohème , for the Giulio Gari Foundation and with the International Vocal Arts Institute, respectively. Following her professional debut singing Mozart’s Requiem with the Grand Rap- ids Symphony Orchestra, Chehovska has been featured in Haydn’s Paukenmesse at Carnegie Hall, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Dexter Community Orchestra, Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. RAEHANN BRYCE-DAVIS, mezzo-soprano Mezzo Raehann Bryce-Davis was at RSMI in 2017 and received the George London Award in 2018. With degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Texas–Arling- ton, she has also been a prizewinner of the Por- tofino International Opera Competition and Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and received a Richard F. Gold Career Grant in 2016. While a member of the Opera Vlaan- deren ensemble, Bryce-Davis sang Nezhata in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko , Kristina in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair , and Mary in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman ; this season she returned to the company for her role debut as Ms. Alex- ander in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha . She has also participated in San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, with which she portrayed Eboli in selections from Verdi’s Don Carlo and Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana , and Mich- igan Opera Theatre, singing the Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , the Lady in Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth , and Ma Moss in Copland’s The Tender Land . Further stage credits include Mama McCourt in Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe with Chautauqua Opera, Albine in Mass- enet’s Thaïs with Florida Grand Opera, Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Aspen Music Fes- tival, Owl in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Lily in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with Grand Théâtre de Genève. In concert, Bryce-Davis has recently been featured as Marguerite in Berlioz’s La dam- nation de Faust with the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem and the world premiere of Paul Mora- vec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall, Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” with the South Da- kota Symphony Orchestra, and Elgar’s Sea Pic- tures at Vienna’s Musikverein. JUNE 17 – JUNE 23, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 97