Ravinia 2019, Issue 3, Week 6

GEORGE HANSON, conductor A former student of Seiji Ozawa and Franco Fer- rara, George Hanson also developed his podi- um presence at Vienna’s Hochschule für Musik, Italy’s Accademia Chigiana, Tanglewood, and the Curtis Institute. He later served as an assis- tant to Giuseppe Patane at La Scala, as well as to Leonard Bernstein for seven years and Kurt Masur for five. It was during the latter time, in 1995, that he took over a concert with the Tuc- son Symphony Orchestra on short notice, very shortly thereafter becoming its music director. In the midst of this recently concluded 20-year tenure, Hanson also served as general music di- rector of the Wuppertal Opera and Orchestra in Germany for six years, overseeing more than 50 productions of opera and earning national rec- ognition for the ensemble’s Mahler and Shosta- kovich concert cycles, including the ECHO Klassik award for a recording. Hanson has re- ceived special recognition for his work with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which included the release of its internationally acclaimed debut CD and leading the ensemble in many Mozart piano concertos from the keyboard. In addition to having collaborated with such artists as Pin- chas Zukerman, Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, and Pe- ter Serkin, Hanson has also worked in concert with Tony Bennett and Dizzy Gillespie, as well as in the recording studio with R.E.M. for the triple-platinum album Automatic for the People . With conducting credits spanning 20 countries and over a hundred orchestras and operas—in- cluding Berlin’s Komische Oper, Vienna’s Kam- meroper, the Hamburg and Berlin Radio Or- chestras, Warsaw and New York Philharmonics, Atlanta and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian Na- tional Opera, and Arizona Opera—Hanson is also director of the Tucson Desert Song Festival and the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon, and he recently became the top administrator of the Alexandria (VA) Symphony Orchestra. George Hanson made his Ravinia and Chicago Sym- phony Orchestra debuts in 2016 and is making his first return to the festival. JENNIFER HUDSON, vocalist A Chicago native, in less than 20 years Jennifer Hudson has grown from a humble singer in a small church getting a congregation on its feet to doing the same with millions of fans as a two-time Grammy-winning singer, Oscar-win- ning actress, and bestselling author. Following her appearance on TV’s American Idol , Hudson quickly jumped to the big screen, taking on the role of Effie in the smash-hit film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls , earning not only an Academy Award but also a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BAFTA, and an NAACP Image Award. Hudson’s screen credits have since included The Secret Life of Bees , Sex and the City: The Movie , Black Nativ- ity , Smash , Empire , and Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq . She most recently made return appearances as a coach on both the UK and US editions of The Voice , having been the winning coach during her first appearance on the UK show, and starred in the 2018 Sundance Film Festival entry Monster (later retitled All Rise ). Hudson will soon be featured as Griz- abella in the film adaptation of the musical Cats , having lent her voice to NBC’s Emmy-nominated live-televised production of Hairspray and the hit animated film Sing . She made her Broadway debut as Shug Avery in the 2015 Tony-winning revival of The Color Purple , which won a Grammy for the cast recording. Hudson won her first Grammy for her 2008 eponymous debut album, which was the bestselling debut by a female R&B artist since 2004, and her 2011 sophomore disc, I Remember Me , en- tered Billboard ’s charts at number two—same as her debut. Both quickly became gold-certified discs. After a momentous 2013, when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and performed at the Presidential Inauguration, Hudson released her third disc, JHUD (2014), a top-10 disc featuring the Grammy-nominated single “It’s Your World.” She has most recently been heard on the soundtrack of the documentary RBG , singing the Oscar-nominated song “I’ll Fight.” Jennifer Hudson made her Ravinia debut in 2011 and tonight is making her first return to the festival for her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. JULY 8 – JULY 14, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 103