Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

CHICAGO CHILDREN’S CHOIR Chicago Children’s Choir is the nation’s preeminent youth choral organization, serving over 5,000 stu- dents across the city of Chicago. Founded in Hyde Park in 1956, at the height of the civil rights move- ment, CCC has grown from one choir into a vast network of in- and after-school programs driven by the mission of inspiring and changing lives through music. CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its history. With Josephine Lee as its president and artistic director, the choir has forged creative partnerships and new artistic endeavors that have revolutionized the youth choral arts. Recent projects have included the 2018 premiere of the hip-hop musical Long Way Home , written and directed by the renowned Q Brothers Collective; a performance in a new staging of Bernstein’s Mass under the baton of Marin Alsop with two frequent creative partners, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Festival, which will be reprised later this summer; and collaboration on Chance the Rapper’s Grammy-winning 2016 mixtape Coloring Book . CCC has performed through- out the United States and in Cuba, South Africa, India, Argentina, Uruguay, Korea, Canada, Japan, and Europe, as well as for such dignitaries as former President and First Lady Obama, former Pres- ident and Secretary of State Clinton, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Chinese president Hu Jintao, former South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso. Its choirs have also performed with or for such artists as Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, Samuel Ramey, Yo-Yo Ma, Andrea Bo- celli, Josh Groban, Enrique Iglesias, Quincy Jones, Al Green, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Bobby McFerrin, Kurt Elling, Celine Dion, Eddie Vedder, and Beyoncé Knowles. CCC has coheadlined with many of these artists at Ravinia, where it has also been featured in performances of choral symphonies, operas, and live-score presentations of feature films. In addition to recording for numerous labels, including Chicago’s Cedille ( Songs from Spoon River , 2009), CCC has released six studio recordings under its own label: Harmony Anew (2018), We All Live Here (2016), Holiday Har- mony (2010), Songs on the Road to Freedom (2008), Sita Ram (2006) and Open Up Your Heart (2004). Lexie Antoine Maxine Babinet Rachel Boraz Rosa Boraz Janiya Bryson Emily Bynum Alexis Cannellis Amber Cloud Jamion Cotten Martha Dunfee Zachariah Elliott Emma Ferrell Hana Freidheim-Javed Mercedes Gong Katherine Gonzalez Vienne Hensel Susana Hernandez Margaret Jirgal Ferrill Kelley Ella Koss Anoushka Lal Eleanor Lee Miles Lee Bennet McConkey Emerson McConkey Eleanor McGuire Ella McMahon Zola Miniger-Clark Vibha Muppidi Carin Murphy Zoey Obregon Alexia Peponis Caroline Polsky Olivia Rawson Olivia Roman Myra Sahai Hayden Scott Esme Seigelin Katherine Talmers Elaine Tang Ellen Tang Sarah Troccoli Kaliyah Venson Eliot Warren Nadia Weida Assistant Conductors Evan Bruno Elisabeth Van Schoonhoven Rehearsal Pianist John Goodwin JOSEPHINE LEE, president and artistic director As president and artistic director of Chicago Children’s Choir, Josephine Lee has revolution- ized the field of youth choral music through cutting-edge performances of diverse repertoire and innovative collaborations with world-class artists. In recognition of her leadership of CCC, she received the Kennedy Center’s National Committee for the Performing Arts Award for Arts Advocacy in 2018, the Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal from the University of Chicago in 2014, and the Roman Nomitch Fellowship in 2012 to attend a nonprofit management program at Harvard. She was also recently featured on “The Transformative Power of Music,” a segment on Oprah Winfrey Network’s Super Soul Sunday . An acclaimed pianist, singer, and producer, Lee recently sang in the premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Ted Hearne’s Place at the Brooklyn Acad- emy of Music’s Next Wave Festival. Other recent engagements include Long Way Home (2018), a theatrical work with the Q Brothers Collective; Ascension (2017), an original suite for piano and cello commissioned by Ballet Chicago; The Good Goodbyes (2012), a piano commission from Frank Chavez and River North Dance Chicago; and Sita Ram , a world musical co-created with David Kersnar of Lookingglass Theatre. She col- laborated with Chance the Rapper on his Gram- my Award–winning mixtape Coloring Book in 2016, leading CCC for its studio recordings and tour performances, and has also prepared the chorus for concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Lyric Opera Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, and Sphinx Virtuosi, as well as at Ravinia. In addition to doubling it reach among Chicago’s youth and tripling its budget, under Lee’s leadership CCC has become a premier cultural institution of the city alongside its artistic partners. JULY 22 – JULY 28, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 107