Ravinia 2021 - Issue 1

RAVINIA/PATRICK GIPSON (PREVIOUS SPREAD); NORMAN OATES (RUSH); DARRELL HOEMANN (GARROP) “Everything is very accessible, very listenable. James P. Johnson is really like the missing link between Joplin and Ellington . And the newworks are all fantastic.” With the current discussions around voting rights and political access, Stacy Garrop’s The Battle for the Ballot could hardly be more timely . Conductor Jonathan Rush Laura Karpman Carlos Simon Stacy Garrop James P. Johnson But because of COVID-19 strictures, which were more severe when much of the planning for the season was done, Alsop could not just simply reprise the programs she had ready for last year. In part because the size of the orchestra onstage had to be reduced because of necessary distanc- ing precautions at the time, as well as challenges with securing visas for many artists based outside of the US, the conductor had to set aside much of what she had previously planned. In addition, partly as a response to last summer’s protests over the death of George Floyd and society’s heightened awareness of gender and racial inequities, Alsop put a greater emphasis on diversity both in the composers and artists she chose for her concerts. “We went back,” she said, “and really tried to remodel the programs in a way that would bring classical favorites to people but also address the interest suddenly—finally, I should say—in hearing a diverse range of works.” A movement toward increased inclusion had already begun under the festival’s former leader, Welz Kauffman, especially in the areas of jazz and pop music, Haydon said, and it was a matter of balancing those efforts in the classical realm. As a member of under-represented groups herself, Alsop was already known for her non-traditional programming, so she was excited about the shift toward greater diversity. “It’s not really a stretch for me at all,” she said. “It’s a joy. I’m so glad that our world has been forced to open up.” One program that highlights this emphasis on inclusion is the July 10 lineup titled Celebrating America . With that moniker, audiences might under- standably expect what Alsop called the “usual suspects” by the likes of Aaron Copland or John Philip Sousa. But the conductor went in a very different di- rection, focusing on works by compos- ers of color and women. The center- piece is The Battle for the Ballot , a 2020 work written by Chicago composer Stacy Garrop in celebration of the 19th Amendment, which affirmed women’s voting rights. With the current discus- sions around voting rights and political access, Alsop said, the composition could hardly be more timely. She built out the program from there with All American, another work about the suffragist move- ment by Laura Karpman, who is best known as a movie and televi- sion composer, and Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers . The latter piece will be led by Jonathan Rush, an up-and-coming African-American conductor whom Alsop has champi- oned. [Rush will be mentoring a new generation himself before he makes his CSO debut, leading a workshop for Sistema Ravinia, the festival’s El Sistema–based social development and orchestra program reaching 300 students across 14 schools in Chicago’s Austin and Lawndale neighborhoods and the Waukegan area.] Rounding out things are two works by James P. Johnson (1894–1955), a well-known stride pianist and composer: Victory Stride and Harlem Symphony . Both premiered at Carnegie Hall in the 1940s and were subsequently lost until the 1990s when Alsop unearthed them after several years of research. “Everything is very accessible, very listenable,” the conductor said. “The Johnson is really like the missing link between Joplin and Ellington, so it’s got that jazz flavor to it. And the new works are all fantastic.” At Alsop’s behest, Garrop and Karpman created reduced arrangements of their works to accommodate smaller-sized Chi- cago Symphony forces mandated by Coronavirus protocols. Even though those limitations have been largely lifted, Alsop plans to still perform the smaller versions to honor the work the composers put into them. Because the seven programs that Alsop will lead in 2021 were modified at least three or four times, the con- ductor admits she’s lost track of what was originally planned in 2020. When asked about it, she originally cited Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which she will lead on July 22 with soprano Julia Bullock making her Ravinia and CSO debuts, as one of the residual selec- tions. But in fact, Bullock was going to appear in Brahms’s A German Re- quiem , a piece that had to be dropped because of the large forces it requires. Because she didn’t want to lose Bull- ock’s talents, Alsop added the Mahler symphony, which is built around the composer’s art song A Heavenly Life . RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 1 – JULY 23, 2021 14