Ravinia 2021 - Issue 1

of Broadway and 62nd St., and closed after 213 performances, on June 28, 1924. Critics sin- gled out “Old Fashioned Love” as the show’s hit song, but audiences gravitated to a num- ber that quickly became the dance rage of the decade: “Charleston.” Its infectious rhythms descended from the “ring shouts” of John- son’s youth and were adapted to a modern au- dience with choreography by Elida (“Lida”) Webb with vocal interpretation by 19-year- old Elisabeth Welch. Johnson then entered a period of semi-re- tirement, moving to Saint Albans, Queens, where he could study music, focus more time on composition, and recuperate from persistent health conditions. There were oc- casional gigs in Harlem, but Johnson grew less connected with the swing jazz craze he helped launch. Instead, he became an un- heralded leader of the emerging concert jazz movement. This proved a most difficult path, as Johnson lacked the formal training and credentials of other, mostly white, musicians writing “serious” compositions. His quest for legitimacy as a Black composer mirrored the aspirations of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson twice pursued one of the preeminent markers of success as a composer—a Guggenheim Fellowship (1937 and 1942)—but his applications apparently received little meaningful consideration. As a concert composer, Johnson first made his mark with a performance of Yamekraw: A Ne- gro Rhapsody (in an orchestration by William Grant Still) at Carnegie Hall on April 27, 1928. An even more ambitious orchestral work, Harlem Symphony , followed four years later. Outwardly, the score reflects the European symphonic tradition in its four-movement structure with a fast opening, extended lyrical movement, quick dance, and variation finale. Its orchestration, with the addition of jazz in- struments, hints at something unconvention- al: The subject matter of this programmatic work, on the other hand, is pure Harlem. The symphony begins below the streets of Harlem with a subway ride through several neighborhoods, starting at magnificent Penn Station, which had opened in 1910. Johnson created a series of cultural stops as his musical train voyaged from 110th Street to 7th Avenue through the Jewish and Spanish neighbor- hoods, the Shopping District with the “lady shoppers gossiping,” and the “Negro Neigh- borhood.” After disembarking, the anonymous traveler continues walking along 7th Avenue. An oboe opens the second movement with an Andante espressivo blues theme, above the pizzicato strings, in dialogue with the flute. The mood becomes more contemplative and melancholy as bowed strings weave their own thick harmonies. The Nightclub is a buoyant dance number like those heard in any of the dozens of Harlem establishments, such as The Cotton Club, Club Cha-Cha, or Savoy Ball- room. Baptist Mission returns to the music of Johnson’s youth—a slow gospel hymn— which undergoes a series of seven variations, the sixth of which is titled “The Prayer.” The ensemble builds to an inspirational finale. Harlem Symphony premiered on Novem- ber 21, 1937, at the Lafayette Theatre in Har- lem. That performance also marked the joint debuts of the short-lived American Negro Ballet Company, founded by German dancer and choreographer Eugene Von Grona, and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra (over time, known by several different names) under the direction of Dean Dixon. Van Grona cho- reographed music by Igor Stravinsky ( The Firebird ), Duke Ellington, and W.C. Handy for his fledgling dance troupe. Victory Stride Scored for two flutes and piccolo, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone (optional), bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, tuba, timpani (optional), drum set, and strings (reduced version edited and arranged by Nicholas Hersh) Inspired by the first of John Hammond’s “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts at Car- negie Hall—a two-concert series (Decem- ber 23, 1938, and December 24, 1939) tracing the evolution of African American music, “The Music Nobody Knows”—German-born Alfred Lion co-founded Blue Note Records with musician, writer, and political activist Max Margulis in 1939 to capture the thrilling sounds of hot jazz. Albert Ammons and Me- ade Lux Lewis, two boogie-woogie pianists on Hammond’s program, participated in the first recording session on January 6. Likely held in the rented studios of radio station WMGM on the west side of Manhattan, this inauspicious session gave birth to a jazz re- cording institution. Five years later, stride pianist James P. John- son entered the studio with his Blue Note Jazz Men—trumpeter Sidney DeParis, trombon- ist Vic Dickenson, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, guitarist Jimmy Shirley, bassist John Simmons, and drummer Sidney Catlett—to record the swinging twelve-bar Victory Stride . This March 4, 1944, recording occupied Side A of a 12" 78-rpm record (BN 32). Mills Music later published Victory Stride with lyr- ics by Leo Israel and Max Margulis, who held the copyright issued on August 10, 1944. –Program notes © 2021 Todd E. Sullivan MARIN ALSOP, conductor For Marin Alsop’s biography, see page 62. JONATHAN RUSH, conductor Appointed the Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2020, Jonathan Rush is a rising talent on the concert podium, having earned a Bachelor of Music fromThe Ohio State University, where he was Music Director of the Buckeye Phil- harmonic Orchestra, and a Master of Music from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017 he became a conducting fellow of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, and in 2018 he was also named a Project Inclusion Conducting Fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta, where he was made an Assistant Conductor in 2019. His current conducting mentors include Marin Alsop, Mei-Ann Chen, and Joseph Young. Rush made his professional orchestra debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York in Car- negie Hall as the 2018 winner of the Respighi Prize in conducting at age 22, and he made his international debut leading the Nairobi Phil- harmonic Orchestra and Dance Centre Ken- ya in their first performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with live orchestra. Rush has since returned to Kenya to continue his re- lationship with the dance company, and he has appeared in further performances with the Chamber Orchestra of New York as well as debuts with the Chicago Sinfonietta and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A versatile musician, he also has a strong background in jazz, gospel, soul, and R&B music, having performed with various jazz ensembles and as lead vocalist for the Ohio Show Band. Rush serves as the Minister of Music at Ebenezer Temple in Hartford, CT, and the Director of Music for the New England District of the United Holy Church of America, overseeing the music departments of 14 different church- es. Jonathan Rush is making his Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. JAYE LADYMORE, narrator Most recently seen on TV guesting as Kath- erine Boyd on NBC’s Chicago P.D. , Jaye La- dymore is a Chicago-based actor who has trained with Chicago Shakespeare Theater andMilwaukee RepertoryTheater in addition to earning a BA in Theater from the Univer- sity of Georgia. She was recently announced as a series regular on the CW’s reimagining of The 4400 in the role of Claudette, a preach- er’s wife from the 1950s who was active in the early civil rights movement. Ladymore’s television credits also include recurring roles on the Fox series Proven Innocent (2019) and Empire (2018), as well as a guest role on Showtime’s The Chi . On film, she recent- ly had a featured role in the Savannah Film Festival award winner Killing Eleanor , and she was previously featured in An Acceptable Loss , which starred Jamie Lee Curtis. Lady- more has appeared in several productions with Writers Theatre, including Stick Fly (as Taylor), Twelfth Night (as Viola), and The Im- portance of Being Earnest (as Gwendolen), as well as Northlight Theatre for The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (as Lydia Wickham), Goodman Theatre for Bernhardt/Hamlet (as Rosamond Gerard), and Steppenwolf Theatre for We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… (as Actor 6). Additionally, she has portrayed Sally Mae in Too Heavy for Your Pocket with TimeLine Theatre, Ann in The African Com- pany Presents Richard III with American Players Theatre, Lady Macduff in Macbeth with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Kate in Good People and Joanne in Dreamgirls with Milwaukee RepertoryTheater. Jaye Ladymore is making her first appearance at Ravinia. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 49