Ravinia 2021 - Issue 3

BOWIE VERSCHUUREN ‘Mass’ Diversity Davóne Tines is singing with and for inclusion BY DENNIS POLKOW of symphonies and different organi- zations around the country, but now we’re trying to deepen that work by putting it in service to actual legisla- tive change. That eventually will turn into a 50-state tour that will require an entire criminal justice reform curriculum, so you can imagine that’s a cumbersome project. These larger whale projects we really devote a lot of thought to while doing other things along the way. So it’s taken some time to get to where I am right now. “I also created a program for orchestra called Sermon: Concerto No. 1 , which is structured like a concerto, but in the style of an exegetic sermon: presenting a text and then expound- ing upon it. That’s something I made for the Philadelphia Orchestra that we Left: Davóne Tines premiered The Black Clown at Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in 2018 and reprised the original work in 2019 at the Mostly Mozart festival (pictured). Tines developed the music theater piece from Langston Hughes poetry that, to the bass-baritone, speaks not only to the Black experience but to any marginalized people. I have a deep love of classical music and its potential. It was one of the first things that I knew musically when I was younger. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 19