Ravinia 2021 - Issue 3

RUTH WALZ; STEPHANIE BERGER (BACKGROUND) did as a video in February, and then I’ll be performing it live with them in November. I’m also doing it as part of a residency at the Barbican and the BBC Symphony in October. “I think the clearest project that I am working on now is based on the life of Julius Eastman, a composer I have kind of idolized but also found more personal and creative connec- tions with. I know that there’s a broad re-emerging of Eastman’s work, but I was privileged to be an initial part of that reawakening through this ongoing relationship I have with the Monday Evening Concerts series in Los Angeles. I’ve also come to know Eastman’s family—including his brother Jerry, who lives in Brooklyn and runs his own jazz club and is his own story-session jazz guitarist—I’m translating that personal connection and research into a show, but that will also be a long-term deeper dive. In September, we’ll premiere the first version of that show in New York, but then we have designs to have it be more fully commissioned by the Barbican and then the LA Phil. So [there’s the aspect of] things continue to grow.” The program that Tines will sing in his Ravinia debut and first Chica- go-area performance on August 31, Recital No. 1: Mass , is one that has had a four-year incubation process. “It’s a mashup between a standard classical form, recital , and a liturgical form, Mass . The idea is to use overt story- telling within these contexts and be very direct that this is about a ritual of humanity. I’m trying to walk through a [Mass] narrative that deals with hu- man suffering and renewal and [also] claim that the concert space, the clas- sical space, can be the space for that kind of human spiritual or just human condition engagement. “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. I grew up in the Black Baptist church in Virginia. I also started playing violin when I was six, for 14 years, and I played piano for a long time. I sang with a number of professional choirs, including at the National Shrine in Washington, DC, and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New York … [and with] connections and experiences in Jewish liturgical music. I was very indoctrinated in the orchestral repertoire and choral liter- ature, and then also with early music and choral singing at Harvard with the Harvard Collegium Musicum, a really special choir that specializes in Renaissance polyphony. “I have always found myself being able to connect with that music because it’s always done for a reason. You don’t sing a Kyrie just because it sounds nice. You sing a Kyrie because you’re asking for help, because you’re asking for mercy. There is a clear directive of what that piece of music means when it’s being performed. It’s inviting people into the possibility of reassessing their lives in such a way that they might have to ask for help. Showing that vulnerability. It’s amazing that the Mass starts with a plea for help, the journey to say I have a problem. Credo, I believe that there is some way for this to change or there’s some force greater than myself to make that change. Gloria, to rejoice in that possibility. Sanctus, to claim that that thing is holy and special. And Agnus Dei, to acknowledge that a sacrifice of some sort has to be made for the change to occur. Whether that’s the sacrifice of a way of exist- ing, the sacrifice of a former self, or owning up to what is the cause of this problem. The Agnus Dei is essentially one of the jet fuels for the change. But what I continue to find sitting in all of these different church contexts: Baptist church, Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, I found that everybody was telling the same story in very different aesthetics.” The sections of Recital No. 1: Mass include new settings by Caroline Shaw juxtaposed with arias from Bach can- tatas and Passions along with settings of Black spirituals and hymns. “One thing I realized moving between these worlds,” Tines concludes, “is that there’s a certain ecstatic fervor and direct visceral connection of human experience in the form of making mu- sic in the Black church that primes me for how to see all liturgical music.” Award-winning veteran journalist, critic, author, broadcaster and educator Dennis Polkow has been covering Chicago-based cultural institutions across various local, national, and international media for more than 35 years. Seeking pioneering artistic visions in his collaborative projects as well as his solo creations, Tines held a starring role in the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains at the Dutch National Opera in 2016 and its US premiere in 2018. Peter Sellars was the librettist and director for the productions, which accentuated the opera’s themes of human connections to the supernatural with canvas set pieces designed by Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu, depicting a sense of human life as a series of inkblots and slashing but calligraphic gestures. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 18 – SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 20

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