Ravinia 2022, Issue 1

CLASSICAL MYSTERY TOUR Since their inaugural performance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in 1996, Clas- sical Mystery Tour has become one of the top symphonic pop attractions of the past decade. Drawing on experience from the Broadway sensation Beatlemania, the group has been perform- ing consistently for over 20 years, having appeared with more than 100 orchestras and counting across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In addition to dates alongside major ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony, the group has given over a dozen concerts with the Fort Worth Sympho- ny Orchestra, broken attendance records four years running with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and played three packed houses at the Sydney Opera House. The four musicians in Classical Mystery Tour look and sound just like The Beatles, but Classical Mystery Tour is more than just a rock concert. The show presents more than two dozen Beatles tunes transcribed note- for-note and performed exactly as they were originally recorded. Audiences hear “Penny Lane” with a live trumpet section, experience the beauty of “Yesterday” with an acoustic guitar and string quartet, and enjoy the classical/rock blend on “I Am the Walrus.” Classical Mystery Tour is the best of The Beatles—from early tracks and on through the solo years—like they’ve never been heard before. Many have called it the best showThe Beatles never did, and the Los Angeles Times described Classical Mystery Tour as “more than just an incredible simulation, [with] swelling strings and soaring horn lines giving the performance a high goose-bump quotient.” Jim Owen was born and raised in Hun- tington Beach, CA. He gained rich musi- cal experience from his father, who played music from the clas- sics for him on the piano and from his exten- sive library of recordings by the great classical artists. Owen began studying piano at 6 and won honors in various piano performance competitions through his teenage years. He was 8 years old when he first heard The Beat- les and promptly decided to take up the study of the guitar. His first professional perfor- mance as a Beatle was at 16. Then, at age 18, he began touring internationally with various productions of Beatlemania , visiting Japan, Korea, China, Canada, Mexico, and much of South America. In 1996, Owen began work- ing on his idea for a new show with orchestra. It had long been his dream to share with the public live performances of some of the great- est music ever written and recorded. Classical Mystery Tour is the result. Singer-s ongwr iter Tony Kishman was born in Tucson, AZ, where he began his musical career in the early 1970s. Although he had been playing guitar for a number of years, it was not un- til age 19 that Tony started performing seri- ously. Kishman’s early influences included Wishbone Ash, Bad Company, and Peter Frampton. Between 1973 and 1978, he played guitar in the group Cheap Trix, a cover band performing Top 40 songs as well as originals. Starting in 1979, Kishman played bass and guitar for six years as Paul McCartney in both the national and international tours of Beat- lemania . He then went on to perform in Leg- ends in Concert and produced shows that ran in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. He joined the classic supergroup Wishbone Ash for a tour of Europe and the recording of the group’s 18th album. Robbie Berg is a self- taught musician from Spokane, WA. He knew from a young age that he wanted to have a career in mu- sic. Berg began by smacking the pots and pans in his mother’s kitchen until he received a drum set. His first performance was drumming along to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for his 3rd-grade talent show. He thought he wanted to be a drum- mer, but then discovered he had a knack for the guitar. He began to concentrate on lead guitar and vocals, and eventually started writ- ing his own songs. By the time he was 15, Berg began his career portraying George Harrison in Beatles tribute shows. He has played cruise lines, Cinema Con, Broadway, Disneyland, and for several years on the Las Vegas Strip. Berg has been a life-long fan of The Beatles and continues to travel the globe to pay trib- ute to one of the greatest bands of all time. Originally from Madi- son WI, Chris McBur- ney was drawn to the Beatles after spotting The White Album in his older brothers’ re- cord collection. That discovery set him on a musical journey for life. When he was 11 years old, McBurney toured Scandinavia as a boy soprano with the Madison Boy Choir and gained a love and appreciation of classical music. Now, as a drummer based in the NYC area, his play- ing has been featured on network television shows and commercials. He has performed on Broadway and toured extensively across North America, Europe, and Asia. McBurney has called studying and perfecting the musi- cianship of Ringo Starr one of his most chal- lenging and rewarding musical experiences, and he is thrilled by performing his favorite music with full orchestration and spreading the music of The Beatles to audiences all over the world. GEORGE STELLUTO, conductor A decade into his tenure as music director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, George Stel- luto also maintains an extensive schedule as a guest conductor. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in violin from West Virginia Univer- sity, dual master’s degrees in violin and con- ducting from Yale, and one of Juilliard’s first Artist Diplomas in conducting, he is a versa- tile musician on the podium. Over his 12-year association with Juilliard, as a Bruno Walter Fellow and its resident conductor, Stelluto worked with the school’s orchestral, dance, vocal, drama, and jazz divisions as well as the pre-college orchestras, and he prepared the Juilliard Orchestra to work with numerous guest conductors, including Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. His own guest conducting credits have recently included debuting with the San Francisco Sympho- ny in 2019 as well as dates with the Atlanta, Milwaukee, Pasadena, and San Diego Symphonies, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Nordwestduetsche Philharmonie, and Ukrainian National Orchestra. Stelluto’s concert collaborators have included instrumentalists Hilary Hahn, Charles Yang, Ramsey Lewis, Conrad Tao, and Jorge Federico Osorio; vocalists Michelle DeYoung, Nao- mi O’Connell, and Ryan Speedo Green; versatile artists Kevin Cole, Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck; and the New York City Ballet. Recently he worked with Jamie Bernstein at Ravinia on “Bernstein 100 Years Young: A New Young People’s Concert,” which brought the Peoria Symphony to the festival for the first time. He has led several other family concerts at Ravinia, including Classical Kids LIVE! productions as well as the presentation of the film La La Land with live orchestra. His in- terest in teaching young musicians took him beyond Juilliard to China, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, and throughout the United States. His arrangements, orchestral reductions, and compositions have been performed by the Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia Orchestras, Los Angeles and Lyon Operas, and in Peoria. Last summer George Stelluto makes his Chicago Symphony Orches- tra debut at Ravinia, having previously assisted in many of the festival’s opera productions with the orchestra and other large-scale performances. CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC For the Chicago Philharmonic’s biography, see page 43. VIOLINS Robert Hanford Concertmaster Mathias Tacke Principal Second Christie Abe Bernardo Arias Lori Ashikawa Eleanor Bartsch Stephen Boe Jennifer Cappelli Lisa Fako Sheila Hanford Carmen Kassinger Helen Kim Whun Kim Michele Lekas Kjersti Nostbakken Rika Seko VIOLAS Carol Cook Principal Karl Davies Loretta Gillespie Daniel Golden Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff Ryan Rump CELLOS Calum Cook Principal Matthew Agnew Margaret Daly Larry Glazier Steven Houser Wei Liu Denton Mara McClain Edward Moore BASSES Collins Trier Principal Greg Sarchet Tim Shaffer FLUTES Mary Stolper Principal Jennifer Clippert Karin Ursin Alyce Johnson CLARINETS Sergey Gutorov Principal Gene Collerd SAXOPHONES John Wojciechowski Principal Geof Bradfield Paul McGinley Scott Burns HORNS Fritz Foss Principal Steven Replogle Peter Jirousek Sharon Jones TRUMPETS Bill Denton Principal Dave Inmon Jordan Olive David Gauger TROMBONES Jeremy Moeller Principal Reed Capshaw BASS TROMBONE Chris Davis PERCUSSION Michael Folker Principal Michael Kozakis Simon Gomez HARP Kara Bershad Principal SYNTHESIZER Kuang-Hao Huang Principal RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JUNE 15 – JULY 3, 2022 46