Ravinia 2022, Issue 2

THERESA WEY MARIN ALSOP, Chief Conductor Following six performances at Ravinia with the Chicago Sym- phony Orchestra between 2002 and 2006, Marin Alsop has been returning to both every year since 2018. As Ravinia’s Chief Conductor, a relationship that has just been extended through 2025, she leads three weeks of concerts with the CSO each summer and curates Breaking Barriers, an annual festival fo- cused on celebrating and advancing diverse artists and leaders in classical music who are ensuring an inclusive future for the arts. She began her professional education at Yale University at 16 and within six years earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin at The Juilliard School; both institutions have awarded her honorary doctorates. Alsop’s career surged ahead in 1989 when she became the first woman to be awarded the Koussev- itzky Conducting Prize from Tanglewood, where she became a protégé of Leonard Bernstein. Today the director of graduate conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, she is the only conductor to have been awarded a MacAr- thur Fellowship, and she has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award. To nurture the careers of female conductors, in 2002 she founded a fellowship program that was renamed in her honor, as the Taki Alsop Conduct- ing Fellowship, in 2020. The following year, a documentary about her life, The Conductor , was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In addition to her role at Ravinia, which grew out of two highly successful seasons highlighting works created or championed by Bernstein, Alsop is Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing at the Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival at the University of Maryland, where she leads a conducting academy. In 2021 she became Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, concluding a 14-year tenure that included overseas touring and award-winning recordings as well as the founding of the OrchKids youth music initiative, and she is Conductor of Honor of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra following her seven years as its principal conductor and music director. Deeply committed to new music, she was music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years, over the course of which she led 174 premieres. In addition to regular engagements with the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, Alsop has long-standing relationships with the London Sym- phony and Philharmonic Orchestras and frequently guests with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw, and La Scala Orchestras. Her extensive discography has earned mul- tiple Gramophone Awards and includes acclaimed Brahms, Dvořák, and Prokofiev cycles on Naxos and further recordings on Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Sony Classical. CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RICCARDO MUTI, Zell Music Director JESSIE MONTGOMERY, Mead Composer-in-Residence HILARY HAHN, Artist-in-Residence The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is consistently hailed as one of the world’s leading orchestras. In September 2010, renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti became its tenth music director. During his tenure, the orchestra has deepened its engagement with the Chicago community, nurtured its legacy while supporting a new generation of musicians and composers, and collaborated with visionary artists. The history of the CSO began in 1889 whenTheodore Thomas, the orchestra’s first music director, was invited to establish a symphony orchestra in Chicago. Other former music directors include Frederick Stock, Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim, several of whom first appeared with the orchestra at Ravinia. Jessie Montgomery is the CSO’s current Mead Composer-in-Residence, and violinist Hilary Hahn is the CSO’s Artist-in-Residence. The musicians of the CSO command a vast repertoire and annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago. Since its first tour to Canada in 1892, the orchestra has performed in 29 countries on five continents in 62 international tours. The orchestra first performed at Ravinia in 1905 and appeared frequently until August 1931, when the park was closed for most of the Great Depression. In July 1936, the CSO helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival, and it has been in residence nearly every summer since. Since 1916, recording has been significant in establishing the orchestra’s international reputation, with recordings by the CSO earning a total of 63 Grammy Awards. It launched its independent label, CSO Resound, in 2007. The 2010 release of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem , with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Muti, was recognized with two Grammy Awards. Listeners around the world can hear the CSO in weekly airings of the CSO Radio Broadcast Series, which is syndicated on the WFMT Radio Network and online at CSO.org/Radio. In addition, the CSO’s YouTube video of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, conducted by Muti, has received well over 35 million views. VIOLINS Robert Chen Concertmaster The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Stephanie Jeong Associate Concertmaster The Cathy and Bill Osborn Chair David Taylor Assistant Concertmaster * The Ling Z. and Michael C. Markovitz Chair Yuan-Qing Yu Assistant Concertmaster * So Young Bae Cornelius Chiu Alison Dalton Gina DiBello Kozue Funakoshi Russell Hershow Qing Hou Matous Michal Simon Michal Blair Milton Sando Shia Susan Synnestvedt Rong-Yan Tang Baird Dodge Principal Lei Hou Ni Mei Hermine Gagné Rachel Goldstein Mihaela Ionescu Sylvia Kim Kilcullen Melanie Kupchynsky Wendy Koons Meir Aiko Noda § Joyce Noh Nancy Park Ronald Satkiewicz Florence Schwartz VIOLAS Li-Kuo Chang Acting Principal The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Catherine Brubaker Youming Chen Sunghee Choi Wei-Ting Kuo Danny Lai Weijing Michal Diane Mues Lawrence Neuman Max Raimi CELLOS John Sharp Principal The Eloise W. Martin Chair Kenneth Olsen Assistant Principal The Adele Gidwitz Chair Karen Basrak The Joseph A. and Cecile Renaud Gorno Chair Loren Brown Richard Hirschl Daniel Katz Katinka Kleijn David Sanders Gary Stucka Brant Taylor BASSES Alexander Hanna Principal The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair Daniel Armstrong ‡ Robert Kassinger Mark Kraemer Stephen Lester Bradley Opland HARP Lynne Turner FLUTES Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair Emma Gerstein Jennifer Gunn PICCOLO Jennifer Gunn The Dora and John Aalbregtse Piccolo Chair OBOES William Welter Principal The Nancy and Larry Fuller Principal Oboe Chair Michael Henoch Assistant Principal The Gilchrist Foundation Chair Lora Schaefer Scott Hostetler ENGLISH HORN Scott Hostetler CLARINETS Stephen Williamson Principal John Bruce Yeh Assistant Principal Gregory Smith E-FLAT CLARINET John Bruce Yeh BASSOONS Keith Buncke Principal William Buchman Assistant Principal Dennis Michel Miles Maner CONTRABASSOON Miles Maner HORNS David Cooper Principal Daniel Gingrich Associate Principal James Smelser David Griffin Oto Carrillo Susanna Gaunt TRUMPETS Esteban Batallán Principal The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Mark Ridenour Assistant Principal John Hagstrom The Pritzker Military Museum & Library Chair Tage Larsen TROMBONES Jay Friedman Principal The Lisa and Paul Wiggin Principal Trombone Chair Michael Mulcahy Charles Vernon BASS TROMBONE Charles Vernon TUBA Gene Pokorny Principal The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld TIMPANI David Herbert Principal The Clinton Family Fund Chair Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Cynthia Yeh Principal Patricia Dash Vadim Karpinos James Ross LIBRARIANS Peter Conover Principal Carole Keller Mark Swanson ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL John Deverman Director Anne MacQuarrie Manager, CSO Auditions and Orchestra Personnel STAGE TECHNICIANS Christopher Lewis Stage Manager Blair Carlson Paul Christopher Ramon Echevarria Ryan Hartge Peter Landry Todd Snick * Assistant concertmasters are listed by seniority. ‡ On sabbatical § On leave The Louise H. Benton Wagner Chair is currently unoccupied. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra string sections utilize revolving seating. Players behind the first desk (first two desks in the violins) change seats systematically every two weeks and are listed alphabetically. Section percussionists also are listed alphabetically. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 43