Ravinia 2022, Issue 3

PREVIOUS PAGE: KYLE DUNLEAVY (ALSOP); MYRA KLARMAN (JACKSON); KAMIL BABKA (DUCZMAL-MRÓZ) THIS PAGE: E.A. KENNEDY (BLACK PEARL); DAVID CALVERT (RENO) Right: Jeri Lynne Johnson leads the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, which she established in 2008 with a focus on combining artistic excellence with cultural diversity and community engagement. Their innovative projects have made the orchestra the only ogranization to receive three Arts Challenge Grants from The Knight Foundation. Below: Laura Jackson leads the Reno Philharmonic in Chesapeake: Summer of 1814 , an original multimedia concert work celebrating the bicentennial of the poem behind “The Star-Spangled Banner.” been in a professional guest conduct- ing situation. I not only got her feed- back, but the feedback of professional musicians encountering me for the first time. To be able to get these little snapshots from them—this is how you could be doing it better—made it a really rich week. So much wisdom was imparted to me.” A different sort of wisdom was imparted to Jeri Lynne Johnson, the 2005 Fellow and founder and artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia. As a young African American woman, she faced a uniquely treacherous career path. “Right after I won the Taki,” said Johnson, “I went out on the job market thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve got this amazing credential on my résumé and all this wonderful experience. I should really be able to land a job.’ ” She reached the final audition round for three music director jobs but lost out on all three. She eagerly accepted one orchestra’s offer to ex- plain why she was passed over. “That’s very rare,” she said. “It was a wonder- ful opportunity.” The feedback, she acknowledged, “did me the great service of being brutally honest.” The orchestra liked her, and the board thought she had wonderful ideas. But they didn’t know how to “market” her. As the visibly un- comfortable orchestra representative put it, “You just don’t look like what the audience expects you to look like.” Devastated, Johnson sought Alsop’s advice. “You are where I was when I started my Concordia orchestra,” Alsop told her. “You’re going to have to create opportunities to prove to other people that you can do this job, that you can lead an organization and maintain it.” Johnson launched Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in 2008, empha- sizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in repertoire and personnel long before they became popular buzz- words. She created DEI Arts Consult- ing in 2015 to assist corporations and nonprofits on those issues. When the pandemic hit, Black Pearl and DEI Arts Consulting were able to survive with online services. “I understood that I had to be very entrepreneurial and create my own op- portunities,” Johnson said. Meanwhile she continued guest conducting; her 2022 schedule includes leading world premieres at the Na- tional Symphony, the Santa Fe Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater. Lidiya Yankovskaya, winner of a Taki Honor- able Mention award in 2015, has been music director of Chicago Opera The- ater since 2017. She joined Alsop for sessions in the United Kingdom and at the Cabrillo Festival in California, where Alsop had been music director from 1992 to 2015. Most important, however, was Alsop’s networking that helped Yankovskaya move beyond her home base of Boston. “I had had a decade of high-level experience at that point,” she said,” and I pretty much knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. But I had no real connections, no exposure to the music world outside the small community I was in.” Alsop’s recommendations helped her win a residency with the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and assistant conductor work with respected maestro Lorin Maazel. (Mei-Ann Chen is another Taki alumna playing a leading role on Chi- cago’s musical scene. Music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, she was the 2007 Taki Fellow.) Alsop is exceedingly generous with her time and her advice, striving to stay in touch with Taki alumnae and put them in touch with one another. In mid-June, Lina González-Grana- dos, the 2017 Taki Fellow, stepped in with only eight hours’ notice to conduct the Chicago Symphony after a positive Covid-19 test forced CSO Music Director Riccardo Muti to drop out. The Colombian-Amer- ican conductor was finishing her residency as the CSO’s George Solti Conducting Apprentice. This summer she becomes the Los Angeles Opera’s resident conductor. “The first call I received when I was going to step in in June was from Marin,” said González-Granados. “She was saying, ‘Congratulations. How can I help you? I want to support you.’ It was psychological support. She is always there to lend a hand.” When the pandemic brought live performances to a shuddering halt around the world, the Taki Fellowship sensed an opportunity. “During the pandemic, Marin organized monthly Zoom meetings for all of the Taki Fellows that were incredible,” said Yankovskaya. “We got together, and we met different people in various fields. It was [esteemed vet- eran conductor] Bernard Haitink one time, or a librarian from an orchestra at a very high level or the concert- master of a major orchestra. Different people would give us insights we might not otherwise know. And more important, it was also an opportunity for all of us to connect. It’s so rare to have a chance to speak to so many other conductors, especially women, in the same place.” “I love them so much!” said Alex- andra Arrieche, the Brazilian-born 2011 Taki Fellow and newly appoint- ed music director of the Olympia RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2022 8