Ravinia 2022, Issue 3

JACEK MÓJTA (DUCZMAL-MRÓZ); MYRA KLARMAN (JACKSON) role in a first performance by the Bolshoi on December 22, 1946. None of Prokofiev’s orchestral suites respects the dramatic sequence of his ballet. He ar- ranged the first two suites, opp. 64bis and 64ter, as self-contained symphonic works, with appropriate tempo and mood contrast: “They do not follow each other consecutive- ly; both suites develop parallel to each other. Some numbers were taken directly from the ballet without alteration, others were com- piled from different sources within it.” The composer compiled the third suite, op. 101, out of the more chamber-like ballet numbers. Marin Alsop retains the original story’s out- line in her selections from all three suites. –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan Galina Ulanova (Juliet) and Yury Zhdanov (Romeo) in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet (October 1, 1954) MARIN ALSOP, conductor For Marin Alsop’s biography, see page 55. ANNA DUCZMAL-MRÓZ, conductor Anna Duczmal-Mróz began her musical studies as a violinist, attending the University of Music and Theater in Hanover, Germany, under the guidance of Krzysztof Wegrzyn. In 2000, she founded and conducted a student ensemble in Hanover, the Benjamin Britten Chamber Orchestra, giving concerts around Germany. Around this same time, Eiji Oue, the conductor of the university orchestra, invited its members to take his place at the podium in turns—as a result, Oue invited Duczmal-Mróz to study conducting with him, from 2001 to 2005. She graduated with honors and led the Northern German Ra- dio Philharmonic in her diploma concert, having been an assistant to Oue with the ensemble in 2004–5. Beforehand, in 2003, Duczmal-Mróz made her professional con- ducting debut in Poland with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble founded by her mother, the groundbreaking conductor Agnieszka Duczmal, in 1968. After serving as assistant conductor to Antoni Wit at the Warsaw National Philharmonic in 2006–7, Duczmal-Mróz became principal conductor of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in 2009. She has since toured to Germany, Italy, Bel- gium, Austria, France, Spain, Mexico, Japan, and South America with the ensemble as well as other orchestras, and she has collaborated with numerous other Polish orchestras, in- cluding the Warsaw National Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. In appearanc- es at Vienna’s Konzerthaus Mozart Hall and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as many festivals across Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Mexico, and South America, Duczmal-Mróz has also worked with such guest artists as Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Avi Avital, Dan- iel Hope, Ingolf Wunder, and Kirill Troussov. Recent highlights include leading Mendels- sohn’s AMidsummer Night’s Dream at the Bal- tic Opera and serving as music director of the Orchestra of Opera Nova. A multiple scholar- ship holder of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Duczmal-Mróz is the 2022 Taki Alsop Conducting Fellow. Anna Duczmal-Mróz is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. JERI LYNNE JOHNSON, conductor A multifaceted conductor with eclectic mu- sical tastes for projects onstage and off, Jeri Lynne Johnson is a graduate of Wellesley Col- lege and the University of Chicago, and she earned the Jorge Mester Conducting Schol- arship to attend the Aspen Music Festival. Along the way, she worked with several men- tors, among them Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, and Daniel Barenboim. Johnson made history as the first African American woman not only to win an international conducting prize—the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2005, its third receipient—but also to break barriers among major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Sympho- ny Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, and Weimar Staatskapelle. Recent conducting engagements have included world premieres with the National Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Opera Theater, as well as perfor- mances with the Hartford Symphony, New Orleans Opera, and Florida Grand Opera, and the season ahead includes appearances with Opera Theater of Saint Louis and Santa Fe Opera. Underscoring the breadth of her musical scope, she collaborated with rapper Jay-Z, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, and the hip hop band The Roots at Carnegie Hall in 2012. In addition to her guest conducting, Johnson is the founder and artistic director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, created to be a model for ensembles embracing the 21st century. Established in 2008, Black Pearl combines artistic excellence, cultural diversi- ty, and meaningful community engagement and has been recognized internationally as an award-winning innovator in social justice, racial equity, and transforming modern or- chestras from gatekeepers into facilitators of creativity. In January 2021, Black Pearl Cham- ber Orchestra had the honor of being the only orchestra in North America invited to participate in a virtual collaborative concert as part of the World Economic Forum at Da- vos. Based upon her work with Black Pearl, Johnson established DEI Arts Consulting in 2015 to share the insights and results of Black Pearl’s programs through strategic and cre- ative solutions for cultural institutions seek- ing to create a culture of belonging. Jeri Lynne Johnson is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. LAURA JACKSON, conductor Spending her early childhood in Virginia and Pennsylvania, Laura Jackson arrived in New York at age 11 and fell in love with the violin in public school and later attended the North Carolina School for the Arts. Follow- ing undergraduate studies at Indiana Uni- versity with a dual focus on violin and con- ducting, she decamped to Boston in 1990 o freelance as a violinist and teach at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Jackson later advanced her conducting studies at the University of Michigan, earning a DMA in orchestral conducting under the guidance of Kenneth Kiesler, and as the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood during the summers of 2002 and 2003. She was named the second-ever Taki Alsop Conducting Fel- low in 2004, the same year she was appointed assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the first woman in the position, which she held through 2007. Jackson was named music director of the Reno Philhar- monic in 2009, a role she in which she con- tinues to earn critical praise for her artistry, leadership, innovative programming, and creative community engagement. Her pas- sion and drive have helped ensemble reach new heights with composer-in-residence projects and collaborations that enliven the Nevada community. Recently she spearhead- ed a project that celebrated both the 50th an- niversary of the orchestra and the 150th of one of the city’s formative events, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, including a commissioned work from composer Zhou Tian. In addition to concerts with the Reno Philharmonic, Jackson maintains an interna- tional conducting schedule that has included orchestras in Atlanta, Baltimore, Berkeley, Charlottesville, Detroit, Hartford, Orlando, the Philippines, Phoenix, Richmond, San An- tonio, Toledo, Toronto, Windsor, and Win- nipeg, plus the Philly Pops and the Bretagne Symphony Orchestra in France. Jackson re- corded Michael Daugherty’s Time Cycle on Naxos with the Bournemouth Symphony in partnership with Marin Alsop, and in 2013 she became the first American to guest con- duct the Algerian National Orchestra. Laura Jackson is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2022 44 ;