Ravinia 2022, Issue 3

JAYE LADYMORE, narrator Most recently seen on TV as Claudette in the CW’s 4400 , Jaye Ladymore is a Chica- go-based actor who has trained with Chi- cago Shakespeare Theater and Milwaukee Repertory Theater in addition to earning a BA in Theater from the University of Geor- gia. Ladymore’s television credits also include recurring roles on NBC’s Chicago P.D. (as Katherine Boyd) and on the Fox series Prov- en Innocent (2019) and Empire (2018), as well as a guest role on Showtime’s The Chi . On film, she recently had a featured role in the Savannah Film Festival award winner Killing Eleanor , and she was previously featured in An Acceptable Loss , which starred Jamie Lee Curtis. A week before her appearance at Ra- vinia, Ladymore will have just concluded a month of performances with Chicago Shake- speare Theater in the premiere production of It Came From Outer Space as Ellen Fields. Ladymore has appeared in several produc- tions with Writers Theatre, including Stick Fly (as Taylor), Twelfth Night (as Viola), and The Importance of Being Earnest (as Gwen- dolen), as well as with Northlight Theatre for The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (as Lydia Wickham), Goodman Theatre for Re- lentless (as Janet) and Bernhardt/Hamlet (as Rosamond Gerard), and Steppenwolf Theatre for We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… (as Actor 6). Additionally, she has portrayed Sally Mae in Too Heavy for Your Pocket with TimeLine Theatre—for which she won the 2019 Black Theater Alliance Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play—Ann in The Afri- can Company Presents Richard III with Amer- ican Players Theatre, Lady Macduff in Mac- beth with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Kate in Good People and Joanne in Dreamgirls with Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Jaye La- dymore made her Ravinia debut last season. CHICAGO SYMPHONY CHORUS Now in its 64th season, the Chicago Symphony Chorus regularly performs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall and at Ravinia. The history of the CSC began in 1957, when CSO music director Fritz Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to establish a chorus to equal the quality of the orchestra. Hillis accepted the challenge, and the chorus first performed in March and April 1958, in Mozart’s Requiem under Bruno Walter and Verdi’s Requiem under Reiner. Hil- lis served the chorus for 37 years, until her retirement in 1994; then–music director Daniel Baren- boim appointed Duain Wolfe as her successor in June of that year, and he led the CSC as chorus director and conductor until his retirement this February. Since its first commercial recording appearance in 1959—Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky under Reiner—the chorus has amassed a dis- cography that includes hallmarks of the choral repertoire and several complete operas. The CSC most recently received a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2010 for Verdi’s Requi- em, led by music director Riccardo Muti on the CSO Resound label. The chorus has received an additional nine Grammy Awards in that same category for Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis , Brahms’s German Requiem , Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust , Haydn’s The Creation , and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Georg Solti; Brahms’s German Requiem and Orff ’s Carmina Burana with James Levine; and Bartók’s Cantata profana with Pierre Boulez. The CSC also has appeared on two movie soundtracks with the CSO: Fantasia 2000, led by Levine, and Lincoln , conducted by the score’s composer, John Williams. Recordings on CSO Resound featuring the chorus include Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies, Poulenc’s Gloria, and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under Bernard Haitink; and Berlioz’s Lélio , Verdi’s Otello , Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre , Boito’s Prologue to Mefistofele and choruses by Verdi, and most recently, with men of the chorus, Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” Symphony under Muti. CHERYL FRAZES HILL, associate director JENNIFER KERR BUDZIAK, assistant director ANDREW LEWIS, assistant director BENJAMIN RIVERA, assistant director The chorus was prepared for this performance by Eugene Rogers. Melissa Arning Anastasia Cameron Balmer Enrico Bellomo Annie Bennett Laney A. Benson III Christina Bernadoni Nicole Besa Madison Bolt Michael Brauer Evan Bravos Terry L. Bucher Laura Bumgardner Diane Busko Bryks * Katherine Buzard Michael Cavalieri Joan Cinquegrani Joseph Cloonan Magaly Cordero Sandra Cross Carolyn Dalmonte Beena David Anna De Ocampo Kain Leah Dexter Katarzyna Dorula Kathryn Kinjo Duncan Ashley Eason Stacy Eckert Nicholas Falco Andrew Fisher Leigh Folta Kirsten Fyr-Searcy Dominic German Mary Lutz Govertsen Nida Grigalaviciute Kimberly Gunderson Elizabeth Haley Kevin Michael Hall Ashlee Hardgrave Ruth Ginelle Heald Adam Lance Hendrickson Megan Hendrickson Betsy Hoats Ingrid Israel Mikolajczyk Garrett Johannsen * Jess Koehn Susan Krout Alexandra Kunath Mathew Lake Kristin Lelm Lee Lichamer Amanda Compton LoPresti * Dorian McCall Bill McMurray Mark James Meier Rebecca S. Moan Keith A. Murphy Lillian Murphy Karen R. Nussbaum Máire O’Brien Kristina Pappademos Steven Michael Patrick Wilbur Pauley Douglas Peters Larry Pitts Cari Plachy Elvira Ponticelli Robert J. Potsic Brett Potts Emily Price Ian R. Prichard Nicholas Pulikowski William Roberts Stephanie Schoenhofer Cole Seaton Silfredo Serrano Bridget Skaggs Joseph Smith Ryan Townsend Strand Avery Sujikowski Samantha Thielen Paul W. Thompson Scott Uddenberg William Vallandigham Eric West Debra Wilder * Megan Wilhelm Jonathan Wilson * Section leader Chorus Manager Shelley Baldridge Assistant Manager and Librarian Heather Anderson Rehearsal Pianists John Goodwin Sharon Peterson Andrew Rosenblum EUGENE ROGERS, chorus director Recently named the artistic director of the Washington Chorus, Eugene Rogers is also the director of choirs and an associate pro- fessor of conducting at the University of Michigan, where he earned both a Doctor of Musical Arts and a Master of Music in choral conducting. Having also completed a Bache- lor of Arts in choral music education at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, he currently serves on the board of Chorus America and is the former national chair of the Diversity Initiatives Committee for the American Choral Directors Association. In 2017, Musical America named Rogers one of the top 30 “Movers and Shapers” in North America, the same year he received a Sphinx Medal of Excellence. In connection with the Sphinx Organization, he is the founding director of Exigence, a 32-voice ensemble focused on fostering diverse choral music professional vocal artistry within Black and Latine communities. Rogers has collaborated with Mark Foster Publishing since 2015, cu- rating a series featuring emerging composers who specialize in contemporary classical and folk music traditions, and in 2018 added the Exigence Choral Series, featuring folk and contemporary works by Black and Latine composers. At the University of Michigan, Rogers leads the graduate choral conducting program, conducts the chamber choir, and administers the program of over eight choral ensembles. His choirs have toured throughout China, South Africa, and the United States, and have appeared at national and regional conferences. Rogers has previously been the chorus director of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club, Macalester College, the Boys Choir of Harlem, Waubonsie Valley High School, and Anima Young Singers of Greater Chicago (formerly the Glen Ellyn Children’s Choir). In 2016, his passion for issues of so- cial justice was featured in the award-winning documentary Love, Life and Loss , which high- lights Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed , a work Rogers and the Michigan Glee Club helped bring to premiere. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2022 50