Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

SHERVIN LAINEZ (TAO); PAMELA NEAL (POTTER) I I ; CONRAD TAO, piano Born in Urbana, IL, in 1994, Conrad Tao was honored twice in 2012 as an ascendant pianist, named both a Gilmore Young Artist and an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, and he has also earned recognition as a com- poser, winning a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for his work on More Forever in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. Following piano studies with Emilio del Rosario in Chi- cago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, as well as composition studies with Christopher Theofanidis, Tao has been featured with ma- jor orchestras across the United States in both disciplines. He has recently appeared as a so- loist with the Los Angeles and New York Phil- harmonics, Cleveland Orchestra, and Boston Symphony, and his first large-scale orchestral work, Everything Must Go , was premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 2018—earli- er this year its European premiere was per- formed by the Antwerp Symphony. This same concert season, Tao’s violin concerto, written for Stefan Jackiw, was premiered by the Atlan- ta Symphony in September and reprised by the Baltimore Symphony in April. Just three weeks ago he made his London solo recital debut at Wigmore Hall as part of a chamber music season that also included a recital tour to Boston, New York, Washington, and Seat- tle; another multi-city tour with the Junction Trio, comprising Tao, Jackiw, and cellist Jay Campbell; and performances of More Forever and Counterpoint , another work in collabora- tion with Teicher. Highlight of recent seasons include performances of Andrew Norman’s Suspend with the Finnish and Swedish Ra- dio Symphonies; recitals at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Tanglewood; engagements with the Cincinnati and Seat- tle Symphonies; and his Los Angeles Opera debut in the West Coast premiere of David Lang’s the loser . Tao has three solo discs as a Warner Classics recording artist— Voyages (2013), Pictures (2015), and American Rage (2019)—and most recently joined the brass quartet The Westerlies on the collective im- provisation album Bricolage . Conrad Tao first appeared at Ravinia in recital in 2009 and with the Festival Orchestra in 2011. Tonight he returns to make his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. PAVILION 7:00 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022 GRACE POTTER † –Intermission– THE REVIVALISTS † † Ravinia debut THE REVIVALISTS New Orleans–forged rockers The Revivalists had been grinding for 10 years when their now multi-platinum single “Wish I Knew You” from 2015’s Men Amongst Mountains took off, setting a record for most single-week spins ever on alternative radio and spending nine weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. With their fourth and most recent studio album, 2018’s Take Good Care , the band is riding even higher with the top-10 rock album notches it added to their belts, as well as a fresh pair of adult alternative (AAA) radio number-ones in its singles “All My Friends” and “Change.” Named Billboard ’s Top New Rock Artist of 2017, The Revivalists have also been nominat- ed for two iHeartRadio Music Awards and a Billboard Music Award. The eight-piece en- semble—fronted by vocalist David Shaw and featuring pedal steel guitarist Ed Williams, a horn section of Michael Girardot and Rob Ingraham, guitarist Zack Feinberg, bassist George Gekas, and percussion duo Andrew Campanelli and PJ Howard—has made nu- merous television appearances, including on Austin City Limits , The Late Showwith Stephen Colbert , Jimmy Kimmel Live! , and Today , in the midst of tours to the stages of the Beacon Theatre and Red Rocks as well as festivals like Bonnaroo, Governor’s Ball, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Outside Lands, and Pilgrimage. They’ve also opened for The Rolling Stones, and at their debut Lollapalooza set added their sup- port to the anti-gun violence movement with “Shoot You Down.” The newest addition to The Revivalists’ discography, which began with Vital Signs in 2010 and City of Sound in 2014, is the live studio EP Made In Muscle Shoals and an accompanying documentary, captured at FAME Studio in Muscle Shoals, AL. With more than 400 million streams to their name already, the band set the count climbing upward again with re-imaginings of their Take Good Care hits “Oh No,” “You & I,” “Change,” and “All My Friends” plus a soulful take on The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” an acoustic “Wish I Knew You,” and the brand-new “Bitter End.” The Revivalists are making their Ravinia debut. GRACE POTTER In addition to having played the festival cir- cuit, from Coachella and Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo and Rock in Rio, Grace Potter has added to it with Grand Point North, founded in 2011 in her home state of Vermont. Vari- ously she has shared the stage with such art- ists asThe Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Rob- ert Plant, the Allman Brothers, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Mavis Staples, and The Roots, but she got her start fronting Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, formed in 2002 at St. Lawrence University in New York. The group rapidly grew its fan base with constant touring and festival gigs, nonetheless carving out time to release two albums independent- ly, Original Soul (2004) and Nothing but the Water (2005). Potter & The Nocturnals signed with Hollywood Records shortly after Water ’s release; their next disc, 2007’s This Is Somewhere , landed the top slot on Billboard ’s Heatseekers chart. With the addition of two new permanent members, the band hit the ground running with their 2010 eponymous follow-up, leaping into Billboard ’s top 20. Around this same time Potter recorded the end credits song for Disney’s Tangled , and the following year she voiced a character and a song in Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice . She also cut a platinum-selling duet with Kenny Chesney, “You and Tequila,” that earned her a Grammy nomination. The band returned in 2012 with The Lion the Beast the Beat , which featured their first Hot 100 hit, “Stars.” Nonetheless, when Potter next hit the recording studio, the result was the 2015 solo album Midnight , produced and co-written by Eric Valentine, and she also reconnected with Chesney on the duet “Wild Child.” After a turbulent four-year hiatus from music, Potter joined the Fantasy Records roster to release the cathartic and emotionally raw Daylight in 2019. The collection, again produced by Valentine, earned her two Grammy nominations and featured contributions from guest keyboardists Benmont Tench and Larry Goldings plus vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the indie band Lucius on a handful of tracks. Grace Potter is making her Ravinia debut. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 31