Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

CLAIRE MCADAMS (REINEKE) I I STEVEN REINEKE, conductor A native of Ohio, Steven Reineke completed Bachelor of Music degrees in both trumpet performance and music composition at Mi- ami (Ohio) University—which awarded him its Alumnus Distinguished Achievement Medal in 2020—and has created more than 100 arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, which he was long connected to as associate conductor under Erich Kunzel. Many of these arrangements have been per- formed by orchestras worldwide and can be heard on numerous recordings by the Cin- cinnati Pops on the Telarc label. Reineke has also written a number of original sym- phonic works, including Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn for the Cincinnati Pops and Symphony, as well as Celebration Fanfare , Legend of Sleepy Hollow , and Casey at the Bat , which have been performed many times around North America, including by the New York and Los Angeles Philharmon- ics. His Sun Valley Festival Fanfare was pre- miered in 2008 by the Sun Valley Summer Symphony to commemorate the opening of its new pavilion, and his numerous wind en- semble compositions have been performed by concert bands around the world. Rein- eke is frequently a guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he has extensive credits across North America, including with the Chicago, Dallas, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. He has been music director of the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall for over a de- cade and also holds the position of principal pops conductor with the National Sympho- ny Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the Toronto and Houston Symphony Orchestras. Reineke has created programs in collabo- ration with a range of artists in numerous genres, including Maxwell, Common, Kend- rick Lamar, Cynthia Erivo, Sutton Foster, Me- gan Hilty, Cheyenne Jackson, Wayne Brady, Peter Frampton, and Ben Folds. In 2017 he was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered leading the National Symphony—a first on the long-running radio show—and also led the ensemble for a PBS Great Performances broadcast with Nas, performing his seminal album Illmatic . Steven Reineke made his Chi- cago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia de- buts in 2012 and tonight returns for his sixth season at the festival. just as the last petal falls from the magical black rose. Her true love breaks the spell, and the monstrous Beast turns into a handsome prince. Much of Beauty and the Beast ’s success derives from the witty, entertaining score by composer Alan Menken and lyricist How- ard Ashman. (The film was dedicated to the memory of Ashman, who died during later stages of the production). Menken’s music displays why he has become the regular com- poser for modern Disney classics— The Lit- tle Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas , and Hercules . He creates mag- nificent show-stopping production numbers and unforgettably romantic melodies with equal dexterity. Menken also ingeniously weaves themes from classical composers into his scores. In Beauty and the Beast , reminis- cences of Saint-Saëns, Debussy, and other French composers lend appropriate nation- alistic color. The film won two Oscars in 1991 for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (“Beauty and the Beast”). A longtime theater composer whose credits include Lit- tle Shop of Horrors , Menken earned Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for his Broadway adaptation of Beauty and the Beast . –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan KATIE ROSE CLARKE, vocalist Originally from Texas, Katie Rose Clarke moved to New York City in 2005 to make her Broadway debut replacing Kelli O’Hara as Clara Johnson in Lincoln Center production of The Light in the Piazza . She came to wid- er national attention when she took on the same role in the PBS broadcast Live from Lin- coln Center: The Light in The Piazza , and she went on to reprise Clara in the first national touring production. Subsequently Clarke has become best known for the longest-running portrayal of Glinda the Good in Wicked on Broadway, the role she also played in the first national touring company of the international smash-hit musical. In addition, her Broadway credits include originating the role of Hannah Campbell in Allegiance alongside Lea Solanga and George Takei, as well as portraying Ellen in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon . Clarke’s re- gional theater credits include Cathy Hiatt in The Last Five Years at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, earning the Connecticut Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in 2014. Earlier, on the same stage, she was seen in the East Coast premiere of the play Prayer for My Enemy as Marianne Noone. Returning to Lincoln Center in 2015, Clarke appeared in a staged concert production of Parade as Mrs. Phagan, conducted by the composer, Jason Robert Brown. In television and film, she can be seen in roles on The Good Wife and NCIS: New Orleans , as well as the independent film Maybe There’s a Tree . Katie Rose Clarke is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. MONTEGO GLOVER, vocalist Born inMacon, GA, and raised in Chattanoo- ga, TN, Montego Glover has just completed an acclaimed run as Angelica Schuyler in the Chicago resident production of Hamilton . She made her Broadway debut in 2007, join- ing the original production of The Color Pur- ple in the roles of Celie and Nettie, and she returned to the stage in 2009 to create the role of Felicia Farrell in Memphis , winning both an Outer Critics’ Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award for her performance as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Ac- tress in a Musical and a Drama League nom- ination. Montego’s accolades also include a second Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Ensemble) for her run as Nina in the New York debut of The Royale at Lincoln Cen- ter, as well as a special Outer Critics’ Circle Honor for portraying Ovetta in the play All the Natalie Portmans with MCC Theater. Her recent Broadway credits include creating the role of Annie Shepard in the musical comedy It Shoulda Been You and joining the latest re- vival of Les Misérables in the starring role of Fantine in 2015. Montego has also appeared in numerous productions around the United States—at such theaters as La Jolla Playhouse and The Old Globe in San Diego, The Hun- tington Theatre in Boston, Seattle’s Fifth Ave- nue Theatre, and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles—including Aida (four productions in the title role, winning an IRNE Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Ragtime (two pro- ductions in the role of Sarah), Dreamgirls (as Lorrell), She Loves Me (as Ms. Ritter), Okla- homa! (as Ado Annie), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Hermia), West Side Story (as Ani- ta), Jesus Christ Superstar (as Mary Magade- lene), and Once On This Island (as TiMoune, receiving a Helen Hayes Award nomination). In television and film, she currently appears in Netflix’s Inventing Anna and has also had roles in Bull , Evil , Black Box , The Following , Hostages , Smash , Golden Boy , The Good Wife , White Collar , Law & Order , and Made In Jer- sey . Montego Glover is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 31