Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

JOHN BATTEN (GLOVER); DARIO ACOSTA (OHLSSON) MUSIC OF THE BAROQUE Long recognized as one of the region’s top classical groups, Music of the Baroque is one of the leading ensembles in the country devoted to the performance of 18th-century works. The 2022/23 season marks the 20th anniversaries of music director Dame Jane Glover and principal guest conductor Nicholas Kraemer. Andrew Megill was named chorus director in April 2022. High- lights include Handel’s Jephtha in September 2022 and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in April 2023. Music of the Baroque has presented premier performances of many early masterpieces, includ- ing Monteverdi’s operas and 1610 Vespers, Telemann’s Day of Judgment , Mozart’s Idomeneo , and many of Handel’s operas and oratorios. The ensemble has received critical praise throughout its 50-year history for its performances of the major choral and orchestral works of J.S. Bach as well as Handel, Mozart, and Haydn. Reaching audiences across the Chicago metropolitan area, Music of the Baroque appears regularly at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago’s Millen- nium Park and the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, as well as at intimate Chicago and suburban churches. The ensemble also reaches listeners nationally through record- ings and live concerts broadcast on the WFMT radio network. Most recently Music of the Ba- roque released Messiah—Live in Chicago , recorded in November 2021 with Kraemer conducting and guest soloists soprano Sherezade Panthaki, mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy, tenor Brian Giebler, and bass-baritone Matthew Brook. Its discography also includes Bach’s B-minor Mass, recorded live in September 2019 with Glover conducting and guest soloists soprano Yulia Van Doren, mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, tenor Jonas Hacker, and baritone Tyler Duncan, and On This Night , a collection of brass and choral works recorded during the ensemble’s 2017 and 2014 holiday concerts conducted by William Jon Gray. Through its “Strong Voices” program, Music of the Baroque conducts arts education to support and enhance music education programs at Chicago public high schools. Music of the Baroque first performed at Ravinia in 1977 and tonight makes its first appearance in the Pavilion for its fifth season with the festival. VIOLINS Gina DiBello concertmaster Kathleen Brauer asst. concertmaster Martin Davids Hermine Gagne Kiju Joh Jeri-Lou Zike Sharon Polifrone principal Anne Palen Rika Seko Paul Vanderwerf Paul Zafer VIOLAS Elizabeth Hagen principal Terri Van Valkinburgh Rebecca Swan Vannia Phillips CELLOS Paul Dwyer # principal Judy Stone Mark Brandfonbrener BASSES Collins Trier principal Ian Hallas OBOES Anne Bach principal Erica Anderson Adèle-Marie Buis BASSOONS William Buchman principal Lewis Kirk HORN Oto Carrillo principal Samuel Hamzem Greg Flint TRUMPET Barbara Butler principal Tage Larsen Justin Kohan TIMPANI Douglas Waddell HARPSICHORD Mark Shuldiner # Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum DAME JANE GLOVER, conductor British conductor Jane Glover, named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Em- pire in 2021, has been Music of the Baroque’s music director since 2002, having previous- ly held that position with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera during 1981–85. She first joined Glyndebourne in 1979 following her profes- sional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her own edition of Cavalli’s l’Er- itrea . Glover was also artistic director of the London Mozart Players during 1984–91 and has been principal conductor of the Hudder- sfield and the London Choral Societies. A frequent guest conductor at the BBC Proms, she has appeared with all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as ensembles across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States, recently including the New York Philharmonic; Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Minnesota Orchestras; San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto Symphony Orchestras; and the Or- chestra of St. Luke’s, plus the period-instru- ment orchestras Philharmonia Baroque and the Handel and Haydn Society. She recently made debuts with the Bremen and Malaysia Philharmonics, Montreal’s Orchestre Mètro- politain, and the Chicago Symphony Orches- tra. Also an in-demand conductor of opera, Glover has recently led Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Metropolitan Opera and Hous- ton Grand Opera, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with HGO, Handel’s Alcina with Washington National Opera, and Britten’s Albert Herring with Minnesota Opera, as well as Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mozart’s Cos ì fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro at the AspenMusic Festival, in addition to productions with the Royal Op- era House at Covent Garden, English Nation- al Opera, Glyndebourne, Berlin State Opera, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Glimmerglass, Chicago Opera Theater, Royal Danish Opera, Opera Australia, and Teatro La Fenice, among other companies and houses. Beyond her core rep- ertoire of Monteverdi, Handel, Britten, and all of Mozart’s operas, she led the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Kommilitonen! . A Royal College of Music fellow and honorary Royal Academy of Music member, in 2020 she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gamechanger Award. Dame Jane Glover has conducted Music of the Baroque for Ravinia in 2007 and 2013. GARRICK OHLSSON, piano Born in White Plains, NY, pianist Garrick Ohlsson began his musical studies at the West- chester Conservatory of Music at age 8, five years later entering The Juilliard School. Un- der the tutelage of such keyboard luminaries as Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne, and Irma Wolpe, he became the first-prize winner of both the 1966 Busoni and the 1968 Mon- treal Piano Competitions. To this day Ohls- son retains the distinction of being the only American to earn the gold medal in Warsaw’s International Chopin Piano Competition (in 1970), and he has since conducted many con- cert tours of Poland. His honors also include the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994, the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award from the University of Michigan in 1998, and Northwestern University’s 2014 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize, which included a multiweek res- idency at the school. Additionally, Ohlsson won a Grammy Award in 2008 for the third disc of his acclaimed cycle of Beethoven’s pi- ano sonatas for Bridge Records. His discogra- phy also includes albums on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, and Virgin Clas- sics labels, and he recently appeared on con- cert recordings by the Czech Philharmonic and Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies, playing concertos by Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms, respectively. In 2010 Ohlsson was featured in the documentary The Art of Chopin , co-produced by European and Chi- nese media, as well as a DVD including per- formances of the composer’s two concertos the following year. In addition to solo appearances with orchestras and in recital, he also regularly collaborates with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier as the FOG Trio. Ohlsson has also performed chamber recitals with the Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, and To- kyo String Quartets, and he has accompanied such vocalists as sopranos Magda Olivero and Jessye Norman and contralto Ewa Podleś. Gar- rick Ohlsson was on the Ravinia Steans Music Institute faculty in 2015, having been a regular performer at the festival since 1981. This is his 24th season on Ravinia’s stages. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 33