Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

GRITTANI CREATIVE (LINCOLN TRIO); KARJAKA STUDIOS (GUTH) INNA FALIKS, piano Following acclaimed debuts with the Chica- go Symphony Orchestra and at the Gilmore Festival in her teens, Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks became a top prizewinner of Hil- ton Head and other piano competitions, as well as the 2005 Pro Musicis International Award, and today she heads the piano de- partment at UCLA, sharing the mentorship she received from Leon Fleisher, Gilbert Ka- lish, and Emilio del Rosario, among other luminaries. Across thousands of recitals and other concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, she has established herself as a committed and communicative artist of both standard repertoire and contemporary works, as well as interdisciplinary projects. In addition to recent debuts at the Fazioli Series in Italy, Israel’s Tel Aviv Museum, Mexico and Portland Piano Festivals, and Camerata Pacifi- ca, Faliks has been featured at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’s Salle Cortot, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, and such festivals as Verbier, Mondo Musica Cremona, Newport, Brevard, Taos, Bargemusic, and Chautauqua. She has also toured China, with appearances at the Beijing Center for Performing Arts, Shanghai Oriental Arts Theater, and Tianjin Grand Theater, and appeared on numerous WQXR, WNYC, and WFMT broadcasts. In 2008 Faliks founded the award-winning poetry–music series Music/ Words, which she has curated for numerous performances in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, as well as on WFMT. She recently co- starred with Downton Abbey ’s Lesley Nicol in Admission: One Shilling , a play about the life of Dame Myra Hess. Faliks’s commitment to contemporary music has included premieres of works written for her by Timo Andres, Bil- ly Childs, Richard Danielpour, Paola Prestini, Ljova, Clarice Assad, and Peter Golub, among many others. In Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel , recently recorded on the Navona label, she premiered nine responses to Beethoven bagatelles and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit , and 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg included new variations on Bach’s famed keyboard aria. Her recordings also include Schumann and Beethoven albums, as well as Polonaise-Fan- tasie, Story of a Pianist , an autobiographical monologue-recital that she has presented in New York and Italy. Inna Faliks made her Ravinia debut in 2017 and is making her first return to the festival. BENNETT GORDON HALL 1:00 PM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 LINCOLN TRIO DESIRÉE RUHSTRAT, violin DAVID CUNLIFFE, cello MARTA AZNAVOORIAN, piano MARTHA GUTH, soprano † Chicago and Chopin RAN Soliloquy * GARROP Within from Sanctuary * ASSAD Chronicles of Ghosts * Prologue La Malinche Intermezzo Malleus Maleficarum Martha Guth; Lincoln Trio –Intermission– CHOPIN Piano Trio Allegro con fuoco Scherzo con moto ma non troppo Adagio sostenuto Finale: Allegretto † Ravinia debut * First performance at Ravinia Please see tonight’s program book insert for notes on this program. LINCOLN TRIO Borrowing the nickname of its home state, the Lincoln Trio was formed in 2003 by violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian—each an interna- tionally recognized performer. Ruhstrat has performed throughout the United States and Europe, appearing at the White House and with the Berlin Radio Orchestra on worldwide broadcasts, Cunliffe has toured as a member of the Balanescu Quartet and performed with the BBC and Royal Scottish Orchestras, and Aznavoorian has appeared with the Chica- go Symphony Orchestra and at the Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera House. The trio has performed across the United States, including at Le Poisson Rouge, Bargemusic, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, as well as on the Dame Myra Hess Series in addition to frequent appearances on classical radio sta- tions, including a live broadcast on WFMT of a world premiere in commemoration of the station’s 60th anniversary. A number of works have been written specially for the Lincoln Trio, including Ravinia-commissioned works for the Lincoln Bicentennial, seven works by members of the Chicago Composers Consor- tium, and music by Juan-Antonio Cuellar and Shawn E. Okpebholo. The trio also champions cultural diversity with its music, supporting the Chinese Fine Arts Society and the Kore- an Sejong Cultural Society, which commis- sioned three works based on Korean themes for the trio to premiere at the University of Chicago in 2013. This passion for new music inspired the Lincoln Trio’s debut album, No- table Women , featuring works by Joan Tower, Lera Auerbach, Stacy Garrop, Augusta Read Thomas, Laura Schwendinger, and Jennifer Higdon. The trio collaborated on the Gram- my-nominated Naxos chamber recording of James Whitbourn’s Annelies and received their own nomination with 2016’s Trios from Our Homelands , featuring works by Rebecca Clarke, Arno Babajanian, and Frank Martin. Their most recent albums highlight the work of 20th-century Chicagoans Leo Sowerby and Ernst Bacon ( Trios From the City of Big Shoul- ders , 2021) and contemporaries Garrop, Ok- pebholo, and Thomas, as well as Shulamit Ran and Mischa Kupko ( Trios from Contemporary Chicago , 2022). The Lincoln Trio made its Ra- vinia debut in 2008 and marks its 14th season at the festival with this performance. MARTHA GUTH, soprano Juno and Latin Grammy-nominated soprano Martha Guth has been fea- tured at Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, and St. John Smith Square as well as with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Chica- go Philharmonic, Voices of Ascension, among many more concert high- lights. Her recitals have also been broadcast on CBC/Radio-Canada, the BBC, and Germany’s WDR. Guth regularly tours in recital with Graham Johnson and alongside Erika Switzer, with whom she is co-founding director of the art song organization Sparks &Wiry Cries, which presents the song SLAM Festival in New York and other regions. Upcoming engagements include recitals in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Baltimore, and Madison with Johnson; the premiere of Contemplating Fire with the Shoreline Music Soci- ety; and, with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, co-producing the premiere of Shawn Okpebholo’s Freedom on the Move: Songs in Flight starring Rhiannon Giddens, Karen Slack, Will Liverman, Reginald Mobley, and Howard Watkins. Guth is on the faculties of Ithaca College (As- sistant Professor of Voice), SongFest (Composer/Mentorship Program Director at San Francisco Conservatory of Music), and the Vocal Academy for The Collaborative Piano Institute. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 39