Ravinia 2023 Issue 1

V MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN A native New Yorker, pianist Michael Ste- phen Brown won an Avery Fisher Career Grant in and an Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center in . In addition to engagements as a soloist with the National Philharmonic and the Seattle, Grand Rapids, North Carolina, Wichita, New Haven, and Albany Symphonies, he has recently been heard in concert at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Lincoln Center. As an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lin- coln Center, Brown regularly appears at Alice Tully Hall and on tour—in , he opened its season performing concertos by Bach and Mendelssohn, and he made European debuts as a soloist with the NFM Leopoldi- num Orchestra and in recital at the Beetho- ven-Haus Bonn and the Chopin Museum in Majorca. Brown has appeared at numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Gilmore, Saratoga, Bridge- hampton, Caramoor, Music in the Vineyards, Bard, Sedona, Moab, and Tippet Rise, and he frequently performs in a duo with cellist Nicholas Canellakis. Also an active compos- er, Brown recently toured his Concerto for Piano and Strings ( ) across the United States and Poland. He was both composer- and artist-in-residence with the New Haven Symphony for – , and in he held a Copland House Residency. Brown is em- barking on a multi-year project to record the complete piano music by Felix Mendelssohn, including premiere recordings of music by one of Mendelssohn’s muses, Delphine von Schauroth. His discography also includes Noctuelles , featuring Ravel’s Miroirs and newly discovered movements by Medtner, as well as albums with the Seattle Symphony (music of Messiaen) and each of Canellakis and violinist Elena Urioste in duos. Brown earned dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano and composition from e Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Je- rome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composers Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser. Michael Stephen Brown was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in and , and he has returned successively for concerts on an RSMI Spring Tour ( ), as a solo artist ( ), and with the Brown-Urioste-Canel- lakis Trio ( ). PAVILION 7:30 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2023 CHICAGO ROBERT LAMM, keyboards and vocals LEE LOUGHNANE, trumpet and vocals JAMES PANKOW, trombone NEIL DONELL, vocals LOREN GOLD, keyboards and vocals RAY HERRMANN, saxophone and flute TONY OBROHTA, guitar WALFREDO REYES JR., drums BRETT SIMONS, bass RAMON “RAY” YSLAS, percussion RAVINIA JAZZ SCHOLARS SAXOPHONE GUITAR Andrew Condrell (alto) Rebecca Egwuenu Jack Nelson (tenor) Octavio Escamilla Seamus Moore (tenor) Joel Fisher Elijah Vasquez (alto) Vincent Molden TRUMPET BASS Alex Fajardo Chavez Zachary Bezirgan Marin Martinez Dante Espinoza-Villaseñor Silas Moody Nathan Wilson Caleb Morris PERCUSSION TROMBONE Michael Brewer (drums) Josh Breer Kaitlin Cywinski (drums/perc.) Isaac Cordero Alexander Juarez (percussion) Carlos Murillo (drums) PIANO Carlos Perales (percussion) Jonas Baker Jacob Ports (drums) Kabir Shetty Luka Vodopic 6:00 PM, CAROUSEL STAGE CHICAGO Inspired by the fusion of brass sections with popular music, e Big ing hit the Midwest club tour circuit in , adopting the name Chicago Transit Authority when the group moved to Los Angeles the following year to pursue a record deal. e band’s eponymous double-album debut was released in , though in the liner notes its name was trun- cated to simply Chicago, the name that’s in- delibly etched upon music history. Chicago’s rst two top- hits, “Make Me Smile” and “ or to ,” appeared on their second album; meanwhile, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” rose from their debut to set the stage for their landmark four-disc live album, Chicago at Carnegie Hall ( ). e group’s next four studio albums were all chart-toppers that spawned several top- singles, including “Saturday in the Park,” “Just You ’n’ Me,” “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long,” “Call on Me,” and “Old Days.” Chicago’s rst number-one single, however, came in “If You Leave Me Now” from their th album ( ), followed by “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” from Chicago . e next three albums con- tinued adding top- singles to the band’s catalogue: “Hard Habit to Break,” “You’re the Inspiration,” “Will You Still Love Me?,” “I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love,” and number-one “Look Away.” Named number among Billboard ’s top artists of all time, Chicago began raking in career achievements in when Chicago Transit Authority was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. e band gave its rst performance with the Chi- cago Symphony Orchestra and embarked on a nationwide orchestra tour that year. A er years of eligibility, Chicago entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with its rst nomina- tion in , and the following year, founding members Robert Lamm and James Pankow were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Pankow received a Lifetime Achieve- ment Award from the International Trom- bone Association in , the same year that the full band was awarded the same honor by the Grammys. Not resting on their laurels, the band released their th studio album, Born for is Moment , in . Tonight Chi- cago returns for its sixth season at Ravinia, where it rst appeared in . RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JUNE 6 – JULY 2, 2023