Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

A prolific and sought-after composer, Lee’s works encompass many orchestral, choral, chamber, and solo instrumental and vo- cal forms. Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra premiered A Different Soldier’s Tale , based on the near execution of Lee’s grandfather by Nazi soldiers and his fight for survival during World War II, in 2008. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra commissioned Destined Words in honor of Marin Alsop’s 14-year tenure as Music Direc- tor; the premiere on June 19, 2021, also cel- ebrated Juneteenth. Sukkot through Orion’s Nebula (2011)—one of his most frequently programmed works commissioned by the Sphinx Organization—enjoyed four perfor- mances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in November 2019. The Ravinia Festival commissioned James Lee III’s Untranslatable (String Quartet No. 3) in recognition of Miriam Fried’s 30th and fi- nal season as director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Piano & Strings Program. This performance marks the world premiere. Lee wrote for the occasion: “ Untranslatable (String Quartet No. 3) is in- spired by my interest in foreign languages and other cultures and is composed in five movements. Each movement contains only one word in the title, and that word—except for the last movement—poses challenges for a clear and concise definition in English. Nhu- juanya , the title for the first movement, is a Nigerian Igbo word that means ‘the anguish that comes with a great disappointment or lost hope.’ The second movement, Iktsuarpok , represents that feeling when you’re waiting for someone to arrive, and you feel so impa- tient that you keep checking the door to see if they’re here yet. Sometimes it’s a friend, and sometimes it’s something you’ve ordered that you just can’t wait to have delivered! It’s just perfect to describe that heady, impatient feel- ing of waiting for something to arrive! “The third movement is the centerpiece of the quartet and bears the title Chesed . Like many Hebrew words, chesed does not translate pre- cisely into English.The wordmeans more than simply ‘kindness.’ Often translated as ‘loving- kindness,’ chesed means ‘giving oneself fully, with love and compassion.’ The fourth move- ment, Saudade , has ‘the feeling of longing for an absent something or someone that you love but might never return.’ There’s nostalgia, mel- ancholy, love, happiness, sadness, hope, emp- tiness, and desire—all the feelings of a lifetime in one word. The fifth and final movement, Elation , expresses happiness, exhilaration, joy- ousness, delight, glee; excitement, animation, jubilation, exultation, ecstasy, euphoria, bliss, rapture, rhapsody, cloud nine, heaven, para- dise, and the seventh heaven. String Quartet No. 3 seeks to communicate and translate the meaning of these foreign words through the universal language of music.” –Program notes © 2023 Todd E. Sullivan PAVILION 8:00 PM FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor CHICAGO SYMPHONY CHORUS BENJAMIN RIVERA, assistant director ADRIAN DUNN SINGERS ADRIAN DUNN, artistic director AYODELE DRUM & DANCE † T. AYO ALSTON, executive artistic director JIM GAILLORETO TRIO † SENN ARTS VOCAL ENSEMBLE TREVOR NICHOLAS, director JANAI BRUGGER, soprano # ASHLEY DIXON, mezzo-soprano # PAUL APPLEBY, tenor # RYAN SPEEDO GREEN, bass-baritone ESMAIL See Me * Chicago Symphony Chorus, Adrian Dunn Singers, Senn Arts Vocal Ensemble BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso Interlude : Ayodele Drum & Dance II. Molto vivace Interlude : Jim Gailloreto Trio III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto—Allegro assai (based on Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”) [Original English text by Tracy K. Smith] Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Janai Brugger, Ashley Dixon, Paul Appleby, Ryan Speedo Green There will be no pause in this program. Tonight’s concert is performed in memory of Charles and Margery Barancik . Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of The CSO Opening Night “Ode to Joy” Consortium , which comprises an anonymous donor, Earl Abramson & Sheila Schlaggar, Gloria & Dan Reisner, Stuart Sondheimer & Bonnie Lucas, and Pamela B. & Russ M. Strobel. The Chicago Symphony Chorus’s appearance is made possible in part by the Jim & Kay Mabie Guest Artist Fund . 6:30 PM, CAROUSEL STAGE ADRIAN DUNN SINGERS DUNN Selections from Emancipation * † Ravinia debut # Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum * First performance at Ravinia REENA ESMAIL (b. 1983) See Me Scored for SATB chorus and community choir(s) The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and music director Marin Alsop originally com- missioned Reena Esmail’s See Me for a se- ries of concerts on June 8–12, 2020. By that time, the COVID-19 pandemic had canceled live performances and closed concert halls. Undeterred, Alsop and producer Nico Das- wani, Head of Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum, conceived a musical film “to unite us during this period of separation and isolation,” and See Me: A Global Concert was born. Musicians from different countries and cul- tures participated in an epic cinematic jour- ney from a single musician (Yo-Yo Ma per- forming the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2) through diverse voices united in Es- mail’s See Me (a mixed chorus from São Pau- lo, Brazil, and a boys choir fromDrakensberg, South Africa) to an international orchestra performing Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony (instrumentalists from Kabul, Philadelphia, Vienna, Beijing, and Florence). Throughout the film, land artist Jim Denevan created elaborate geometric shapes in the sands of Crane Beach, MA. See Me: A Global Concert premiered during opening night festivities of the virtual World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda Week on January 24, 2021. Esmail’s See Me enjoyed its first live performances April 7–10, 2022, on concerts by the Baltimore Symphony Orches- tra and conductor Marin Alsop that paired the work with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Reena Esmail engages music as a unifying force, creating new communities through her compositions and building bridges be- tween her own Indian and Western cultur- al heritages. Born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Esmail grew up completely immersed in the study of Western classical Reena Esmail RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 33