Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

VALERIE BOOTH A SPIRE Shulamit Ran stands tall among Chicago’s towering composers BY KYLE MACMILLAN SHULAMIT RAN was not looking for a job, so the then up-and-coming New York composer was completely taken by surprise when she got a call in 1973 from the University of Chicago offering her a faculty position. It took a little persuasion, but she decided to take a chance and move across coun- try to a city she didn’t know. Ran has never regretted the decision, fending off offers from elsewhere and staying at the institution for 42 years. “Chica- go surprised me,” she said, “It’s a great, great city.” She has gone on to become a pillar of the Windy City’s classical scene as a composer, teacher, and tireless advocate for new music, including seven years as the second com- poser-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “For me,” said Augusta Read Thomas, another well- known Chicago composer (and Ran’s immediate successor in residence with the CSO) who has always looked up to her, “Shulamit is a Chicago icon. A fantastic composer. She’s beloved by the musicians of the city, by the composers of the city. She’s a real superstar.” Ran, 73, has gained national and even international fame for her wide swath of solo, chamber, orchestral, choral, and operatic works, winning in 1991 the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the ultimate imprimatur of composi- tional excellence in the United States. Although she is less widely known than some other contemporary winners like Wynton Marsalis or John Adams, Arthur Fagen, who conduct- ed the premieres of both her operas, believes she is worthy recipient: “I think that her writing has lasting significance.” The composer’s music was first fea- tured at Ravinia Festival by Chicago Pro Musica that same prizewinning year, presenting her Concerto da Cam- era II (1987), and then the following summer she was invited to host a chamber program of works by women composers. Ran returned in 2014 as composer-in-residence at Ravinia Steans Music Institute, working with its fellows to prepare a performance RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 3 – JULY 16, 2023 80