Ravinia 2023 Issue 3

Gabriela Ortiz PATRICK GIPSON/RAVINIA (ALSOP); MARA ARTEAGA (ORTIZ) Academy of Music in London. I got a full scholarship; they opened up their arms to me. I ended up there, studying with Hamish Milne, an incredible professor, musician, and human being. So I really consider my music education to begin then, when I was 20.” Montero entered another period of uncertainty some years later, after winning the bronze medal at the International Chopin Piano Competi- tion at age 25. “After that, I started to play less and less. Again, the ques- tions: ‘Why am I doing this? Is this what I want to do? Where am I going with this?’ I always have a lot of ques- tions.” Two years later, she had her first of two children, which naturally led to even more wondering. Again, Montero emerged from that confusion through a combination of her own moxie and the grace of finding the right mentor to encour- age her. By age 31, she had stopped playing and was considering a career in psychology. But music still called to her, and she made a fateful decision one night in Montreal: She attended a performance by noted Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, whom she describes as “a total original, and a very warm and very generous human being. She’s an icon who’s helped a lot of the younger generation.” Montero had met her before, many years ago, as a teen. Never- theless, “I went to see her backstage. She absolutely knew who I was,” she continues. “I asked her to have a coffee together. I was a new mom, and I wanted to discuss being a woman, being a mother, being an artist—how to reconcile those roles. She shrugged her shoulders and said, ‘Well, I don’t really have much advice, but I’d love hear you.’ I didn’t want to play for her, but I thought, ‘Well, how can I say no to Martha?’ ” After some resistance, Montero tickled the ivories for Argerich the next night. “That really shook me out of my sleepiness. After a time when I wasn’t really playing, it just changed everything. That’s really the second part of my life: From there on, I got “We created the Breaking Barriers Festival at Ravinia to shine a light on women in classical music,” Marin Al- sop says in a video introduction to this second annual weekend of con- certs and celebration. In an evolu- tion from last year’s focus, she adds, “This summer, we’re going to be fea- turing women composers. You’ll hear them composing for jazz and other genres, including singer-songwriters.” The roster for this mini festival includes a number of high-profile Latina artists. Venezuelan composer and pianist Gabriela Montero kicks off the three- day festival July 21, playing her Latin Concerto with the CSO under Alsop’s baton. That same concert includes Antrópolis , a piece composed by Gabriela Ortiz, while the July 22 headliner is singer-song- writer Natalia Lafourcade, making her Ravinia debut. Both remarkable Mexi- can musicians, Ortiz and Lafourcade have forged thrilling careers in part by blurring boundaries. The scintillating mix of music styles represented in these concerts points to another kind of breaking barriers: honoring the connections between clas- sical, folk, jazz and pop. In their own ways, Monte- ro, Ortiz, and Lafourcade each express their indi- vidual perspectives about Latin American culture and identity through music. “I fell in love with music once I understood that sounds have souls,” Ortiz notes at the top of her official bio, “and it is through them that one may speak of oneself.” Ortiz isn’t beholden to one style of music—or even one art form. Her compositions draw from the worlds of classical, jazz, and folk (her parents were musi- cians in the famous folk ensemble Los Folkloristas). She writes music for dance, opera, theater, and film, as well as commissions for orchestras worldwide. Her Antrópolis provides a fine example of the old adage “write what you know”—or perhaps in this case, “write what you love.” When composing it, she aimed to evoke very specific sonic memories: “the sound of the city through its dance halls and nightclubs.” In her commentary on the piece for its 2019 premiere, Ortiz reveals, “I wanted to pay a very personal tribute to some of those antros , or emblematic dance halls of Mexico City.” Cultural heritage also pervades the music of Lafourcade, who initially burst onto the pop scene while still a teenager. Today the 39-year-old is a superstar who, among many achievements, holds the record for the most Latin Grammys by a female artist: 15 and counting. US. au - diences might know her best from singing a duet of Coco ’s “Remember Me” at the 2018 Academy Awards, although she also scored crossover success in 2015 with Hasta la Raíz —the utterly enthrall - ing title track (“To the Root”) showcases both her songwriting and her voice to perfection. The course of her career has been anything but predictable. Instead of sticking to pop-rock grooves, she tapped into the rebellious spirit of rock and roll and began innovating. Her releases include an instrumental record and multiple albums steeped in Mexican folk music—including the alluring Musas , a pair of acoustic albums covering classic Latin songs, accompanied by Los Macorinos, a septuagenarian guitar duo. Now Lafourcade is touring in the wake of releasing De Todas las Flores , her first album of all-original material since Hasta la Raíz . The new RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 17 – JULY 30, 2023 8