Ravinia 2023 Issue 3

GULNARA KHAMATOVA (SCHNEIDER); JUAN MARQUEZ (LOMBRE) I ; ; LAURA THIESBRUMMEL (HEYWARD); RICHARD RODRIGUEZ (LIM) MARIA SCHNEIDER ORCHESTRA Composer/conductor Maria Schneider and her orchestra became widely known starting in 1993, when they started a weekly residen- cy at the Visiones jazz club in New York, and soon thereafter released their first recording, Evanescence (1994). There, Schneider began to develop her personal way of writing for what would become her 18-member collec- tive, made up of many of the finest musicians in jazz today, tailoring her compositions to distinctly highlight the uniquely creative voices of the group. She has received numer- ous commissions and guest conducting in- vites, working with over 90 groups in over 30 countries, and the Maria Schneider Orchestra has performed at festivals and concert halls worldwide. Her music blurs the lines between genres, making her long list of commission- ers quite varied, stretching from Jazz at Lin- coln Center to the Saint Paul Chamber Or- chestra, also including a collaboration with David Bowie on his single “Sue (Or in a Sea- son of Crime),” which brought Schneider the 2016 Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instru- ments and Vocals. She is among a small few to have earned Grammy Awards in multiple genres, across that same body of work; from 14 total Grammy nominations, Schneider and her orchestra have won 7. Unique funding of projects has become a hallmark of Schneider’s work through the trendsetting company Art- istShare. Her album Concert in the Garden (2004) became historic as the first recording to win a Grammy with internet-only sales; even more significantly, it blazed the crowd- funding trail as ArtistShare’s first release and was subsequently enshrined in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. Schneider and her orchestra have received many other honors—in addition to numer- ous accolades from the Jazz Journalists Asso- ciation and DownBeat and JazzTimes critics and readers polls, the University of Minne- sota (Schneider’s alma mater) presented her with an honorary doctorate in 2012, and the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her title of Jazz Master in 2019, one of its highest honors. Most recently, Schneider was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The orchestra’s latest record- ing project, Data Lords , won France’s Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Maria Schneider Orchestra is making its Ravinia debut. ALEXIS LOMBRE Pianist, vocalist, and composer Alexis Lom- bre, born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, discovered early in her musical life that the true essence of its connective power is not just what’s heard but how it makes every listener feel. In that way, her long-standing mission has been to keep the “soul” in music alive. With her 2017 debut album, Southside Sounds , Lombre collected a set of original compositions that reflected her upbringing in that community and paid homage to its live- ly cultural heritage, including influences like saxophonists Eddie Harris and Gene Am- mons. She released her most recent single, “Come Find Me,” in 2021—working toward a second album of original works—and de- scribing the track as “lyrically, a gospel song; harmonically, a jazz song; and rhythmically, a hip-hop/R&B song, created without any bor- ders.” Lombre also appears on a 2016 album entitled Coming of Age by The Young Masters, a quintet organized by saxophonist and edu- cator Ernest Dawkins, which featured works by each of the members—hers being “Blues in Tyne.” While continuing jazz studies at the University of Michigan with pianist and for- mer Jazz Messenger Benny Green, she joined the Detroit Young Jazz Giants to record Life- time (2018), a tribute to Geri Allen, appearing on the tracks “It’s Up to Us,” “See a New Day,” and “Unconditional Love.” In 2017 Lombre toured France with Bacongo Square Boule- vard, a trio comprised of French, Congolese, and American musicians, then in 2019 she toured South Africa with Englewood-Sowe- to Exchange and the Midwestern US with her own group, the Alexis Lombre Trio. Her ensembles have been opening acts for Chris Dave & the Drumhedz and Marquis Hill, and she has also played alongside such musicians as Nicole Mitchell, Jamila Woods, the AACM Great Black Music Ensemble, Laurin Talese, Junius Paul, Makaya McCraven, Donald Har- rison, Bobby Watson, Buster Williams, Wa- dada Leo Smith, Dee Alexander, J Moss, Cece Peniston, Rudresh Mahanthappa, and Nona Hendrix. Alexis Lombre was a member of the Ravinia Jazz Scholars ensemble throughout her high school years (2012–15) and was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute jazz fellow in 2017. She last played at Ravinia in 2018, on a concert tribute to her late mentor and Chica- go jazz legend Willie Pickens. Coming Soon at Ravinia 7:30 PM SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 PAVILION CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor YUNCHAN LIM, piano AUGUSTA READ THOMAS: Sun Dance LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) SERGE RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 Marin Alsop sets up the CSO for an electric evening reminiscent of Ravinia’s “Gala of the Century” as Yunchan Lim , winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition (the youngest ever in its history), makes his debut with Rachmaninoff ’s Third Piano Concerto—the vehicle of his victory that also earned him plaudits in the New York Times after his New York Philharmonic debut in May: “precise clarity and expansive reverie; vivid scenes and bursts of wit; endless and persuasive bendings of time … when I say he played like a dream, I mean something more literal.” Another powerful “third”—Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony—completes the program alongside Thomas’s Sun Dance , an agile and spirited ode to pastoral scenes. 8:00 PM WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 PAVILION CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA JONATHON HEYWARD, conductor BENJAMIN BEILMAN, violin TANIA LEÓN: Pasajes MAX BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1 SERGE RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances Ahead of his first concerts as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra this fall, Jonathon Heyward makes his Ravinia and CSO debuts with the memorably moody melodies of Rachmaninoff ’s Symphonic Dances and the immortally singing concerto by Bruch, joined by “poised and monstrously talented” ( Philadelphia Inquirer ) violinist Benjamin Beilman . The evening begins with a travelogue of passages from Kennedy Center Honoree and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer León’s youth, painting poetic canvases of the Caribbean, Carnaval dances, and the pulse of Latin American culture. Yunchan Lim Jonathon Heyward RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 37