Ravinia 2023 Issue 3

LAURA MARIE DUNCAN (SPERLING) LAURA MARIE DUNCAN (SPERLING) PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TED SPERLING, conductor ANDRÉA BURNS, vocalist † MORGAN JAMES, vocalist CAPATHIA JENKINS, vocalist † Clouds in My Coffee: The Trailblazing Music of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon Tonight’s specially curated program highlights three historic singer-songwriters— Joni Mitchell , Carole King , and Carly Simon —with new orchestral arrangements of their music. Fifty years ago, these talented musicians channeled the changing roles of women into pop classics that expanded the genre and established deeply personal styles that have resonated across generations, from contemporary fans to star musicians of today who continue to cite them as inspiration. Featured songs include “Both Sides Now,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “You’re So Vain,” and more favorites. † Ravinia debut Tonight’s concert is performed in honor of Sandra K. Crown . A MESSAGE FROM MIDTOWN ATHLETIC CLUBS At Midtown Athletic Clubs, we believe active, social people live happier, healthier lives. That involves more than just fitness; it’s also about having a picnic on the lawn at Ravinia with friends and finding ways to engage with your community. For us at Midtown, being active is a way of life, and that includes being active in the community and giving back. Midtown Clubs support a wide variety of charities in the eight communities where they are located. In addition to Ravinia, we sponsor programs like the Tennis Opportunity Program in Chicago, ensuring talented young tennis players from underprivileged communities get tennis coaching, playing time, and academic tutoring so they in turn get college scholarships; Mindstrong in Montreal, the largest mental-health fundraiser in the province, raising over $1 million per year; and the Tour de Cure in Rochester, NY, a massive bike ride for diabetes research. In addition to supporting many local organizations, our biggest goal is ending genetic retinal disease, a form of which impacts our founder’s grandson. With support from Midtown, the Foundation Fighting Blindness has funded research and doctors around the globe focused on curing Lebers Congenital Amaurosis and other retinal diseases like macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa. To date, over 50 children have been cured. They see their parents, siblings, friends, and the world for the first time! This cure is the first and only gene therapy of any kind ever successfully performed on humans. What was science fiction 15 years ago is reality today. Amazing. But there is still so much to accomplish on the way to our goal. Our founder’s grandson isn’t one of the lucky few whose specific gene is able to be fixed—yet—but he lives our mission of being social, active, and happy every day. He’s graduating from college this year, and if you visit one of our clubs this summer, you might just see him swimming laps in the outdoor pool. TED SPERLING Recently music director for Broadway pro- ductions of My Fair Lady , Fiddler on the Roof , and The King and I as well as supervising their national and international tours, Ted Sperling is a multifaceted musician whose career has also spanned from concert halls to opera houses. The classically trained con- ductor, orchestrator, singer, pianist, violinist, and violist is artistic director of MasterVoices, with which he has led productions of Weill’s The Firebrand of Florence , Knickerbocker Hol- iday , The Road of Promise , and Lady in the Dark ; Ricky Ian Gordon’s operas The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall and 27 at New York City Center; and Carnegie Hall performanc- es of Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle , the Gershwins’ Of Thee I Sing and Let ’Em Eat Cake , and Herbert’s Babes in Toyland , among many other highlights. Sperling made his first Broadway appearance as an orchestra mem- ber of the original production of Sunday in the Park with George , and he made his acting debut in the original cast of Titanic as band- leader Wallace Hartley, but he is best known as a music director and conductor, with cred- its including Dirty Rotten Scoundrels , The Full Monty , How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying , Guys and Dolls , South Pacif- ic , and The Light in the Piazza , for which he won the 2005 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for best orchestrations. Off-Broadway, he directed the world premieres of Red Eye of Love , The Other Josh Cohen , See What I Wan- na See , and Striking 12 . Formerly principal conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic, Sperling has been a guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic and New York City Opera, Boston Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco Symphonies, plus such interna- tional ensembles as the Iceland Symphony, Czech National Symphony, and BBC Concert Orchestra. At Houston Grand Opera he led Audra McDonald’s one-woman double bill of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Michael John LaChiusa’s Send (who are you? I love you) in its world premiere. Ted Sperling first ap- peared at Ravinia in 2000 and returns tonight for his eighth season. ANDRÉA BURNS Featured last fall in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s world premiere of a musical adap- tation of The Notebook by Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter, Andréa Burns is a Drama Desk Award winner for her creation of the role of Daniela, the saucy hairdresser in the Tony-winning musical In the Heights . She began her career touring to European opera houses in productions of West Side Sto- ry as Maria when she was 18 years old, and she returned to the musical in Steven Spiel- berg’s recent film re-adaptation, portraying the new role of Fausta. Burns received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for her portrayal of Gloria Fajardo in On Your Feet! on Broadway, where her stage credits also include Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , Vicki Nichols in The Full Monty , and Googie Gomez in The Ritz . She starred op- posite Nathan Lane in the Lincoln Center production of The Nance , later broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances , and she has sung concerts at Carnegie Hall, 54 Below, and, with her one-woman show, theaters around the world. Off-Broadway, Burns was in the orig- inal company of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World —she has since become one of the foremost interpreters of his work, in- cluding national tour appearances as Lucille Frank in his Parade , for which she received a Touring Broadway Awards nomination—and she appeared in the New York premieres of Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night as Ce- leste and Willy Holtzman’s Smart Blonde as Judy Holliday. In addition to her debut solo album, A Deeper Shade of Red , Burns is fea- tured on cast recordings of On Your Feet! , In the Heights , Songs for a New World , This Ordi- nary Thursday , Saturday Night , It’s Only Life , Dear Edwina , Shine , Broadway Bound , and Broadway Musicals of 1953 . On screen, she portrays Rosie in Hulu’s Up Here and has also appeared in the Mad About You reboot, Jessi- ca Jones , Kevin Can Wait , Blue Bloods , Law & Order SVU , Rescue Me , The Electric Company (2009), and Wonder Pets . Andréa Burns is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 43