Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

GAGE ALLEN (ABRAMS); E.F. MARTON (KAHANE) TEDDY ABRAMS Named Musical America ’s Conductor of the Year for 2022, Teddy Abrams is the widely acclaimed music director of the Louisville Orchestra and the Britt Festival Orchestra. He was a protégé of Michael Tilson Thomas from age 11 and subsequently studied at the Curtis Institute and Aspen Music Festival, the youngest conducting student ever accepted at both institutions. Also an award-winning composer and passionate educator, while Abrams was the conducting fellow and assis- tant conductor of the New World Symphony (2008–11), his education concerts with the en- semble—featuring the premiere of one of his own orchestral works—were webcast to hun- dreds of schools throughout South Florida. Abrams has fostered interdisciplinary collab- orations with organizations across Kentucky, including the Louisville Ballet, the Center for Interfaith Relations, and the Speed Art Muse- um, as well as with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Folger Shakespeare Library. His 2017 rap-opera The Greatest: Muhammad Ali celebrated Louisville’s hometown hero with an all-star cast including Rhiannon Giddens, Jubilant Sykes, and Jecorey “1200” Arthur, with whom he started the Louisville Orches- tra Rap School. Shortly thereafter, Abrams collaborated with Jim James, vocalist and guitarist of My Morning Jacket, on the song cycle The Order of Nature , which they pre- miered with the Louisville Orchestra in 2018 and recorded on Decca Gold. He recently in- augurated the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, a residency for three composers, hav- ing frequently made new work a focus with the Britt Festival Orchestra, including Mi- chael Gordon’s Natural History and Caroline Shaw’s Brush . After serving as assistant con- ductor of the Detroit Symphony (2012–14), Abrams has had extensive engagements as a guest conductor across North America, in- cluding with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; National, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, In- dianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pacific, Phoenix, San Francisco, Utah, and Vancouver Symphonies; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and the Sarasota and Florida Orchestras, and internationally with the Royal Scottish Na- tional Orchestra and Luxembourg and Ma- laysian Philharmonics. Teddy Abrams made his Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orches- tra debuts in 2021; this is his first return to the festival. JEFFREY KAHANE Music director of the Sarasota Festival since 2016, Los Angeles–native pianist and con- ductor Jeffrey Kahane continues to be a fre- quent guest of major musical bodies across the United States, from the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, and the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies to the Aspen, Blossom, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, and Ra- vinia Festivals. A graduate of the San Fran- cisco Conservatory of Music, he launched his career as the winner of both the Arthur Rubinstein Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1983, having been a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, then he made his conducting debut in 1988 at the Oregon Bach Festival. Kahane made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, and he has since appeared in recital from coast to coast in the US. During the summers of 2015 and 2016, he was the artistic director of the Green Music Center’s Chamberfest. In 2017, he completed his 20th and final season as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, hav- ing previously held that position with the Colorado Symphony (2005–10)—earning ASCAP’s Adventurous Programming Award for his work with both ensembles—as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony for a decade, after which he was named Conductor Laureate. The LACO also conferred him the title in honor of the many successful initiatives he spearheaded with the ensemble and the more than 50 works they premiered together. Last season, Jeffrey gave the premiere of Heirloom , a concerto written for him by his son, Gabri- el Kahane, with the Kansas City Symphony; recent and upcoming performances include the Oregon Symphony, Los Angeles and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras, the Aspen Music Festival, and a forthcoming commercial re- cording. His extensive discography includes works by Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma, Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano with Joseph Swensen, and Bach con- certos with LACO and Hilary Hahn, among many other collaborations across several la- bels. Jeffrey Kahane made his first appearance at Ravinia in 1987 and was on the Steans Mu- sic Institute faculty in 2021; tonight marks his 11th season at the festival. PAVILION 8:00 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 2023 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA LEE MILLS, conductor † RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, vocalist Want Symphonic Overture Oh What a World I Don’t Know What It Is Pretty Things (solo) Go or Go Ahead * Vibrate Natasha * Beautiful Child * Want (solo) 11:11 (solo) Dinner at Eight The One You Love * Little Sister The Art Teacher (solo) This Love Affair Gay Messiah (solo) Memphis Skyline (solo) Waiting for a Dream * Crumb by Crumb * There will be one intermission in this program. † Ravinia debut * New arrangements created by Sally Herbert (Woodkid, Florence + the Machine) and Max Moston (Antony and the Johnsons) RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 40 ; . .