Ravinia 2023 Issue 6

MARY ELLEN MATTHEWS (CARLILE); VICTORIA STEVENS (CLARK) PAVILION 7:00 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2023 BRANDY CLARK † –Intermission– BRANDI CARLILE † Ravinia debut A MESSAGE FROM DISCOVER Chicagoland is home to Discover and more than 4,700 of our employees. We are proud to have offices in the north suburbs, downtown, and on Chicago’s South Side, where we opened our Chat­ ham Customer Care Center. By 2024, we expect to have nearly 1,000 employees working at this center in this vibrant Black community, and we hope that our commitment to Chatham serves as a springboard for further economic development in the area. We are committed to helping people achieve brighter financial futures through the products and tools we offer to help them spend smarter and save more, through financial education cur­ riculum and resources, and through support we provide to nonprofits serving the community. We believe giving back to communities makes our world a better place and our company stronger. Each year, the company and our employees contribute millions of dollars to charitable organizations through donations. In 2022, Discover employees also donated thousands of volun­ teer hours through remote and live opportunities that benefited nonprofits across the country. Locally, we support nonprofit organizations and programs in Chicago and afterschool pro­ grams with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lake County and Chicago. And we invest in programs and partnerships that help bring equity to underrepresented populations, giving everyone the opportunity to achieve a brighter financial future. Our support includes teacher and student programs at Ravinia. For several years, we’ve sup­ ported Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play programs, which provide students in Chicago Public Schools with unique music programs and training for teachers. Through our Pathway to Financial Success in Schools program, we bring financial education curriculum into middle and high schools across the country. Partnering with Discovery Educa­ tion, we have reached more than five million students by providing educators, students, and their families with free curriculum, tools, and expertise to make informed financial decisions. We are excited to be part of the summer concert season at Ravinia. We salute our employ­ ees, our customers, and all those who support Ravinia and who are making a difference in the community. BRANDI CARLILE Growing up in the woodsy outskirts of Se­ attle, Brandi Carlile had two major creative influences. Between outdoor explorations and classic country records, she found her voice first backed with piano, then, by her late teens, on guitar, all selftaught. Hitting the club circuit, Carlile happened across Tim and Phil Hanseroth (“The Twins”), and the trio quickly gelled with her resonant songwriting. Selfrecorded demos from their early2000s beginnings moved quickly at their shows; by the time her eponymous debut album emerged in 2005 with majorlabel backing, Carlile had earned “artist to watch” listings across Rolling Stone and the like. Droves of new fans listened, too: 2007’s goldselling The Story , whose title track would be featured in 2008 Olympics commercials among many other TV spots, charted internationally. The disc also introduced nowregular collabora­ tor cellist Josh Neumann and included the Indigo Girls as guest vocalists on “Cannon­ ball.” Carlile followed up with Give Up the Ghost (2009), which cracked Billboard ’s top 40 and featured a duet with Elton John on “Caroline.” Following her Seattle Sympho­ ny concert collaboration recorded as Live at Benaroya Hall (2011), Carlile planted her flag in Billboard ’s top 10 and summited the folk and rock charts with 2012’s Bear Creek , led by the single “That Wasn’t Me.” A loose, livere­ cording feel permeated 2015’s The Firewatch- er’s Daughter , which earned her a Grammy nomination. For the 10th anniversary of The Story , Carlile enlisted a starstudded roster to cover each track as a charity album ben­ efitting War Child—guests included Adele, Dolly Parton, Jim James, The Avett Brothers, and Pearl Jam. She surged forward with 2018’s By the Way, I Forgive You and its rockradio hit “The Joke,” earning six Grammy nomina­ tions, including for Album, Record, and Song of the Year, and winning three others. Follow­ ing the 2019 formation and recording of The Highwomen with Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Henby, Carlile crafted In These Silent Days (2021), which along with the singles “Right on Time,” “You and Me on the Rock,” and “Broken Horses” earned her 10 more Grammy nominations and three wins. An acoustic version of the album, In the Can- yon Haze , was released last fall. Brandi Carl­ ile first played Ravinia in 2007 and tonight makes her fourth appearance at the festival. BRANDY CLARK Hailing from smalltown Washington, Bran­ dy Clark soaked in the traditional and pop country of the 1980s and began playing guitar before her teens. Relocating to Nashville in the late ’90s to immerse in the music busi­ ness, she began working with now frequent and longtime songwriting collaborator Shane McAnally—early successes included “Cry” and “The Day She Got Divorced” for Reba McEntire’s All The Women I Am (2010) and “Crazy Women” for LeAnn Rimes’s Lady & Gentlemen (2011). Clark scored her first ma­ jor songwriting hit when Kacey Musgraves entered the mix on “Mama’s Broken Heart” for Miranda Lambert’s Four the Record (2011); the song was released as a single in 2013, shortly before Clark’s further collaborations with Musgraves were revealed on the latter’s debut album, Same Trailer Different Park . “Follow Your Arrow” would be named Song of the Year at the 2014 CMAs. Meanwhile, Clark had been building her own perform­ ing career: she opened for Sheryl Crow and made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 2012, and an independently recorded EP was earn­ ing critical praise. Clark released her debut album 12 Stories later in 2013, earning three Grammy nominations, including as Best New Artist. While crafting her followup majorlabel debut, Clark was busy as ever as a writer, contributing to Lambert, McEn­ tire, and Toby Keith albums, among others, plus Musgraves’s Pageant Material (“Biscuits” and three other tracks) and Jennifer Nettles’s Playing with Fire (seven tracks, including lead single “Unlove You”). A month after the Net­ tles disc emerged, Clark released Big Day in a Small Town , featuring the top40 charting single “Girl Next Door” and picking up a sec­ ond Best Country Album nom at the Gram­ mys. Her third album, Your Life Is a Record , was released in early 2020 and netted two more Grammy noms, including for “Who You Thought I Was,” and that same year she collaborated on Alicia Keys and Brandi Carl­ ile’s Song of the Yearnommed “A Beautiful Noise.” Alongside McAnally, Clark composed for the musical Shucked , which opened on Broadway in March—two months before her latest album, Brandy Clark , featuring Carlile as producer and one of several star cameos. Brandy Clark is making her Ravinia debut. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 27