Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

live at the Augustinian Abbey in Brno. He had been accepted there as a choral scholar (nick- named “Bluebirds” for their light-blue uni- forms) and would receive both a solid academic education and musical training, as well as relieve the financial strain on his large family. Coming from a family of teachers, Janáček eventually followed the same path and com- pleted teacher training at age 18. Soon after, he launched into a life and career that was continu- ously split between teaching and music-making. Incredibly industrious, he found pockets of time between obligations to study at the Prague Or- gan School, the Leipzig Conservatory, and the Vienna Conservatory. Ultimately, he would re- turn to spend most of his life in Brno, where he made an indelible contribution to the cultural life of the town. The year 1877 proved to be a momentous one. Janáček and Dvořák had become friends and decided to spend the summer on a walking tour of Bohemia. Janáček was 23 years old and just starting out, while Dvořák was 36 and on the very cusp of launching into a new phase in his career that would result in worldwide fame. Both were organists, and both would play criti- cal roles in championing Czech independence by finding inspiration in the folk music tradi- tions maintained in rural communities. It was also the year Janáček wrote his Suite for String Orchestra, one of his first attempts at writing a larger-scale instrumental piece. He followed this up the next year with another similarly structured work for strings, the Idyll , a gorgeous, shimmering, piece of late romanti- cism. Up to that point, his works had been ex- clusively for chorus or organ, penned during his days at the abbey for his fellow choristers. The decision to write for a string ensemble was like- ly influenced by Dvořák’s recent Serenade for Strings (1875), which provided both inspiration and a model to follow. –Program notes © Kathryn Bacasmot, A Far Cry Leoš Janáček with his wife Zdenka (1881) A FAR CRY A Far Cry was founded in 2007 on the belief that every voice deserves to be heard; instead of one artistic director, the collective of musi- cians (“Criers”) curate and submit program ideas inspired by individual curiosities, and what is happening in the world at large. The result is ensemble playing at its most intimate, representing a diverse mix of music and collab- orators. A Far Cry has risen to the top of Bill- board ’s Traditional Classical Chart and garnered two Grammy nominations . A testament to the group’s strength as a collaborator, all three al- bums that A Far Cry recorded on in 2023 were nominated for Grammy Awards: The Blue Hour , Stillpoint , and A Gentleman of Istanbul . Across nine programs during the 2023–24 season — each curated by a different Crier and voted on by all 17—A Far Cry continued its tradition of musical storytelling for a “world that listens.” Featured composers ranged from Bach, Beetho- ven, and Mozart, to Shelley Washington, Paul Wiancko, Vijay Iyer, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and a newly commissioned work by Jungyoon Wie. A Far Cry’s omnivorous approach has led to collaborations with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Simone Dinnerstein, Dinuk Wijeratne, Roomful of Teeth, Silkroad Ensemble, Vijay Iyer, and Da- vid Krakauer, to name a few. Highlights include new commissioning projects: Philip Glass’s third piano concerto with Dinnerstein, as well as The Blue Hour , a song cycle by a collabora- tive of five leading women composers—Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. The group also toured pianist Awadagin Pratt’s Stillpoint project, which features music by Alvin Single- ton, Jessie Montgomery, Judd Greenstein, Paola Prestini, Pēteris Vasks, and Tyshawn Sorey. A Far Cry’s Crier Records launched in 2014 with the Grammy-nominated Dreams and Prayers . Subsequent releases include Law of Mosaics , Visions and Variations (2018 Grammy nomina- tion), and A Gentleman of Istanbul , a work the group commissioned from Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol in 2017. A Far Cry recently celebrated their 10- year residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and continues to regularly appear at St. John’s Episcopal Church and Jordan Hall in Boston, the ensemble’s home city. A Far Cry pre- viously performed at Ravinia in 2012 and 2013. Anna Griffis, Program Books & Marketing Tim Mauthe, Ops Manager & Librarian KINAN AZMEH Originally from Damascus, Syria, clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh brings his music to all corners of the world as a soloist, compos- er, and improviser, having earned international recognition for his voice across diverse musical genres. Dawning , a double concerto for clarinet, violin, and orchestra co-composed with vio- linist Layale Chaker, was premiered in 2023 by co-commissioners Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic with the composers as soloists. Azmeh has appeared as a soloist with many leading orchestras and conductors glob- ally, sharing the stage with such musical lumi- naries as Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, Marcel Khalife, Aynur and Jivan Gasparian, John Mc- Laughlin, and Francois Rabbath. Azmeh’s com- positions include works for solo, chamber, and orchestra, as well as music for film, live illus- tration, and electronics. His first opera— Songs for Days to Come , sung fully in Arabic—was premiered in Osnabruck, Germany, in June 2022 to a great acclaim. Recent works were com- missioned by The Knights, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Elbphilharmonie, Brooklyn Rider, Aizuri Quartet, and theater director and visu- al artist Robert Wilson. An advocate for new music, Azmeh has received the dedications of several concertos and many chamber works by such composers as Kareem Roustom, Dia Suc- cari, Dinuk Wijeratne, Zaid Jabri, Saad Haddad, and Guss Janssen. In 2019 he received Germany’s Klassik Opus Award for his double CD Uneven Sky . In addition to his own Arab-Jazz Quartet CityBand and the Hewar Trio, Azmeh has been playing with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2012, and he featured as clarinetist and composer on their 2017 Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home . Azmeh is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where his teachers included clarinetist Charles Neidich, and he earned his doctorate in music from the City University of New York. In his native Syria, he studied at Damascus High Institute of Music and at Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Recently he was appointed to the National Council on the Arts by President Joe Biden. Kinan Azmeh pre- viously performed at Ravinia as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble in 2016. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 1 – JULY 21, 2024 56 ANTHONYADAMICK(AFC);LIUDMILAJEREMIES(AZMEH)