Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

PAVILION 7:30 PM SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2024 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor ABEL SELAOCOE, cello and voice † BERNHARD SCHIMPELSBERGER, percussion † DEERFIELD HIGH SCHOOL CHORUS ANASTASIA CAMERON BALMER, director ALEKSIYCHUK Go where the wind takes you … * SELAOCOE Four Spirits * (orch. Woodgates) MaSebego (Traditional Healer) Bana (Children) Tshepo (Faith) Simunye (We Are One) Abel Selaocoe Bernhard Schimpelsberger; Deerfield High School Chorus –Intermission– BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67 Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro Allegro † Ravinia debut * First performance by the CSO and at Ravinia Tonight’s concert is performed in memory of Charles and Margery Barancik . The President of Ukraine has designated Aleksi- ychuk an Honored Artist of Ukraine, recogniz- ing her outstanding achievements in the per- forming arts. She also has been a laureate in several composition competitions, including the L.M. Revutsky Prize (2000), Art Prize “Kyiv” named after Artem Vedel (2014), and Mykola Lysenko Prize (2019). Her Spiritual Psalms re- ceived the award for best choral composition based on Biblical texts in the First All-Ukrainian Composers Competition in Kyiv (2001). The Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Music School Girls Cham- ber Choir, under the direction of Yulia Puch- ko-Kolesnyk, received top marks in the 2017 In- terkultur World Rankings for Sacred Music for their recital program of Aleksiychuk’s choral music. Currently, she serves as associate profes- sor of composition at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music. With her piano-duo partner and husband, Yurri Kot, Aleksiychuk has garnered several awards, including prestigious international prizes at the 45th ARD Music Competition (1996, Munich) and the 6th Murray Dranoff Two Piano Com- petition (1997, Miami, FL). The All-Ukrainian Association of Citizens “Krayina” twice awarded the medal “For Dignity and Patriotism” (2015, 2019) in recognition of the “civic courage, patri- otism, civic activism, and selflessness” she has demonstrated toward the wounded on the front line. She also earned the Euromaidan SOS Vol- unteer Award (2019) for her volunteer work on the front. Beyond these musical achievements and humanitarian efforts, Aleksiychuk is a com- petitive Irish dancer who has won Eastern Euro- pean, European, and world championships. Aleksiychuk composed Go where the wind takes you … in 2023 on a commission from Classical Movements for the Taki Alsop Conducting Fel- lowship, as part of the Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program.The Prague Summer Nights Fes- tival Orchestra, in a side-by-side performance with members of the Czech Philharmonic, and Iryna Aleksiychuk IRYNA ALEKSIYCHUK (b.1967) Go where the wind takes you … Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, wind chimes, wood blocks, cymbals, bass drum, tamtam, glockenspiel, vibraphone, tubular bells, piano, and strings Iryna Aleksiychuk is an award-wining compos- er, pianist, and organist from Ukraine. She grew up in Sverdlovsk (now, Dovzhansk) in the far eastern, industrial Luhansk Oblast that, along with the Donetsk Oblast, forms the coal-mining region known as the Donbas. Music was a con- stant presence. Her father, a choral conductor, introduced her to the entrancing sound of the voice. Aleksiychuk also studied piano, complet- ing her preparatory studies at the Khmelnytsky Music School before entering the National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, where she graduated with honors in piano and composi- tion and pursued additional studies in organ. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 77