Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

CHICAGO SYMPHONY CHORUS The Chicago Symphony Chorus regularly performs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orches- tra Hall and at Ravinia. The history of the CSC began in 1957, when sixth CSO music director Fritz Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to establish a chorus to equal the quality of the orchestra. Hillis accepted the challenge, and the chorus first performed in March and April 1958, in Mozart’s Requiem under Bruno Walter and Verdi’s Requiem under Reiner. Hillis served the chorus for 37 years, until her retire- ment in 1994; ninth CSO music director Daniel Barenboim appointed Duain Wolfe as her successor in June of that year, and he led the CSC as chorus director and conductor until his retirement in February 2022. The CSC first performed in Carnegie Hall in 1967 in Henze’s Muses of Sicily and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under seventh CSO music director Jean Martinon, and most recently in 2015 with Riccardo Muti for Scriabin’s Prometheus and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky . Touring internationally with the CSO, the chorus traveled to London and Salzburg in 1989 with Georg Solti for performances of Ber- lioz’s The Damnation of Faust and to Berlin in 1999 with Barenboim for Brahms’s A German Requiem and Pierre Boulez for Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron . World premieres featuring the CSC have included Ned Rorem’s Goodbye My Fancy , John Harbison’s Four Psalms, and Bernard Rands’s apókryphos . With visiting orchestras, the chorus has collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Meh- ta, and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Barenboim. Since first recording commercially in 1959—Prokof- iev’s Alexander Nevsky under Reiner—the CSC has amassed a discography that includes hallmarks of the choral repertoire and several complete operas. The chorus most recently received a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for Verdi’s Requiem, led by Riccardo Muti on CSO Resound. The chorus has received an additional nine Grammy Awards for Best Choral Performance CHERYL FRAZES HILL, associate director JENNIFER KERR BUDZIAK, assistant director BENJAMIN RIVERA, assistant director The chorus was prepared for this performance by Walter Huff. WALTER HUFF Walter Huff is a renowned vocal coach, conduc- tor, and pianist, having worked with singers, cho- ral ensembles, and opera companies across the United States and abroad. The longtime chorus master and coach for Atlanta Opera until 2017, Huff has also worked with San Diego Opera, Washington National Opera, Opéra-Comique, Spoleto Festival, Indiana University Opera, Pea- body Opera Theater, Tanglewood Music Center, and many companies. He is currently Professor of Choral Conducting and Faculty Director of Op- era Choruses at Indiana University, also serving as Principal Guest Coach for Atlanta Opera’s Stu- dio Artists. Huff has prepared ensembles for more than 170 productions, ranging from mainstream titles to musical theater to contemporary works and premieres. He has performed in recital with singers in such venues as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Concert Hall, as well as Spivey Hall and the Phillips Collection, and has premiered vocal works by the likes of Ned Rorem and Stephen Paulus. Earning degrees from Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, Huff studied piano, conducting, and voice while also focusing on collaborative piano and vocal literature. He is a frequent clinician for vocal masterclasses and choral workshops, focusing on areas of interpretation, audition preparation, diction, and choral rehearsal techniques. MADELINE SLETTEDAHL Madeline Slettedahl is an enthusiastic collabo- rator, recitalist, and operatic coach. Currently a member of the Houston Grand Opera music staff, additional faculty appointments include the Aspen Music Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she received her training in the Ryan Opera Center. An avid recitalist, Slettedahl has made appearances with leading opera singers at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memo- rial Concerts, the Collaborative Art Institute of Chicago, Green Lake Festival of Music, and the Emberlight Festival, as well as collaborative engagements with Icicle Creek Chamber Play- ers, Bellingham Festival of Music, and Twick- enhamFest. Her recording output includes the 2022 Billboard -charting album No Choice But Love with tenor Eric Ferring for Lexicon Re- cords, and a 2023 release for Delos Records, We Have Tomorrow , with Ferring and French string quartet Quatuor Agate. Slettedahl holds degrees in Collaborative Piano and Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and Western Washington University. RACHEL TOBIAS For the past 22 seasons, Rachel Tobias has man- aged the stage or assisted for more than 100 operas as well as several musicals at Lyric Op- era of Chicago. Since 2009, she has spent part of most summers as the lead stage manager for opera programming at Ravinia. Tobias is also a stage manager with Kehoe Designs, located in Chicago. She has held similar stage management positions with San Francisco Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, and various theater companies throughout Chicago. RACHEL GAROON A native Highland Parker, Rachel Garoon is re- turning for her sixth season at Ravinia. She has been attending Northwestern University to pur- sue a Master’s of Science in Leadership for Cre- ative Enterprises. She has worked as an assistant stage manager in a number of the nation’s top opera companies, including Washington Na- tional Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and San Francisco Opera. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 73