Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

ANTON MEJIAS Born in 2001, the Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias was fascinated by the music of Bach from a very young age. He made his recital debut at the age of 8, and by 10, he had already learned the entire Well-Tempered Clavier , Book I. Since then he has added the complete French and En- glish Suites, all six partitas, and the Well-Tem- pered Clavier , Book II, to his repertory. In Au- gust 2023, Mejias made his US debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl under conductor Tarmo Peltokoski. In the 2023/24 season, he made recital debuts at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Dresdner Musik- festspiele, and in Munich. In the coming year, he will debut in recital in Berlin. In addition to Peltokoski, he has performed under conductors Klaus Mäkelä and Lawrence Renes, and has played with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orches- tra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra Manchester. In February 2023, he accompanied baritone Matthias Goerne for a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Théatre du Capitole de Toulouse. He has won top prizes from the Viotti International Piano Competi- tion and the Nordic Piano Competition. Mejias began studying piano when he was 5 years old and went on to study at the Sibelius Academy with Teppo Koivisto and Niklas Pokki. He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he is in the stu- dio of Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and he additionally studies with the renowned Gary Graffman. An- ton Mejias is making his Ravinia debut. PAVILION 7:00 PMWEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 ROBERT GLASPER † and J. IVY † J. Ivy –Intermission– Robert Glasper † Ravinia debut J. IVY J. Ivy is a Grammy, Peabody, Clio, and NAACP Image Award–winning poet, author, actor and recording artist. In 2023, J. Ivy won a Grammy for his album The Poet Who Sat By the Door , the first to win in the Best Spoken Word Poetry Al- bum category, making him the first poet to win a Grammy since Maya Angelou. He subsequently won the second-ever Grammy in that category with his album The Light Inside . J. Ivy is widely known for his appearances on HBO’s Def Poet- ry and for his feature “Never Let Me Down” with Jay-Z on Kanye West’s 2004 album The College Dropout . His work also includes being the lead writer for Netflix’s film jeen-yuhs: A Kanye West Trilogy , commissions by Michael Jordan and Deepak Chopra, writing/narrating Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” NBA promo, and much more. J. Ivy served as the Recording Academy’s Chicago Chapter President from 2019 to 2021, and he became the first poet to hold a trustee’s seat in the history of the Academy. In 2022, J. Ivy led over 100 artists in the poetry community in proposing a new Grammy category to properly honor and respect their art, the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category, whish was added in the 2023 ceremonies. J. Ivy was a 2022 Ebony Power 100 list honoree and the 2023 Grand Marshal of the Bid Biliken Parade. J.Ivy is making his Ravinia debut. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 81 CTZNCHANCE/BURNCULTURE(J. IVY)