Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

arranged box seats for the actress-impresario to attend a concert presentation of Symphonie fantastique coupled for the first time with Lélio . As the performance progressed and Shakespear- ean references increased, Smithson realized the Beloved’s true identity. “God,” she exclaimed, “Juliet—Ophelia! Am I dreaming? I can no lon- ger doubt. It is of me he speaks.” Their official first meeting took place the next morning. An intimate relationship quickly developed. Hector and Harriet married October 3, 1833, with Franz Liszt as a witness. Their son Louis was born the following August. In later years, Berlioz softened his critical portrayal of the Beloved by redrafting the program notes. Nevertheless, the fantasy un- derlying their relationship could not sustain a marriage. The couple officially separated in 1844, and Harriet died a decade later. The Symphonie fantastique might easily have faded away under the weight of the compos- er’s shattered personal illusion and early criti- cism of this new symphonic conception for its musical-poetic union. However, another fate awaited this pioneering work, for as Charles Gounod explained, the symphony’s signifi- cance “may be gauged by the fanatic adherence of some and the violent opposition of others.” A legion of Romantic visionaries—Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, and Hugo Wolf, among others—countered the critics with equally copious and fervent praise. –Program notes © 2024 Todd E. Sullivan Hector Berlioz by Gustave Courbet (1850) JONATHAN RUSH Hailing from Windsor, CT, Jonathan Rush is a rising talent on the concert podium, having earned a Bachelor of Music fromThe Ohio State University, where he was Music Director of the Buckeye Philharmonic Orchestra, and a Master of Music from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Rush spent 2020–23 on the artistic staff of the Baltimore Symphony Orches- tra; in addition workign as its Associate Con- ductor, he was Artistic Director of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, leading the ensem- ble on its first-ever international tour across Europe, including performances at such ven- ues as Dvořák Hall in Prague. His conducting mentors have included Marin Alsop, Mei-Ann Chen, and Joseph Young. In 2017, Rush became a conducting fellow of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, and in 2018 he was also named a Project Inclusion Conducting Fellow with the Chicago Sinfonietta, where he was engaged as Assistant Conductor for the 2019 season. He was then appointed Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2020, also serving as Assistant Conductor of the New York Youth Symphony that fall. Rush made his pro- fessional orchestra debut with the Chamber Or- chestra of New York in Carnegie Hall as the 2018 Respighi Prize winner, and he made his interna- tional debut leading the Nairobi Philharmonic and Dance Centre Kenya in their first perfor- mance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker with live orchestra. Rush has since debuted as a guest conductor with the Baltimore and Detroit Sym- phony Orchestras, Minnesota and Philadelphia Orchestras, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Wash- ington National Opera at The Kennedy Cen- ter. Between 2016 and 2021, Rush served as the Minister of Music at Ebenezer Temple in Hart- ford, CT, and the Director of Music for the New England District of the United Holy Church of America, overseeing the music departments of 14 different churches. At the Baltimore Sympho- ny, he curated the orchestra’s inaugural Gospel Fest, featuring singer-songwriter Karen Clark Sheard. Jonathan Rush made both his Ravinia and his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts in 2021, returned to conduct the Chicago Sinfo- nietta in 2022, and was the first Lead Conductor of National Seminario Ravinia in 2023. RACHEL BARTON PINE Chicago native Rachel Barton Pine began her violin studies at age 3, making her professional debut four years later with the Chicago String Ensemble and appearing with the Chicago Sym- phony Orchestra as early as age 10. In 1992 Pine became the youngest and first American winner of the J.S. Bach International Violin Competition in Leipzig, and she holds further prizes from the Queen Elisabeth (1993), Kreisler (1992), Szigeti (1992), and Montreal (1991) competitions. In ad- dition to the CSO, she is regularly a guest of such leading ensembles as the Philadelphia Orches- tra, Royal Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, and Vienna and Detroit Symphonies. She is also a versatile chamber musician, collaborating with pianists Jonathan Gilad and Orion Weiss, cellist Clive Greensmith, violist Paul Neubauer, harp- sichordist Jory Vinikour, bass-baritone William Warfield, and the Pacifica and Parker Quartets, among other artists. She frequently performs music by contemporary composers, including works written for her by Billy Childs, Moham- med Fairouz, Marcus Goddard, Earl Maneein, Shawn Okpebholo, Daniel Bernard Roumain, José Serebrier, and Augusta Read Thomas. Ad- ditionally, Pine is an avid performer of Baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval music on baroque violin, viola d’amore, renaissance violin, and re- bec. She has recorded more than 40 acclaimed albums; her newest, Dependent Arising (August 2023) on Cedille, features concertos by Maneein and Shostakovich with the Royal Scottish Na- tional Orchestra and Tito Muñoz. Her recent discography also includes Violin Concertos by Black Composers (September 2022) with the RSNO and Jonathon Heyward, and Malek Jan- dali: Concertos (March 2023) with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop. For over 20 years Pine has collected and curated free rep- ertoire directories and print resources of global Black classical composers, with more than 900 works by over 450 composers from the 18th–21st centuries represented. Rachel Barton Pine most recently appeared at Ravinia this past fall giving a solo recital, and in 2021 she substituted as so- loist with the CSO on just a few hours’ notice as well as guested on a program celebrating music of the Chicago Black Renaissance. Her Ravinia debut was in 1994, and this is her 17th perfor- mance at the festival. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 91 CODYPORTRAITS(RUSH);LISA-MARIEMAZZUCCO(PINE)