Ravinia 2024 Issue 5

PAVILION 8:00 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2024 THE VOICE OF WHITNEY ° A SYMPHONIC CELEBRATION featuring CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC SEAN MAYES, conductor † with WHITNEY HOUSTON MASTER RECORDINGS from her iconic songbook and film performances SEAN MAYES, orch. Overture SEAN MAYES, orch. “I’m Every Woman” DILLON KONDOR, orch. “You Give Good Love” SEAN MAYES, orch. “The Greatest Love of All” SHAAN RAMAPRASAD, orch. “I Know Him So Well” SHAAN RAMAPRASAD, orch. “Higher Love” GEORGE MOORE, orch. “Count on Me” DILLON KONDOR, orch. “Step by Step” / “I Love the Lord” RYAN SHIRAR, orch. “So Emotional” RYAN SHIRAR, orch. “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” RYAN SHIRAR, orch. “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” SEAN MAYES, orch. “How Will I Know” –Intermission– GEORGE MOORE, orch. “The Star-Spangled Banner” RYAN SHIRAR, orch. “All the Man That I Need” GEORGE MOORE, orch. “I’m Your Baby Tonight” DILLON KONDOR, orch. “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” DILLON KONDOR, orch. “I Loves You, Porgy” / “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” / “I Have Nothing” GEORGE MOORE, orch. “Saving All My Love for You” GEORGE MOORE, orch. “I Will Always Love You” † Ravinia debut ° World premiere SEAN MAYES Based between New York and Toronto, Sean Mayes enjoys a varied career internationally as a conductor, music supervisor, music direc- tor, orchestrator, arranger, composer, author, and educator, spanning the range of numerous musical styles between Broadway, theater, op- era, classical, and orchestral pops. Mayes is in demand as a conductor and music supervisor of multiple productions between the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond. Upcoming projects include work as an incoming music supervisor with Disney Theatrical Group, and as music supervisor and co-orchestrator for the Broadway-bound ALI: The Musical , composed by Teddy Abrams and rap icon Q-Tip. Mayes is also music director for Broadway luminary André De Shields. In June 2024, Mayes’s groundbreaking new opera Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White —composed, orchestrated, and conduct- ed by Mayes—premiered with the Canadian Opera Company. Select credits include The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration (conductor and orchestrator, Ravinia Festival); Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future with the American Pops Orchestra (con- ductor, PBS National Broadcast); RENT: In Concert (music supervisor, The Kennedy Cen- ter with the National Symphony Orchestra); An Evening with Andre De Shields (music director and orchestrator, Baltimore Symphony Orches- tra); AFROPUNK HERStory (music supervisor, Lincoln Center); King Lear (composer, Strat- ford Festival); Mandela (conductor, Young Vic Theatre, London); Fall On Your Knees (com- poser, Canadian National Tour); MJ (assistant conductor, Broadway); Hadestown (associate conductor, Broadway); The Color Purple (music director, Canadian regional premiere). Mayes is a published author on the role of Black mu- sic directors ( Reframing the Musical , Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), the retracing of Black British musical theatre history ( An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre , Bloomsbury, 2021), and in conversations with the leading in- dustry artists of color ( Conversations in Color , Bloomsbury, 2023). Sean Mayesis making his Ravinia debut. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 19 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2024 82 JESSICAOSBER