Ravinia 2023 Issue 6

RAJ NAIK (CHILDS); JOHN ABBOTT (REID, WILSON); SHERVIN LAINEZ (CASWELL) BILLY CHILDS A native of Los Angeles, Billy Childs grew up immersed in jazz, classical, and pop music in uences. A prodigious talent at the piano earned him public performances by age , and at he was admitted to USC’s Com- munity School of the Performing Arts (now known as the Colburn School of Music), going on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn and Morten Lauridsen. By the time of his graduation from USC, Childs was already an in-demand performer in LA’s jazz scene, and he soon teamed up with trumpeter Fred- die Hubbard to embark on a successful per- forming and recording tour. He has recorded and performed with a number of other in u- ential jazz musicians, including J.J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, and Wynton Marsalis, before landing a record deal with Windham Hill in , when he released Take For Example, is… , the rst of four critically acclaimed al- bums for the label. Childs subsequently wrote and produced I’ve Known Rivers ( ), e Child Within ( ), and two volumes of jazz/ chamber music, Lyric, Vol. ( ) and Au- tumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. ( ), which together earned him two Grammy Awards and ve nominations. He most recently won a Grammy, his h, for his album Re- birth , and his latest album is its follow-up, Acceptance ( ) As a composer, Childs has been commissioned by such gures as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Sympho- ny Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Kronos Quartet, Jazz at Lincoln Center Or- chestra, American Brass Quintet, the Lyris and Ying Quartets, Dorian Wind Quintet, pi- anist Inna Faliks, and violinists Anne Akiko Meyers and Rachel Barton Pine. His honors include Chamber Music America’s Jazz New Works Grant ( ) and Classical Commis- sioning Grant ( ), a Guggenheim Fellow- ship ( ), and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award ( ), and he was president of Chamber Music America from to . Billy Childs has been co-director of the Ra- vinia Steans Music Institute Jazz Program since and on its faculty for an additional three years. In Childs led his Jazz/Cham- ber Ensemble in a Ravinia concert, having previously performed one of his own works on the inaugural Bridges Composition Com- petition concert in . RUFUS REID Born in Georgia, Rufus Reid began his life in music as a trumpeter growing up in Cal- ifornia, playing the instrument through high school and his service in the US Air Force. During that time, he became interested in the string bass and settled in Washington to begin serious studies with James Harnett of the Seattle Symphony. Reid continued the fo- cus at Northwestern University with Warren Benfield and Joseph Guastafeste, principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony, as mentors, graduating in with a Bachelor of Music in double bass performance. Just shy of , Reid continues to build on a -year music career that has included over recordings with such jazz stalwarts as Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Quartet, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz, J.J. John- son, Lee Konitz, and Jack DeJohnette. He has albums under his own name, most recently including ’s Celebration , which features works for jazz trio with string quartet. In , Reid received the Raymond Sackler Commission and created a ve-movement suite for large jazz ensemble, Quiet Pride: e Elizabeth Catlett Project , the album of which was nominated for two Grammys. Reid also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in , on which he wrote a three-move- ment symphonic work, Mass Transit . He was named Harvard University’s Jazz Master in Residence in April , during which he participated in public conversations about and performances of his original works, and the following month he was awarded the America Composers Forum Commission to compose a work for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, resulting in the July premiere of Remembrance . In April , Reid’s third symphonic work, Lake Tyrrell In Innisfree , was premiered by the Raleigh Civic Symphony, and Newvelle Records released a vinyl of his Terrestrial Dance , featuring his trio and the Sirius Quartet, in November . Rufus Reid has been co-director of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Jazz Program since and on its faculty every summer since its inauguration in , save the season. His works Beguiled and Pangea have been featured on Bridges Competition con- certs in and , respectively. STEVE WILSON Steve Wilson is ubiquitous in the studio and on the stage with the greatest names in jazz, bringing his distinctive sound to more than recordings led by Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, Bill Bruford, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, Charlie Byrd, Bil- ly Childs, and Karrin Allyson, among many others. He has also led eight recordings un- der his own name, leading and collaborat- ing with such musicians as Lewis Nash, Carl Allen, Steve Nelson, Cyrus Chestnut, Greg Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James Genus, and Larry Grenadier. Starting his musical train- ing on saxophone in his native Hampton, VA, Wilson also played oboe and drums in school bands while performing in various funk bands throughout his teens. A er a stint with singer Stephanie Mills, he began further music studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, working with Ellis Marsalis and several other artists, while also expanding his credits as a session and touring musician, joining backing bands for groups like The Four Tops and Sophisticated Ladies. Wilson decamped to New York in a er landing a chair in Blue Note Records’ rising-star sex- tet Out of the Blue, and the following year he toured extensively with Lionel Hampton. In , he joined the acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet, and from to Wilson was a member of Chick Corea’s Grammy-winning sextet Origin. Wilson cut his rst records as a bandleader on the Criss Cross label— New York Summit ( ), Step Lively ( ), Blues for Marcus ( ), and Four For Time ( )— then made another two on Corea’s Stretch Records: Generations ( ; with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley) and Passages ( ; with Bruce Barth, Ed Howard, Adam Cruz, and special guest Nicholas Pay- ton). A er ’s Soulful Song —a tribute to the galvanizing force of Black radio—Wilson most recently recorded Live in New York: e Vanguard Sessions with his current quartet, Wilsonian’s Grain, featuring Orrin Evans, Ugonna Okegwo, and Bill Stewart. Steve Wil- son rst appeared at Ravinia in with Mi- chele Rosewoman’s Quintessence and most recently played the festival’s stage with Billy Childs’s Jazz/Chamber Ensemble and the Ma- ria Schneider Orchestra. He joined the Ravin- ia Steans Music Institute Jazz Program faculty in and was named a co-director in . SARA CASWELL Raised in a musical family and beginning the violin at age , Sara Caswell moved through the first five Suzuki volumes in just nine months. Subsequent years of private lessons at Indiana University led to her involvement in the classical competition circuit, where she earned numerous grand-prize honors and other awards. A er completing Bachelors of Music and Artist Diplomas in both violin per- formance and jazz studies at IU, in Cas- well earned a master’s degree in jazz violin at the Manhattan School of Music. In addition to those studies with Josef Gingold (classical), Stanley Ritchie (baroque), and David Baker (jazz), she worked with many of today’s top jazz artists at the elonious Monk Institute of Jazz Summer Residency Program. Caswell is now herself on the faculty of the Manhat- tan School of Music, as well as the Berklee College of Music, e New School, and New York University, and she also brings her for- midable experience to the Mark O’Connor String Camps, the Jamey Aebersold Sum- mer Jazz Workshops, the Indiana University String Academy, and a private studio. Caswell has been voted into DownBeat ’s critics’ and readers’ polls every year since , having recorded two highly acclaimed albums un- der her own name— First Song ( ) and But Beautiful ( )—and this March she released her third, e Way to You . She has been part of groups led by esperanza spald- ing ( Chamber Music Society ), Linda May Han Oh ( Aventurine ), and David Krakauer ( e Big Picture ) in addition to being a member of Joseph Brent’s trio Nine Horses, Chuck Ow- en’s e Jazz Surge—on whose Whispers in the Wind she earned a Best Improvised Jazz Solo Grammy nomination for “Can’t Remem- ber Why”—and the Caswell Sisters Quintet (which she co-leads with sister vocalist Ra- chel). In the sisters joined pianist Fred Hersch to record Alive in the Singing Air . Cas- well has performed at Carnegie Hall, Village Vanguard, Birdland, Jazz at Lincoln Center, SFJazz, Disney Hall, Barbican, and Blue Note (NYC and Tokyo), and at jazz festivals includ- ing Newport, Montreal, Montreux, North Sea, Banlieues Bleues, and Saratoga Springs, among others. Sara Caswell was a fellow in the inaugural Ravinia Steans Music Institute Jazz Program in and is making her rst return to the festival. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE