Ravinia 2025 Issue 4

SPAFFORD Spafford is known for their astonishing impro- visational ability and off-the-cuff extended jams. The quartet paints a picture in real-time each night with a musical palette known only to each other. It’s a private language comprised of both their talent as musicians as well as their formida- ble catalog of influences, spanning ’90s alt-rock radio hits to Steely Dan and The Crystal Meth- od. Each Spafford show is a sonic pilgrimage, the journey of a team of musicians so in tune with each other that a single note communicates in- tent and purpose. Spafford is amongst the most creative and hard-traveling bands on the contem- porary jam scene, performing countless sold-out headline dates along with high profile festival sets at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Firefly Mu- sic Festival, and many others. Spafford is making their Ravinia Festival debut. CAROUSEL STAGE 7:00 PM TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2025 SPAFFORD † † Ravinia debut STEPHEN WILLIAMSON Stephen Williamson is principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Riccardo Muti in 2011. Williamson formerly was principal of both the New York Philharmonic (2013–14) and the Metropolitan Opera Orches- tra (2003–11). In addition, he has been a frequent guest principal clarinet with the Saito Kinen Fes- tival Orchestra in Japan under the late Seiji Oza- wa. Williamson currently is a faculty member of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. He also has served on the faculties of Columbia University and the Mannes College of Music in New York; the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; and the Domaine Forget Inter- national Music Festival in Quebec. He has re- corded for the Sony Classics, Telarc, CRI, BMG, Naxos, and Decca labels, and he can be heard on numerous film soundtracks. He was a featured soloist with the CSO under John Williams on the composer’s Oscar-nominated score to Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln . As a soloist and chamber musician, Williamson has performed extensively in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has collaborated with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Mit- suko Uchida, Jeffrey Kahane, Anne-Marie Mc- Dermott, and Emanuel Ax, as well as withMelio- ra Winds; the Aspen, Dorian, and Sylvan Wind Quintets; the Brentano, American, Jasper, Brasil- ia, and Dover String Quartets. Career-highlight performances include Copland’s Clarinet Con- certo with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra at the Pacific Music Festival in 2018, the Pacific Mu- sic Festival Orchestra in Japan in 2011, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2012. Williamson received a bachelor’s degree and performer’s certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree from The Juilliard School. As a Fulbright Scholar, he fur- thered his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts. His past teachers include Peter Rieckhoff, Charles Neidich, Kenneth Grant, and Michael Webster. He holds the Saunderson Award from the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, the 1997 New York Concert Artist Guild Com- petition Nathan Wedeen Award, and the grand prize in the First Annual Buffet Crampon North American Clarinet Competition in 1994. In 2019, Williamson was one of three invited clarinetists to adjudicate the first-ever woodwind category of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 67 TODDROSENBERG(WILLIAMSON);ROBROANE(SPAFFORD)