Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

On July 24, Marin Alsop brings Oscar-nominated composer Laura Karpman back to the CSO and Ravinia for the premiere of Unsung , a suite of original themes for women film characters who never had music written about them. Alsop led Karpman’s orchestral work ‘ All American’ with the CSO at Ravinia in 2021. Closing her six concerts, Marin Alsop reconnects with composer Carlos Simon (July 31, left) and pianist Emanuel Ax (August 1, right) to lead the Midwest premieres of Simon’s Good News Mass and John Williams’s Piano Concerto, which was written for Ax. and brief spoken excerpts from four movie scripts, among them Spartacus and Imitation of Life, to shine an unex- pected spotlight on the movies’ women characters. A major premiere of Alsop’s Ra- vinia season comes July 31 with Carlos Simon’s rousing, gospel-inflected Good News Mass . Like Bernstein’s Mass , which Alsop twice led at Ravinia, including for a PBS Great Performances taping in 2019, it bears little resemblance to the Roman Catholic Latin Mass that in- spired composers from Mozart to Verdi. Ravinia co-commissioned the piece, which had its world premiere last year by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to the orchestra, onstage forces include a gospel choir, vocal soloists, and a speaker, as well as visual art from filmmaker Melina Matsoukas. Text and libretto are by Courtney Ware Lett and Marc Bamuthi Joseph. “Carlos is a composer I’ve worked with a few times,” said Alsop. “The piece is a celebration of American gospel mu- sic, and I thought doing it with Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, which is so heavily influenced by spirituals, could be a really nice pairing. It’s very listenable.” Alsop is bringing back the 12-mem- ber Adrian Dunn Singers as the piece’s gospel choir. Based in Chicago, they made their Ravinia debut in 2022 singing an arrangement of the “New World” Symphony’s poignant “Going Home” theme before Alsop and the CSO performed the complete sympho- ny. In 2023 they returned in a piece by Reena Esmail. Titled See Me, it served as a prelude to the concert’s main work, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. “The Symphony Chorus is a joy to work with, of course,” said Alsop, “but it’s nice to get this different perspective. Sometimes we work with just Adrian Dunn’s group, sometimes we mix the two. When I first started my [chief con- ductor] role at Ravinia, I really wanted to figure out the landscape. I wanted to see who was around, who I could partner with, what collaborative project we could make together. It’s been very rewarding.” Alsop’s final concert of the summer, on August 1, also includes a Ravinia premiere, but the soloist is a longtime Ravinia favorite, pianist Emanuel Ax. This year marks the 50th anniversary of his debut with the CSO, both downtown and at Ravinia. The premiere, a concerto that John Williams wrote especially for Ax, includes hints of the styles of such jazz greats as Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. It had its world premiere last summer at the Tanglewood Festival. “I’ve only heard a recording of the concerto,” said Alsop, “but I love it. I’m so glad Manny will be doing it. I’ve worked with Manny many, many times, but it’s been a while.” The entire August 1 program has an all-American feel, opening with John Adams’s headlong Short Ride in a Fast Machine . The concert closes with Rach- maninoff ’s Symphonic Dances , written in the US just before the composer became an American citizen. Young soloists in old favorites, old friends in brand-new works. Another Alsop/CSO Ravinia summer. Wynne Delacoma was classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1991 to 2006 and has been an adjunct journalism faculty member at Northwestern University. She is a freelance music critic, writer, and lecturer. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 21 PATRICKGIPSON/RAVINIA(KARPMAN);KENDALLBESSENT(SIMON);NIGELPARRY(AX)