Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

MARINALSOP Following her rst Chicago Symphony Orches- tra concerts between and at Ravinia, Marin Alsop became an annual guest at the fes- tival in and Chief Conductor since . e only conductor to have earned a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop received the League of Amer- ican Orchestras’ Golden Baton Award in , and last season she made her long-awaited Ber- lin Philharmonic debut. She was a Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist for / , leading several “America at ” programs, and is the curator and director of the Cincinnati May Festi- val. Alsop will chair the jury for ’s inaugural Cliburn Competition for Conductors, having led the nal rounds of the and piano competitions and chaired the jury. Alsop is currently director of graduate conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. She founded the Taki Alsop Conduct- ing Fellowship in to nurture the careers of female conductors, providing mentorship and a network of nearly women active in the eld, including more than titled music di- rectors and chief conductors around the world. A documentary about Alsop’s life, e Conduc- tor , premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Focus on the Arts Award at the Naples International Film Festival. In addition to her role at Ravinia, Alsop is Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia (London) and Philadelphia Orchestras, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival at the University of Maryland. In she became Music Director Laureate of the Baltimore Sym- phony Orchestra, concluding a -year tenure that included the founding of the OrchKids youth music initiative, and she is Honorary Conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony and São Paulo Symphony following her six- and sev- en-year artistic leadership of those ensembles, respectively. Deeply committed to new music, Alsop was music director of the Cabrillo Festi- val of Contemporary Music for years, during which she led premieres. Her award-win- ning discography of more than titles in- cludes Brahms, Dvořák, and Proko ev cycles on Naxos and further recordings on Decca, Har- monia Mundi, and Sony Classical. YUNCHAN LIM Since becoming the youngest person to ever win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at the age of in , Yunchan Lim’s ascent to international stardom has been meteoric. e video of his nal-round perfor- mance of Rachmanino ’s Piano Concerto No. trended globally on YouTube and has now be- come the most-watched version of that piece on the platform, amassing well over million views. e New York Times later listed it among the top classical music performances of . Lim has since made successful orchestral debuts with the New York, Los Angeles, Munich, To- kyo, and Seoul Philharmonics and the Chicago, Lucerne, BBC, and Boston Symphony Orches- tras, among many other ensembles. His recital appearances have included concerts at Carnegie Hall, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, the Con- certgebouw, and Suntory Hall. Highlights of the past year have included orchestral debuts with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Philadelphia, Santa Cecilia, Concertgebouw, and Gewand- haus Orchestras; returns to the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Boston and Chi- cago Symphonies, Orchestre de Paris, and the Ravinia and Verbier Festivals; and recitals in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston, as well as at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall, among oth- er major stages. During the / season, he will perform a complete cycle of Mozart’s piano sonatas at Carnegie Hall. In recent seasons, Lim made orchestral debuts with the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, Deutsche Kammerphil- harmonie, Vienna and Berlin Radio Sympho- nies, Royal Philharmonic, and (US) National, City of Birmingham, and London Symphony Orchestras. He also made recital debuts play- ing Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Kennedy Center and Paris Philharmonie. As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist, Lim’s acclaimed debut studio album of Chopin etudes won the Gramophone Award for Piano, and he was named Young Artist of the Year. He also made history winning three BBC Music Magazine Awards, including Recording of the Year. Since January , he has been an Apple Music Clas- sical Global Ambassador. Yunchan Lim made his joint Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Or- chestra debut in . LIZZO Lizzo is a four-time Grammy Award–win- ning, Emmy Award–winning superstar singer, songwriter, rapper, and actress who has le an indelible and incomparable mark on popular culture. She has garnered numerous accolades, notched two Billboard Hot number-one smashes, earned dozens of Gold, Platinum, and multi-Platinum certi cations, packed arenas worldwide, and shone in blockbuster lms. Lizzo notably made history in when she emerged as the rst Black woman to receive Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards since for the double-platinum “About Damn Time.” Previously, she shook the charts with the Diamond-selling single “Truth Hurts.” It enshrined her as both the third female rapper to top the Hot without a featured artist and the rst Black solo female R&B singer to claim the top spot since . e track dominated the Hot for seven weeks, becoming the longest running number-one by a solo female rap artist ever. Rolling Stone hailed it as one of the greatest songs of all time. She has ap- peared on myriad television shows, including Saturday Night Live , e Today Show , Watch What Happens Live! with Andy Cohen , Jimmy Kimmel Live! , CBS Sunday Morning , and more. She also headlined her own Emmy-nominated HBO special, Lizzo: Live In Concert , capturing her sold-out show at the Kia Forum in Los An- geles. Along the way, her presence could be felt at the box o ce and on streaming networks, spanning roles in e Simpsons and Hustlers in addition to producing and starring in Prime Video’s multi-Emmy Award–winning reality TV show Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls . She founded her own activewear brand, Yitty, designed for every type of body. In , she kicked o the year with the announcement of her rst children’s book, Lil Lizzo Meets Sasha B. Flootin , published this September, as well as her starring role in the lm Rosetta from Am- azon MGM Studios. Tonight Lizzo is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 73 RAVINIA/PATRICKGIPSON(ALSOP);JAMESHOLE(LIM)