Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

albums where I would be in complete control. It’s a loverly full circle for this piece to now be arranged back to an orchestral form [2021]. I came up with the rising line whilst stomping along a beach in Scotland and experimenting with placing my steps across different parts of the material to create the shift in feel you hear roughly two-thirds in.” CHANDADANCY (b. 1978) Main Titles from Lawmen: Bass Reeves Born in Cleveland and raised in Houston, com- poser Chanda Dancy got an early start in music, beginning piano at age 3, taking up violin at 8, and composing full orchestral scores at 12. After completing a bachelor’s degree in music at Houston Baptist University, she pursued a mas- ter’s degree in film scoring at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, received the Pete Carpenter Fellowship in Film Scoring from BMI, studied on scholarship at the 2003 Henry Mancini Institution, received the Henry Mancini Award from the ASCAP Foun- dation for Composition, and was a Fellow at the Sundance Film Composers Lab (2009). Critics have celebrated her “unique command of the orchestra,” sophistication, dramatic clarity, and genre-spanning versatility as a composer. Chanda Dancy Dancy has scored projects ranging from the Peabody Award-winning Aftershock and Net- flix’s The Defeated to major studio films includ- ing Devotion , I Wanna Dance with Somebody , and Blink Twice . She has been shortlisted twice by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- ences for Best Original Score: first for Devotion (2022) and again for Blink Twice (2024). Other recent film projects include I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) and Swiped (2025). The epic Western drama Lawmen: Bass Reeves pre- miered on Paramount+ on November 5, 2023. Based on two books in the Bass Reeves trilogy by Sidney Thompson, this miniseries celebrates the one of the first African American Deputy US Marshals. Bass Reeves (portrayed by David Oyelowo) was born in Arkansas into slavery, later moving to Texas during the Civil War. He escaped to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), learned several Native American languages, and mastered tracking skills. As a Deputy US Mar- shal, Reeves served in Indian Territory for 32 years. For her work on Lawmen: Bass Reeves , Dancy received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and Society of Composers & Lyri- cists (SCL) Award nomination in 2024. RACHEL PORTMAN (b. 1960) Main Titles from Cider House Rules Born inWest Sussex and educated at the Univer- sity of Oxford, Rachel Portman began compos- ing at 14 and built an early career writing music for BBC and Channel 4 dramas. She was the first woman to win both an Academy Award ( Emma , 1996) and Primetime Emmy Award ( Bessie , 2015); she later earned a second Emmy for Ju- lia in 2023. With more than 100 film scores— including Chocolat (Oscar nominated, 2000), The Cider House Rules , The Duchess , Never Let Me Go , Oliver Twist , Beloved , The Manchurian Candidate , and Belle —Portman also has writ- ten operas and concert works, while receiving major commissions from Houston Grand Op- era, BBC Proms, King’s College Cambridge, and several international orchestras. As a pianist, she has released two solo albums, Ask the River and Beyond the Screen: Film Works on Piano, and a collaboration with violinist Niklas Liepe, Tip- ping Points . Portman is an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). BMI honored her with its Career Achievement Award in 2010. Based on John Irving’s sixth novel, The Cider House Rules is set in Maine during World War II. Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire) grows up at St. Cloud’s Orphanage, under the direction of Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), an ether-addict- ed obstetrician who trains Homer in medical duties in the hopes he will one day lead the or- phanage. Homer eventually leaves to work at the Worthington apple orchard, becomes involved with Candy Kendall (CharlizeTheron) while her boyfriend Lt. Wally Worthington (Paul Rudd) serves in the Burma campaign, and forms close ties with the Cider House migrant workers. Wally returns home a paraplegic, and Candy chooses to stay with him. When Dr. Larch dies, Homer realizes he belongs back at St. Cloud’s, returning as its new director. HILDURGUÐNADÓTTIR (b. 1982) “Confessions” from A Haunting in Venice Award-winning Icelandic composer, cellist, and singer Hildur Guðnadóttir was born into a high- ly musical family. She began cello lessons at age 5, later enrolling at the Reykjavík Music Acade- my. Guðnadóttir subsequently studied compo- sition and new media at the Iceland Academy of the Arts and the University of the Arts in Berlin. She also performs on experimental in- struments, such as the halldorophone (cello-like feedback instrument) and ómar (six-string elec- troacoustic cello/viola da gamba). Guðnadóttir’s compositions span film and television scores, avant-garde solo albums, and concert works for organizations such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Singers, British Film Institute, Gothenburg National Theatre, Royal Swedish Opera, and Tate Modern, among others. Her ac- claimed film scores include Sicario (2015), Joker (2019), Tár (2022), and The Bride! (2026), and her television credits include Strong Island (2017, Netflix) and Chernobyl (2019, HBO). Guðnadót- tir became the first female composer ever to win the Academy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards in the same season for Joker . She also set a record for the highest number of awards ever received in a single season by a female compos- er: 10 in 2020 for Joker and Chernobyl . A Haunting in Venice is director Kenneth Branagh’s 2023 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party , based on a screenplay by Mi- chael Green. It is the third in Branagh’s Hercu- le Poirot mystery film series, after Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022). Retired and living in post-World War II Venice, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is convinced by his friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Anna Meredith Rachel Portman RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 76 GEMHARRIS(MEREDITH);GEORGIASHU(DANCY);GREGORHOHENBERG(PORTMAN) GEMHARRIS(MEREDITH);GEORGIASHU(DANCY);GREGORHOHENBERG(PORTMAN)