Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

FREDERICA VON STADE Frederica von Stade has enriched the world of classical music for over ve decades. ough she retired from a full-time schedule in , she continues to make special appearances in concert and opera. Recent performances have included a recital at the LIFE Festival for the Fundació Victoria de los Ángeles in Barcelo- na and the world premiere of Sky on Swings by Lembit Beecher at Opera Philadelphia. In , she performed in Follies with Metropolis eatricals in Las Vegas, and in her lm Flicka! premiered at the National Opera Center, celebrating her artistic and humanitarian lega- cy. Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in , von Stadehas performed nearly all her signa- ture roles with the company, including special new productions of Lehár’s e Merry Widow in and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande in . She has appeared with every leading American opera company, including San Francisco Op- era, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Los Angeles Opera. Her career in Europe has been equally distinguished with appearances in new produc- tions at Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera. A versatile artist, von Stade is renowned for her interpretations of bel canto heroines such as Rossini’s Angelina ( La Cener- entola ) and Bellini’s Amina ( La sonnambula ); French repertoire like omas’s Mignon, Of- fenbach’s Périchole, and Gounod’s Marguerite ( Faust ); iconic trouser roles, from Strauss’s Oc- tavian ( Der Rosenkavalier ) to Mozart’s Sesto ( La clemenza di Tito ), Idamante ( Idomeneo ), and Cherubino ( Le nozze di Figaro ); and original roles in works like Dominick Argento’s e As- pern Papers , Conrad Susa’s Dangerous Liaisons , Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking , and Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Co n in Egypt . Her orches- tral repertoire is equally broad, from Baroque masterpieces to new compositions, and she is regarded as one of the nest interpreters of Rav- el’s Shéhérazade , Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été , and Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne . In , she was appointed as an o cer of L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest honor in the arts. Today marks Frederica von Stade’s th season at Ravinia, where she rst appeared in . SUSANGRAHAM Susan Graham rose to the highest echelon of international performers within just a few years of her professional debut, mastering an aston- ishing range of repertoire and genres along the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries, from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen Pre- jean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking , which was written especially for her. A familiar face at the Metropolitan Opera, she also maintains a strong presence at such venues as Paris’s éâtre du Châtelet, Santa Fe Opera, and the Hollywood Bowl. She won a Grammy Award for her col- lection of Ives songs, and has been recognized throughout her career as one of the foremost exponents of French vocal music. Although a native of Texas, she was awarded the French government’s Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, both for her popularity as a performer in France and in honor of her commitment to French mu- sic. Over the – season, Graham reprised Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in Heggie’s Dead Man Walkin g at San Francisco Opera (where she cre- ated Sister Helen Prejean in ), returned to the Met as Marquise de Birkenfeld in Donizetti’s La lle du régiment and Paris Opera as Larina in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin , and celebrat- ed Carlisle Floyd’s centennial at Carnegie Hall. Recent highlights have also included singing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at Lin- coln Center, the Baroness in Barber’s Vanessa with the National Symphony, Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s e Merry Widow with the Dallas Sym- phony, and Geneviève in Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande with Los Angeles Opera and Santa Fe Opera, as well as a reprise of Richard Dan- ielpour’s A Standing Witness at Carnegie Hall a er premiering the work in Chicago in . Graham recently expanded her distinguished discography with Nonesuch Records’ video re- lease of Berg’s Lulu , which captured her cele- brated role debut as Countess Geschwitz at the Met. Her solo albums include Virgins, Vixens & Viragos , featuring songs and arias by composers from Purcell to Sondheim; Un frisson français with pianist Malcolm Martineau; and La Belle Époque , an award-winning collection of Hahn songs with pianist Roger Vignoles. Susan Gra- ham is making her sixth appearance at Ravinia, having rst sung at the festival in . KEVINMURPHY New York native Kevin Murphy studied piano performance at Indiana University under Men- ahem Pressler and James Tocco, completing a Bachelor of Music, and later studied piano ac- companiment at the Curtis Institute, earning a master’s degree. In he was invited to be the rst pianist and vocal coach to participate in the Lindemann Young Artist Program of the Met- ropolitan Opera, where he was an assistant con- ductor from the following year until , when he was named director of musical studies for the Paris National Opera. Murphy has played harp- sichord continuo with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in productions of Rossini’s La Cen- erentola and Mozart’s Così fan tutte , e Mar- riage of Figaro , Idomeneo , La clemenza di Tito , and Don Giovanni —also performing that role in productions of several of those opera at Ravin- ia—and traveled with the company on tour to Japan, where he has played and been a musical assistant for the Seiji Ozawa Opera Project. He also regularly collaborates with such artists as Michelle DeYoung, Gary Lakes, Kathleen Bat- tle, Nathan Gunn, Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Frederica von Stade, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Gerald Finley, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Pinchas Zukerman. Murphy has been a vocal coach at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the International Vocal Arts Institute, Glim- merglass Opera, Tanglewood, and e Juilliard School; an opera coach for the Canadian Opera Company and Netherlands Opera; and a regular adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera Nation- al Council Auditions. He was director of music administration for New York City Opera from until , when he joined the faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music; in , he became co-director in creating Jacobs’s graduate program in collaborative piano. He is Artistic Director of the Tel Aviv International Summer Opera Program and a frequent guest vocal coach with Santa Fe Opera, also joining Los Angeles Opera in that role in . is is Kevin Murphy’s th season in performance at Ravinia, where he rst appeared in , and his th year as Artistic Director of Ravinia’s Steans Institute Singers Program. He made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut as a piano soloist at Ravinia in . RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 3 – AUGUST 16 , 2026 98 ROBERTMILLARD(VONSTADE);DARIOACOSTA(GRAHAM);PATRICKGIPSON / RAVINIA(MURPHY)