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music by Bolcom and Tower

to the darker atmosphere of

Rzewski’s

War Song No.

and

Lightfoot’s “Black Day in July.”

“ ese songs still have im-

portance and resonance today,”

said Schaufer, “which is why

I chose them. is is our job,

to proselytize and stand on a

soapbox and say, ‘ ese people

are years old, and they

still have something to say.’ It

doesn’t matter if they wrote it

yesterday or years ago. is

music holds value.”

e youngest of four chil-

dren, Schaufer caught the mu-

sic and performing bug early.

“My family, we were always

the ones who were singing

the leads at school and that

sort of thing,” she said, “and I

have no problem [admitting]

that my rst job, at age ,

was four shows a day, seven

days a week, Memorial Day to

Labor Day, at Santa’s Village in

Dundee.”

She was the lead in a show

titled

Hollywood Star

.

“I played an aging ex–mov-

ie star,” Schaufer recalled.

“More mascara and hot rollers

than a girl should ever have to

use. But I am completely Cath-

olic in my taste, and I do not

believe in the word ‘crossover.’

It is either music that is good,

or music that perhaps isn’t.”

Schaufer is dedicating her

Ravinia recital to Peter van

den Honert, her choral direc-

tor at what is now Dundee-

Crown High School. Retired

and living in Ohio, he is

driving in for her recital. “He’s

like many people in our lives,”

she said. “ ey’re the ones

who inspire you to keep going,

and tell you that it’s okay to be

the weirdo, the one who wants

to do something di erent.”

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.

AUGUST 20 – SE3TEM%ER 2, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE

11