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DUAIN WOLFE, director
Appointed in 1994 by Daniel Barenboim, Duain
Wolfe took over the directorship of the Chica-
go Symphony Chorus from founding director
Margaret Hillis. Since then he has prepared the
chorus for over 150 programs at Orchestra Hall
and Ravinia combined, additionally directing
choral works at the Aspen Music Festival and
the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Wolfe has
also prepared the CSC for a number of recorded
works, including the Grammy Award–winning
performances of Verdi’s Requiem led by Riccar-
do Muti in 2010 and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg conducted by Georg Solti in 1998.
In concert Wolfe has prepared the chorus for
such works as Cherubini’s Requiem, Brahms’s
German Requiem, Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre, Orff ’s
Carmina Burana, and Verdi’s Requiem, Otello ,
Macbeth, and Falstaff —all of which were con-
ducted by CSO music director Riccardo Muti—
as well as Haydn’s The Creation, Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”), Bach’s Christmas
Oratorio and Saint Matthew and Saint John
Passions, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and
8, and world-premiere performances of John
Harbison’s Four Psalms and Bernard Rands’s
apókryphos, both commissioned by the CSO. He
has also prepared the CSC for guest appearanc-
es in performances of Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9 and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. Wolfe
is a former chairman of Chorus America, which
recently presented him with its Michael Korn
Founders Award in recognition of his contribu-
tions to the professional choral arts. His activi-
ties have also earned him an honorary doctorate
and numerous awards, including the Bonfils
Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the
Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence, and
the (Denver) Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an
Artistic Discipline. In addition to his post with
the CSC, Wolfe is the founder-director of the
Colorado Symphony Chorus—as well as found-
er of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, which he
directed for 25 years—and was conductor of the
Central City Opera Festival for 20 years.
CHERYL FRAZES HILL, associate director
Holding two undergraduate degrees from the
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign and
both a master’s degree and a doctorate in con-
ducting from Northwestern University, Cheryl
Frazes Hill is in her 42nd season as a conductor
of Chicago Symphony Chorus and is the newly
appointed director of the Milwaukee Symphony
Chorus. She joined the CSC as a singer in 1976,
then in 1986 was appointed its assistant conduc-
tor by Margaret Hillis, and finally an associate
conductor in 1991, continuing in that capacity
under Duain Wolfe. Frazes Hill has prepared
the chorus for numerous performances under
Maestros Boulez, Barenboim, Conlon, Mehta,
Tilson Thomas, and many others, including for
the albums Beethoven (2005), A Tribute to Dan-
iel Barenboim (2006), and Chicago Symphony
Chorus: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (2008),
as well as for Ravinia’s presentations of Mozart’s
Idomeneo, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and
The Marriage of Figaro. An accomplished vocal-
ist herself, she was a featured soloist on the 1986
Grammy-nominated recording Mozart, Music
for Basset Horns. Frazes Hill is currently an asso-
ciate professor at Roosevelt University’s Chicago
College of Performing Arts, a position she has
held since 2001. Under her direction, the Roos-
evelt choruses have appeared at National ACDA
and State IMEA conferences and collaborated
with regional orchestras on such innovative
programs as “Defiant Requiem,” a narrated per-
formance of Verdi’s Requiem detailing the story
of Terezin concentration camp prisoners who
performed the work, and the American pre-
miere of Jacob Ter Velduis’s Mountaintop. She
has received numerous awards, including the
University of Chicago’s Outstanding Teaching
Award in 1988, the Governor’s Award in 1993,
and the Northwestern Alumni Merit Award in
1997. Cheryl Frazes Hill is a featured author and
guest editor for the Choral Journal and theMusic
Educator’s Journal and a frequent guest conduc-
tor and speaker throughout the United States.
CHICAGO CHILDREN’S CHOIR
JOSEPHINE LEE, president and artistic director
Founded as a single choir in Hyde Park at the
height of the civil rights movement in 1956,
today Chicago Children’s Choir serves 4,800
youth who represent all 57 Chicago ZIP codes.
CCC’s mission is to unite youth from diverse
backgrounds to become global citizens through
music. Over the past 61 years, that mission has
grown exponentially with programs in 85 city
schools and 10 neighborhoods, including an
ensemble for boys with changing voices and the
world-renowned Voice of Chicago. Under pres-
ident and artistic director Josephine Lee, CCC
has undertaken many highly successful national
and international tours, most recently to Italy,
Cuba, India, and South Africa. The choir has
also been featured on nationally broadcast tele-
vision and radio performances, including NBC’s
Today, Oprah, and the PBS series From the Top:
Live from Carnegie Hall, and it was featured in
the Chicago/Midwest Emmy Award–winning
documentary Songs on the Road to Freedom
(2008). CCC regularly collaborates with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of
Chicago, and Ravinia Festival, and it recently
worked with Chance the Rapper on his Gram-
my Award–winning mixtape Coloring Book. Lee
has established CCC as one of Chicago’s premier
cultural institutions, leading the choir at perfor-
mances for such dignitaries as former president
and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama at the
2017 Presidential Farewell Address, as well as the
Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso at his 2011 message
in Chicago and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanu-
el at his 2011 inauguration. Her recent projects
include the co-creation of the original world
musical Sita Ram with David Kersnar of Look-
ingglass Theatre; an original piano composition,
The Good Goodbyes, commissioned by Frank
Chaves and River North Dance Chicago; the
development and world premiere of Long Way
Home , a fully staged theatrical work with the Q
Brothers; and an original suite for piano and cel-
lo, Ascension , commissioned by Ballet Chicago.
JULY 9 – JULY 15, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 115