Ravinia Opens Lincoln Festival with Ramsey Lewis Commission Debut
Monday June 8, 2009
Begins this Friday, June 12 - Interview with Ramsey Lewis
by Tom Mullaney
The Ravinia Festival will showcase a multi-media bicentennial tribute to Abraham Lincoln throughout the 2009 season under the banner “Mystic Chords of Memory” (a phrase Lincoln used in his first inaugural address). It will consist among other things of a film, vocal recital with Thomas Hampson, the Lincoln Trio chamber ensemble and seven concerts with a stellar artist roster, including two world-premiere commissions. Ravinia’s annual gala benefit has been renamed the “Bicentennial Ball” and will feature Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait."
The festivities kick off Friday, June 12, when renowned jazz pianist, Ramsey Lewis (pictured above), the festival’s artistic director for jazz, unveils his two-hour Ravinia commission, “Proclamation of Hope.” A mixed-media, eight-movement composition, it features a 22-piece orchestra augmented by a jazz ensemble, vocals and spoken word.
The score’s musical arc begins with Lincoln’s early life, the institution of slavery, continues through Emancipation and Reconstruction, World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement and culminates in modern times with the final movement, entitled “16/44, A More Perfect Union," noting the synchronicity and symbolic connections between Lincoln and Obama’s presidencies.
To get a feeling for the man, Lewis made numerous trips to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield and talked with Lincoln scholars. Lewis claims, “I went along until I felt the man inside me, his compassion and constant search for doing good.” Once he felt personal identification with his subject, the composing came easier. Lewis had the feeling that “I was writing music to a film on screen. I could see him in my mind.”
This musical cornucopia ends in September with the world premiere of choreographer, Bill T. Jones’ newest work, “Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray.” Kartemquin Films, Chicago’s acclaimed documentary film house, will construct a behind-the-scenes, feature-length film on Jones’ creation to air on PBS’ American Masters series in 2010. Learn more at www.ravinia.org or download Mystic Chords of Memory Festival info (pdf).
Image of Ramsey Lewis courtesy of Ravinia Festival
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Kartemquin Films most recently won a 2009 Peabody Award for “Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita” and a Silver Hugo Television Award for “At the Death House Door.” The company currently has six films in progress including “A Good Man,” a portrait of Tony Award winning choreographer Bill T. Jones for PBS’s award-winning series, American Masters and an investigation of the mortgage crisis called “Fine Print.”
“A Good Man” follows Bill T. Jones in his attempt to tell the story of Abraham Lincoln through dance inspired by a commission from the Ravinia Festival. The resulting work will be performed in September of 2009 at the Festival as part of its “Mystic Chords of Memory” program in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial. The New York Times claims that Jones’ “portrayal of Lincoln is likely to scandalize as many people as it delights.”
Learn more about Kartemquin Films at kartemquin.com