In an interview posted Wednesday (2/1) at Chicago’s wfmt.com, Susan Lape, current executive director of the Lake Forest (Ill.) Symphony and soon to take on a new post as executive director of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, speaks with Michael San Gabino. Growing up in Lake Bluff, Ill., Lape regularly attended concerts at Ravinia and says that “live classical music concerts in the summer evenings were really formative for me.” She studied voice and piano, but “ended up going to Stanford University, which does not have a big music school. … My main focus in grad school was contemporary English opera. But I also studied orchestral repertoire, and this is something that I use in my career now.… I started at Lake Forest Symphony because I wanted to get closer to producing live music rather than just writing about it. Getting to know these musicians has been the greatest joy. All of those musicians were formed by experiences like the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. I want to make that experience accessible to as many kids as possible. We would love to see more kids involved in the programming and to really open our doors to the entire community.”
Posted February 7, 2017
