Randi Ravitts Woodworth Young Conductors Awardee archive

2023 - Andrew Major

The Handel Week family is delighted to announce Andrew Major as the Mark and Randi Ravitts Woodworth Young Conductors awardee for the 2023 Festival Season! Here is a little about him:

Andrew Major is a Doctoral Candidate in Choral Conducting at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music where he was a Thomas R. Kasdorf scholar studying under Grammy Award-winning conductor Donald Nally. At Northwestern, Andrew most recently served as the assistant conductor of the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble (BCE) and sang with BCE, University Chorale, and the Recital Chorus. He has also served as the conductor of NU Camerata, the choral department's non-major treble choir, and as the assistant conductor of the University Singers. He has also conducted performances with the Renaissance Singers and the Undergraduate Company of Opera Singers, and served as the chorus master of Northwestern Opera Theatre's pioneering, remote production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. An active singer, Andrew has performed with the Grammy award-winning choir The Crossing, the Grant Park Chorus, Stare at the Sun, and the Calyx Ensemble and is currently the tenor section leader at Glencoe Union Church. Andrew is assistant conductor of the Apollo Chorus, the city's premier volunteer choir and oldest musical institution, who he will help to prepare for performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon at the Ravinia Festival.

Andrew is the artistic director and conductor of Roots in the Sky, Montana's only professional chamber choir, and an ensemble dedicated to performances contemporary choral works. Andrew founded Roots in the Sky in 2012 while attending Montana State University, where he earned a B.A. in Music, a B.S. in Cell Biology & Neuroscience, and an Honors College Baccalaureate, summa cum laude. In 2016, Andrew was honored with an MSU Award for Excellence, awarded to 40 of MSU's top seniors for academic excellence, campus leadership, and community service. At this time, Andrew was also awarded the Torleif Asheim Community Involvement Award which recognizes one student from each college for community involvement.

Most recently, Andrew founded Ensemble Affekten, Chicago's newest early music ensemble dedicated to intimate scale vocal works from the Middle Ages through the Baroque. Through narrative programs that recontextualize the ways that early composers married text and music to arouse emotions in their audiences, the group is committed to making this rich body of works relevant to the world in which we are living in a way that goes beyond its existence as a historical artifact – through rhetoric, storytelling, and style. Andrew participated as a conducting fellow at the 2015 Westminster Choir College Choral Institute studying under Simon Carrington and at the Big Sky Choral Initiative in 2015, 2016, and 2017 with Donald Nally. Additionally, Andrew conducted as part of the American Choral Directors Association's National Conference Masterclass with Ann Howard Jones and Jerry McCoy and in masterclasses with Craig Hella Johnson, Matthew Halls, James Jordan, Robert Harris, and Andrew Megill.

2022 - Madeleine Woodworth

The Handel Week family is delighted to announce Madeleine Woodworth as the inaugural Mark and Randi Ravitts Woodworth Young Conductors awardee for the 2022 Festival Season! Here is a little about her:

Madeleine developed her love of choir, conducting, sacred music, organ, and collaborative music while participating in the music program at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park, under the tutelage of Dr. Dennis Northway. She began studying piano with Dr. Sally Sloane at age 6, and organ with Dr. Northway at age 13, and she graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts, with a double major in piano and organ. Madeleine earned her Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance, studying with Nathan J. Laube at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she also studied conducting with Dr. William Winert and church music with Stephen Kennedy.

At the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Madeleine sang in the Yale Schola Cantorum and studied with Marguerite Brooks, Dr. Jeffrey Douma, and David Hill to earn her Master of Music in Choral Conducting. During her second year at Yale, Madeleine served as Choir Director of the Marquand Chapel Choir, the experimental service laboratory for the Yale Divinity School students, where she emphasized programming of living and diverse composers. She has participated in master classes and workshops with conducting mentors including Masaaki Suzuki, Simon Carrington, Dr. Jerry Blackstone, Dr. Joe Miller, Diane Witry, and Sarah Ioannaides. Upon graduating from Yale, Madeleine was awarded the Robert Shaw Prize for excellence in conducting and the Richard Paul DeLong Prize in church music.

Currently, Madeleine serves as the Director of Music at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park and sings alto with La Caccina, a nine-voice professional treble vocal ensemble in Chicago. She is on the National Marketing Committee of the AGO and served as a Member at Large for the Chicago Chapter of the AGO in 2018-2021. She is a member of the Association of Anglican Musicians and is active in the Oak Park Alumnae Chapter of the music fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota. In her free time, Madeleine enjoys exploring cities, trying new restaurants, playing video games, and spending time with friends and her cat, Tigger. Applicants for the Mark and Randi Ravitts Woodworth Award for Young Conductors should have completed a Baccalaureate and Masters-level degree from an accredited musical institution of higher learning and should be, at least, in the process of gaining further experience in applied choral or orchestral conducting. The application form for this is found later on this website and should be sent to Dr. Dennis E. Northway, Artistic Director of the Handel Week Festival by May 31st of the year prior to the concert season in which the candidate wishes to perform at [email protected]. A stipend of no less than $1,000 will be attached to this award as well as publicity in regional news outlets, press releases and programs.