Rika mansueto biography of martin luther king

Some of Ran’s work uses texts that reflect a diversity of influences. For “Ad Sciendam,” a work for organ and chorus that Ran wrote for the University’s 500th Convocation in 2009, she included Hebrew and Latin passages from the Book of Wisdom. She also used a multilingual approach for one of her most intriguing compositional challenges—a commission by the vocal group Chanticleer to write a movement for a Mass.

Told that her assignment would be to compose the Credo for the Mass, she recalls, “I said to them, ‘You realize I’m Jewish, right?’”

With the opening phrase of the Latin Mass’ Credo as a point of departure, she created a trilingual piece in English, Hebrew, and Latin, drawing from Jewish Liturgy and the philosopher Maimonides, as well as texts about the Holocaust and the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I needed to go beyond beautiful texts,” Ran says. “I needed to ask questions, probe faith in the face of the greatest adversity. How privileged I am that I can address, through my music, things that are important for me, that are outside of myself.”

For Ran, elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, the power of music to unsettle and console offers endless possibilities.

“I believe that music matters,” she says. “Music for me has an incredible capacity to uplift, transport, make one think, disturb, engage, at times to entertain, at times to provide catharsis.”

‘It always becomes something more’

Marta Ptaszynska began composing at age 4, and followed a rigorous course of training while growing up in her native Poland. That instilled a broad musical vocabulary that she considers essential to her creative work.

“Many people have a talent but don’t develop their craft,” she says. “And talent without craft is nothing.”

Her ideas for compositions tend to come as a whole, rather than in bits and pieces. “I never start a piece if I don’t know how the piece will end,” she says. “It’s like buying a tra

Compiled by Adam Harrington, CBS Chicago web producer

CHICAGO (CBS/AP) From the arts and sports to politics and activism, 2021 saw the loss of some notable Chicagoans who helped define the culture of the city for generations.

Here is a look at 25 notable Chicagoans who passed away this year.

Virgil Abloh: Designer

Acclaimed fashion designer Virgil Abloh died on Nov. 28 at the age of 41, following a battle with cancer. Abloh was the first Black man named an artistic director at Louis Vuitton.

The son of immigrant parents from Ghana, Abloh was born and raised in Rockford. He graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago with a master's degree in architecture. It was his collaborations with Chicago rapper Kanye West that skyrocketed him to fame.

"I hope that through my narrative, people see that in themselves that anything is achievable, and different genres are just made to be jumped over," Abloh once said.

Just months before his death, Abloh became the most powerful Black executive at one of the world's most powerful luxury brands when his own label, Off-White, was acquitted by Louis Vuitton's parent company.

Abloh was best known for his menswear, but his work stretched into furniture and vehicle design as well. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago even held an exhibit of his work back in 2019.

Timuel Black: Author, Historian, Civil Rights Activist

Timuel Black, a prominent civil rights activist, author, and historian, died on Oct. 13. He was 102 years old.

Few people knew more about Chicago's Black history than Dr. Black.

Dr. Black moved to Bronzeville in 1919 and was one of the first graduates of DuSable High School.He served in the military during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, and witnessing the horrors of the Holocaust when he visited the Buchenwald concentration camp after it was liberated.

He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, helped get

A $25 million gift from alumni Joe and Rika Mansueto will support construction of a new library at the University of Chicago. Joe Mansueto is Chairman and CEO of Morningstar, Inc.

Renowned Chicago-based architect Helmut Jahn designed the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, which will be a partially underground facility topped with a glass dome and have the capacity to house 3.5 million volumes of print material — making the University of Chicago the country’s sole top academic research library to keep its entire collection on campus.

“This library combines three of our passions: great design, the free exchange of information and the University of Chicago. That’s why Rika and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this project,” said Joe Mansueto. 

University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer said, “These scholarly materials are at the very core of intellectual life and intellectual activity at the University of Chicago. This effort to keep the materials at the University and in the heart of our campus is a reaffirmation of their immense value.”

Keeping books on campus

While other universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Brown, have moved books off campus, the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will ensure that books will remain at the center of the University of Chicago campus.

“This collection of immense scholarly value will be housed, preserved and delivered to our community in a state-of-the-art environment,” said Judith Nadler, Director of the University Library.

The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library will be located beside the Joseph Regenstein Library at South Ellis Avenue and East 57th Street. Construction on the project will begin this summer, and the new library will open in the fall of 2010.

“Physical location and academic mission are inseparable,” Nadler said. “Interdisciplinary research — a distinguishing featu