Two Park Ridge high school alumni are among a select group of recording artists celebrating a Grammy award nomination this year.
Jaygee Macapugay and Josephine Lee, both graduates of Maine East High School, are performers on projects that received 2021 Grammy award nominations last week.
Macapugay, a professional actress who appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “School of Rock” on Broadway and has more than a dozen off-Broadway and regional theater credits, is featured on the original cast recording of the off-Broadway musical “Soft Power,” which is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album.
Lee, president and artistic director of the Chicago Children’s Choir, is a vocalist on Chicago native Ted Hearne’s staged oratorio “Place,” which is nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.
‘Soft Power’
“I honestly still feel shocked because it was very unexpected,” New York-based Macapugay acknowledged last week, just days after learning “Soft Power” was among the nominees. “I know ‘Soft Power’ is worthy of a Grammy, but a Grammy nomination is not the first thing you think about when you’re recording a cast album.”
“It’s an honor to be recognized for the incredible talent that Chicago has to offer,” Lee said of “Place,” which features the Chicago Children’s Choir and other vocalists with ties to the ensemble. “Chicago has a rich cultural history and has so much brilliance, especially with the young people here.”
Macapugay, who grew up in Logan Square but moved to Park Ridge to attend high school, performed in the ensemble of “Soft Power,” which premiered at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in May 2018 and debuted at the Public Theater in New York City in September 2019.
Referred to as “kind of a reverse ‘King and I'” by its creator, David Henry Hwang, “Soft Power” is a satiric, exotic take on American culture and politics as viewed through a Chinese lens, not unlike how Western films and musicals have exoticized Asian cultures and themes through the years.
In the musical and on the cast recording, Macapugay has a solo in the number “I’m With Her,” playing Betsy, the exuberant campaign manager to Hillary Clinton, herself a native of Park Ridge.
“I felt a responsibility to ensure this album was done well and I think I can say that for the entire cast,” Macapugay said. “It’s rare for a cast album to feature a predominately Asian-American cast based on an Asian-American story.”
As a Filipino-American actress, Macapugay says being a part of “Soft Power” was “deeply meaningful” and very personal for her.
“So much of this story is about being able to find your identity and being able to own our narrative in a way that isn’t defined by anybody else,” she said.
Macapugay describes herself as a “late bloomer” to music and theater, discovering her talents during her junior year at Maine East.
“I didn’t think I would get anything, but I got cast in the musical — my very first musical — as a junior,” she said. “I played Tzeitel in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.'”
Maine East ‘saw something’
Macapugay attributes her “formative years of performing” to Patrick Barnett, director of Maine East’s concert choir, which she also joined her junior year.
“Pat was able to see something in me and was able to take that natural talent and put it on stage,” she said. “It gave me this confidence that I could be bigger than what I thought I was.”
Roles in Maine East’s productions of “Bye Bye Birdie” and “My Fair Lady” followed. Through she initially pursued a career in advertising, Macapugay rediscovered her love of performing when she was hired to perform in a show at Disney World. That led to a lead in a production of “Miss Saigon,” which in turn led to a new career in the theater.
Two years ago, when Maine East produced “Shrek the Musical,” Macapugay returned to the school to speak with students about her own experiences of working in the theater world.
“It was very sweet to come back where I started,” she acknowledged.
‘Thriving arts scene’
Josephine Lee, who grew up in Morton Grove and attended Maine East in the 1990s, was involved in music throughout her high school career, playing violin, viola and piano. She largely performed with the Maine East orchestra, which included playing for school musicals — like the performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” that Macapugay starred in.
Lee described David Jeffers, then-chairman of the school’s fine arts department, as a “huge advocate” of the arts while she was a student.
“Maine East had a thriving arts scene,” Lee noted. “They not only had an orchestra, they had a band, show choirs, and they produced their own musicals. Because of that rich cultural arts scene, we were able to collaborate with one another and start every day with music.”
Lee also recalled the prophetic words her guidance counselor Jane Simmons once shared with her: “You will play on stages greater than ours one day.”
“I remember that quote and I’m so grateful what was laid out for me, the support and inspiration,” Lee said.
Outside of school, Lee, who started learning violin at age three and piano at four, formed her own touring chorus with she was just 15.
“We mirrored the Vienna Boys Choir style,” she explained. “It was a way for me to be able to direct and lead, and it gave me an outlet to perform with extraordinary young musicians and singers.”
Chicago Children’s Choir
After completing her master’s degree at Northwestern University, Lee joined the Chicago Children’s Choir, becoming its youngest artistic director, she said. She has led the choir ever since, accompanying singers on performances across Chicago — often collaborating with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or Lyric Opera of Chicago — and tours around the world.
Lee also directed members of the choir on multiple songs for Chance the Rapper’s 2016 release “Coloring Book,” which won a Grammy award for Best Rap Album in 2017.
“The choir’s reputation emerged as a globally-recognized, world class organization,” Lee said of her time with the choir, which was formed in 1956 with a mission to “inspire and change lives through music.”
Lee continued, “(Performers) understand that music transcends boundaries. We are all united through that medium.”
Composer Ted Hearne, who created the Grammy-nominated “Place,” was one of Lee’s students in the Chicago Children’s Choir when he was a teenager, she said.
“Ted had that spark,” Lee shared. “In a room full of singers, often you see kids who are in it and engaged in the moment, and he just had that.”
Lee said Hearne asked her to record on “Place” along with other past and current members of the Chicago Children’s Choir. Lee performs on the songs “Maps (Appropriation)” and “New Faces.”
The oratorio, which featured six vocalists and a band, addresses the topic of gentrification through song.
Despite the pandemic shutting down live performances everywhere, both Lee and Macapugay have remained busy. Macapugay is rehearsing and recording musicals at home and is appearing as Mulan in “Disenchanted,” which will stream on Broadway on Demand on Dec. 15 and Dec. 17.
All of the parts of the production were recorded independently by the actors, she explained.
“I converted my apartment into a mini TV studio, basically,” Macapugay said. “Because everything is being done digitally, we’re not responsible just for performing. We have to set up our lights, sound, camera, background, costumes and makeup. Everything has to be done by ourselves right now.”
The Chicago Children’s Choir, meanwhile, has continued performing virtually since in-person programming was halted, Lee said.
“We’ve been able to cast a wider net and be part of the wider world versus when we were in our normal programming and it was more local,” she said. “This online has been a blessing to us.”
The 2021 Grammy Awards are scheduled to air Jan. 31 on CBS.
