As the country pays tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on her first birthday since her death last fall, her son and daughter-in-law in Chicago marked the occasion with music.
Ginsburg's son is classical record producer Jim Ginsburg, whose wife Patrice Michaels is a voice Professor at the Bienen School at Northwestern University. The musical couple lives on Chicago's North Side and enjoy giving back, helping with the late justice's endowment to a children's charity called SOS Children's Villages.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September, would have been 88 on March 15.
Michaels has written a chamber piece of nine different songs, or a "Song Cycle," based on writings from relationships in her late mother-in-law's life. The penultimate song is based on RBG's own dissents.
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"Mother often said that if she could have had any other career other than the law, she would have been a great opera diva," Jim Ginsburg said. Reflecting on her death, mourned across the U.S. and around the world, he said, "The outpouring of support from people all over was overwhelming, in a good way."
Adding to the emotion of this time, Ginsburg's record label Cedille Records produced a Grammy-award winner announced at the awards show Sunday night. The Pacifica Quartet won in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for its "Contemporary Voices" album.
