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85 Young Chamber Musicians arrive in Oberlin for 2011 Credo Session

by Daniel Hathaway

Credo Chamber Music opened its doors for its thirteenth season on July 3 as eighty-five young instrumentalists arrived on the Oberlin College campus for three weeks of intensive chamber music coachings and community service projects — a special combination that artistic director and Oberlin Conservatory professor Peter Slowik intentionally programmed into the program at its inception.

“I went to a lot of chamber music festivals in 25 years of teaching before Credo; I admired the intensity and level of musicianship, but lamented that it was just that. Credo tries to aspire to the same level of commitment to musical excellence, but also to develop the person and take music out to underserved communities. Musicians should appreciate that what they’re good at is a great gift to others”.

Between July 3 and 23, in addition to formal faculty and student performances at Oberlin, Credo musicians will play for the Joyful Music Program, the Welcome Nursing Home, Oberlin Childhood Center, Murray Ridge Oberlin Work Center, Oberlin College WAVE Program, Elyria Wesleyan Village, Renaissance Retirement Center, Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland, Hillcrest Hospital and Kendal at Oberlin — as well as providing music and helping with Red Cross Blood Drives in Rocky River and at Cleveland City Hall (“listening to music is a good way for people to get distracted while giving blood”, Slowik notes).

In addition to providing music, Credo students will volunteer for Service Days with the Lorain County Adopt-a-Highway program, Second Harvest Food Bank, Habitat for Humaniity, Lorain County Metroparks, Medwish International and the Oberlin Early Childhood Center.

“We want to make the attitude of serving other people into a lifelong thing”, Slowik says. “One of our alumna, Allison Lint, has taken on the project of playing a concert in every state as a benefit for Vasculitis. Another alumna, Lauren Manning, is going to Jordan and Palestine on a grant from Oberlin College to promote peace, tolerance and understanding. People from this area are doing cool things. The best part of the Credo education is how thinking about others stays with people after they leave the program”.

This time around, students will be coming from 25 different states and five foreign countries, including a couple of students from King’s College in Sydney, Australia. Major conservatories are represented by students from Oberlin, Eastman, Juilliard and Northwestern, and this summer’s activities will include some joint student faculty performances. “That’s an idea that has come and gone, but this year we’re doing it again. It gives excellent players time to reincorporate”.

Is there a musical theme running through this year’s programming? “Viola quintets might be the pervasive theme. We have a good viola faculty —and of course Credo is run by a violist!” One of those pieces will be the “unknown” Dvorak “American Quintet”. “It was written in Spillville, Iowa in 1893 — the same summer as the ‘American” Quartet. After playing it with a combined faculty/student group, students will play it alone later”.

Audiences can hear the product of Credo’s activities beginning as early as next Thursday, when the first of three Noon-Time Picnic Concerts will be given in the courtyard behind the Slow Train Café (others are scheduled for July 14 and 20). Faculty concerts will be presented on July 8 and 15 (tickets are $10, $5 for students and seniors). Student concerts begin with pairs of performances on July 9 at 3 pm and 8 pm, and July 16 at 2 pm and 8 pm. On July 10, students will perform in a free “Music Under The Stars” concertin Lakeview Park in Lorain.

Then everything culminates in two big events on the last weekend. On Saturday, July 22, a “Marathon” concert begins at 7 pm in Warner Concert Hall. “This is a compromise between allowing students to strut their stuff and be a humane experience for the audience. Twenty groups of students will play several movements of what they’ve prepared. It’s a relaxed environment. People will come and go. Out of about four hundred people who attend, there may be two hundred at any given time. Many parents turn out for this final weekend”.

And that final weekend will end with a bang. “Every year we end the festival with everybody playing together. Some chamber music festivals end like the Haydn ‘Farewell’ Symphony: there’s no energy left. There are individual achievements but no sense of loyalty or group accomplishment. Credo will end with an 85-piece string orchestra, which sounds pretty wonderful”.

That concert will begin with what Slowik calls some “high achievement” chamber groups in the first half and the massed strings in the second. The repertory includes Elgar’s Serenade, and the first and last movements of Mahler’s arrangement of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet. The Mahler will be played by about 30 students, and everybody will regroup to end the concert with Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue, “an amazing piece”, Slowik notes. “You begin to realize how much the course of music history would have changed if he’d lived only ten more years”.

Once the final notes of the Mozart are played and students pack up for the summer, Credo will continue to have an influence on musical life in Northeast Ohio. “Eight or nine alumni will be coming to the Oberlin Conservatory in the fall and four or five to CIM, so there will be more than a dozen coming to study in the Cleveland area”.

Here is the schedule of Credo public performances during July. Unless otherwise noted, concerts are free.

Thursday, July 7 — 12:00 pm — Credo Noon-Time Picnic Concerts, Players to be announced. Chamber music to be announced. Bring a lunch or order out from a nearby restaurant. East College St. Courtyard behind Slow Train Cafe, Oberlin. Free.

Friday, July 8 — 8:00 pm — Credo Faculty Chamber Music Concert, with Stephen Clapp, Lee Joiner & Kangwon Kim, violins, Peter Slowik, viola, Steuart Pincombe, cello & Karen Burgman, piano. Kodaly’s Serenade, op. 12, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in d, op. 49 & Dvorak’s Quintet in E-flat, op. 97. Kulas Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. $10, $5 students & seniors.

Saturday, July 9 — 3:00 and 8:00 pm — Credo Student Chamber Music Concerts, Performers to be announced. Program to be announced. Kulas Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. Free.

Sunday, July 10 — 7:30 pm — Credo Chamber Music: Music Under the Stars, Student performers from the summer academy. Program to be announced. Lakeview Park, 1800 W. Erie Ave., Lorain. Free.

Thursday, July 14 — 12:00 pm — Credo Noon-Time Picnic Concerts, Players to be announced. Chamber music to be announced. Bring a lunch or order out from a nearby restaurant. East College St. Courtyard behind Slow Train Cafe, Oberlin. Free.

Friday, July 15 — 8:00 pm — Credo Faculty Chamber Music Concert, with Stephen Clapp, Lee Joiner & Kangwon Kim, violins, Peter Slowik, Matthew Michelic & Kathryn Steely, violas, Steuart Pincombe & Anne Martindale Williams, cellos & James Howsmon, piano. Dvorak’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat & Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G. Warner Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. $10, $5 students & seniors.

Saturday, July 16 — 2:00 and 8:00 pm — Credo Student Chamber Music Concerts, Performers to be announced. Program to be announced. Warner Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. Free.

Wednesday, July 20 — 12:00 pm — Credo Noon-Time Picnic Concerts, Players to be announced. Chamber music to be announced. Bring a lunch or order out from a nearby restaurant. East College St. Courtyard behind Slow Train Cafe, Oberlin. Free.

Friday, July 22 — 7:00 pm — Credo Student Chamber Music “Marathon” Concert, Performers to be announced. Program to be announced. Warner Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. Free.

Saturday, July 23 — 1:30 pm — Credo Finale Student Concert, High achievement chamber music groups and massed strings. Program includes Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, Mahler’s arrangement of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet & Mozart’s Adagio & Fugue. Warner Hall, Oberlin Conservatory, 77 W. College St. Free.

Published on clevelandclassical.com July 5, 2011

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