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Credo Faculty Concert at Oberlin’s Clonick Hall (July 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

credo-logo-whiteFresh air was blowing into Friday evening’s chamber music concert by Credo faculty, even if the Oberlin Conservatory’s Clonick Hall — being the recording studio that it is — has no windows to open. Departing from the usual concert format, where pieces are played in some kind of curated sequence from beginning to end, concert designers Lee Joiner and Steuart Pincombe took works by Henry Purcell, John Dowland, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. and rearranged their movements into a kind of musical crazy-quilt. [Read more…]

Amici Quartet to perform Benefit Concert for Family Promise Lorain County

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Mike Telin

Amici-SQIs there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than listening to great classical chamber music performed by fantastic musicians— who are also donating their talents on behalf of a humanitarian cause? On Sunday, April 19 beginning at 3:00 pm in the Meeting House of First Church Oberlin, the Amici String Quartet will perform a benefit concert for Family Promise of Lorain County. The concert will include music by Beethoven and Schubert. The event is free and open to the public, although donations to support Family Promise are encouraged.

The Amici Quartet, Takako Masame and Miho Hashizume, violins, Lynne Ramsey, viola, and Ralph Curry, cello, all of whom are members of The Cleveland Orchestra, will begin the afternoon with Beethoven’s Quartet No. 2 in G major, op. 18. During intermission, Family Promise Executive Director Lois Pozega will speak about the agency’s important mission, and former clients will share their own inspirational stories about how the assistance they have received from the agency impacted their lives. [Read more…]

Review: Oberlin String Quartet Intensive and Festival — Areta Zhulla & James Howsmon (January 7)

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by Daniel Hautzinger

ZHULLA-AretaDuring the month of January, Oberlin Conservatory is hosting a String Quartet Intensive and Festival, during which student quartets receive coachings from guest artists and faculty members while rehearsing diligently. Those guest musicians, joined by faculty, are also giving recitals throughout the month so that students may experience and learn from their artistry in a concert setting. On January 7, faculty pianist James Howsmon joined the young Greek violinist Areta Zhulla in Kulas Recital Hall for the festival’s inaugural concert.

The highlight of the night was Mozart’s Violin Sonata in e minor. Howsmon and Zhulla poignantly rendered the bare opening statement of the first theme, setting a mood of solemn pathos. The heartbroken melody of the second movement was wrenching, decorated by the most distinctive feature of Zhulla’s playing: her wonderful vibrato. Howsmon’s crystalline accompaniments provided stark relief for the emotive theme. When the music turns to major in the middle section, it is like a retreat into a comforting memory. But the solace does not last, as the pain of the present rushes back to end the piece. [Read more…]

Review: Hawkeye Trio makes its debut in Oberlin concert (September 25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Hawkeye-TrioThe Hawkeye Trio, a newly-hatched chamber ensemble made up of Oberlin Conservatory faculty members Michael Isaac Strauss, Richard Hawkins and James Howsmon, played its inaugural concert in Kulas Hall at the conservatory on Wednesday evening, September 25.

Three fine chamber musicians who play viola, clarinet and piano and want to concertize together need to do some research. That’s not a standard configuration of instruments. What repertory exists — like Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio (not included on Wednesday’s program) — was usually written for domestic use by friends and family.

Case in point: Max Bruch’s Eight Pieces, op. 83, were composed for Bruch’s clarinetist son, Max. The Hawkeye elected to play two sets of four pieces each at the beginning and end of their program, leading off with Nos. 8, 6, 5 and 7 and finishing with the first four, in order. [Read more…]

Review: Arts Renaissance Tremont — Eliesha Nelson with James Howsmon at Pilgrim (April 28)

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by Mike Telin

NELSON-ElieshaHeadViolist Eliesha Nelson has a penchant for discovering interesting music written for her instrument. Her 2009 release Quincy Porter Viola Works, received four Grammy nominations and won in the Best Engineered Album Classical category. The tag line of her website homepage states: Showcasing the viola repertoire’s lost gems. And stating why her 2011 release Russian Viola Sonatas did not include the sonata of Shostakovich, Nelson writes, “I love the Shostakovich Sonata, but did not include it because I love to explore music off the beaten path.”

On Sunday, April 28 in Pilgrim Church, Eliesha Nelson and pianist James Howsmon presented a captivating recital that featured works by two lesser known composers as well as a household name on the final concert of Arts Renaissance Tremont’s season.

Nelson referred to the programming of the first half as “a homage to 20th Century American Music.” Composer Ross Lee Finney (1906 – 1997) was a student of Nadia Boulanger, Edward Burlingame Hill and Alban Berg as well as Roger Sessions and served on the faculties at Smith and the University of Michigan. [Read more…]

Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition: The Final Round

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by Daniel Hathaway

Sunday afternoon’s final round on January 17 offered a good-sized Warner Concert Hall crowd some great bassoon playing by the five finalists — as well as a couple of white knuckle moments and one session which ended abruptly when time was called. So it goes in the heat of competition.

As the audience took their seats, a special twelve member Oberlin string orchestra was tuning up under conductor and harpsichordist Webb Wiggins. The final rounds would require contestants to play the whole of Vivaldi’s 26th Concerto from memory as well as the last movement of Libby Larsen’s Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano and a piece of each contestant’s choice. [Read more…]

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