On Wednesday, November 5 in San Francisco, four Oberlin students joined colleagues from four other conservatories and universities for the second Stephen and Cynthia Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, an intensive five-day experience in critiquing performances by the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Cal Performances and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Each morning, the Rubin Institute Fellows will submit reviews of the previous evening’s concert to be critiqued in private workshops and public sessions by the Writers Panel, which includes noted American critics Anne Midgette, Tim Page, John Rockwell, Alex Ross, Heidi Waleson and Stephen Rubin (president and publisher of Henry Holt & Co., a frequent feature writer for The New York Times who founded and is principal funder of the Institute). [Read more…]