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Contemporary Collaborations with Third Coast Percussion

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

“Strum,” “Strike,” and “Bend” are all evocative references to the physicality of string and percussion instruments. And one is especially significant.

Put all three together, and you get the title of Third Coast Percussion’s (TCP) upcoming program with violinist/composer Jessie Montgomery. “ I think the ‘Bend’ part is maybe the most interesting,” says ensemble member Robert Dillon. “Something we really have enjoyed about Jessie’s percussion writing is this twisting, warping, or bending of sounds.”

Whether that’s blowing through a tube into a tom-tom or hitting a crotale before dipping it into water, these manipulations are ubiquitous in Montgomery’s music. And her recent piece for TCP is no exception.

[Read more…]

Martha Redbone Roots Project: community and storytelling in Oberlin (Apr. 6)

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by Stephanie Manning

Martha Redbone knows how to tell a good story. So you’d better listen up, and get ready to sing along.

“This really will be a church tonight,” the singer promised Oberlin’s Finney Chapel and its assembled audience on April 6. The mood was indeed congregational — sometimes religious, but always communal. Redbone, pianist Aaron Whitby, violinist Charlie Burnham, and bassist Fred Cash, Jr. fostered an intimate evening of American Roots music with their performance as The Martha Redbone Roots Project. [Read more…]

Martha Redbone Hears Her Musical Call

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

“If it’s meant to happen, the music will find you.” That’s how Martha Redbone sees it. And it wasn’t until she was in college studying illustration in the late ’80s, that the music found her for good.

Back then, the advent of the first Mac was rapidly changing the art world. “As an illustrator who loved painting and drawing people, that digital world was not for me,” she said. Feeling torn, she turned to music as a creative outlet, starting as a background vocalist before progressing into a career as a lead singer. Together with her songwriting partner (and later life partner) the pianist Aaron Whitby, she began to write music that had stories to tell.

“ There was a connection and a resonance that I got from singing, and it gave me a sense of peace,” she says. “I’ll always be an artist, I’ll always be an illustrator. But the music is what ended up calling me, and I just listened to that call.”

[Read more…]

Midori and Özgür Aydin: an introspective evening in Oberlin (Mar. 5)

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by Stephanie Manning

If one word encapsulated Midori’s recital at Oberlin on March 5, it might be “catharsis.” This program wasn’t just a distraction from the big emotions many of us have been grappling with these days. It required confronting tangled feelings first, before arriving with a changed attitude on the other side.

Finney Chapel was the violinist’s first stop on her latest recital tour, together with her longtime collaborator, pianist Özgür Aydin. The Oberlin Artist Recital Series event attracted a large crowd, yet the space still seemed fitting for an intimate, two-person recital. Low lighting shrouded the Chapel’s great organ and the back of the stage in a warm darkness, focusing all attention on the musicians.

The process of catharsis came slightly out of order, but nonetheless effectively. For embracing a thorny emotional tangle head-on, there was Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, which arrived after intermission. [Read more…]

Anthony McGill & Emanuel Ax on Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series (Feb. 5)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The crackle in the air on February 4 was perhaps more or less routine for clarinetist Anthony McGill and for Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series, which always seems to bring out the best in performers. But still, his kind of artistry doesn’t come along every day. Add to it pianist Emanuel Ax’s exquisite contributions, and you had a real night to remember in Finney Chapel.

Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke Op. 73 (Fantasy Pieces) are heard with equal pleasure performed on clarinet (Schumann’s original) or cello. But McGill showed the advantages of his instrument with his branded suppleness, his crayon box full of sound colors, and a chameleon’s ability to be heard or veiled at will.

The duo emphasized the picturesque over the dramatic in these three miniatures — Schumann originally entitled them “Soirée Pieces.” [Read more…]

Old Friends, New Collaboration: Anthony McGill and Emanuel Ax bring recital tour to Oberlin

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

Throughout his decades of playing chamber music, Emanuel Ax has kept his friends close. “ It’s wonderful to have people on stage that you like,” the pianist says. “I’m pretty gregarious as a person, so I like being with someone, especially old friends.”

Now in his 70s, the esteemed musician has performed with many of the same collaborators for decades, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Issac Stern and Leonidas Kavakos. But his next recital tour brings him together with someone new: clarinetist Anthony McGill.

The duo’s upcoming performances feature a program of wide-ranging music, and their travels include a stop at Finney Chapel. That concert, on February 4 at 7:30 pm, will be presented as part of Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

Finding the Joy with Seckou Keita: Senegalese kora player visits the Oberlin Artist Recital Series

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by Stephanie Manning

Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

The kora, a West African stringed instrument akin to a harp or guitar, doesn’t appear in most orchestral works. So Seckou Keita wrote his own.

Creating African Rhapsodies — which he released in 2023 with the BBC Concert Orchestra — was an “amazing” endeavor, he says. But his entry into the world of opera later that year was another thing entirely.

“When you have classical music meeting the kora, it’s amazing. But then when you have opera on top of that, it’s something else,” says the UK-based Senegalese musician. “That made me really excited.”

The opera he’s referring to is Omar’s Journey, a shortened version of Rhiannon Giddens’ Omar scored for voices and chamber ensemble. Keita was among the small group of musicians who performed Omar’s Journey at the Ojai Music Festival last year. “It kind of confirmed to me that voice is one of the really pure instruments in life. All those other instruments in the world have been made by humankind — but this, people are born with it,” Keita says.

Keita is no stranger to using his voice either, singing to accompany his playing in much of his solo material. And Oberlin audiences have a chance to experience his music making on December 7 at 7:30 pm, when he performs in Finney Chapel as part of the Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Takács Quartet with Julien Labro (Sept. 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Oberlin Artist Recital Series opened its new season in Finney Chapel on September 28 with a late afternoon concert that brought a celebrated string quartet together with a virtuoso on a fascinating instrument.

The wonderfully constructed program, performed in a single 70-minute set without intermission, was created for the Takács Quartet’s 50th anniversary and features Julien Labro both as soloist and ensemble player on the bandoneon and accordina. [Read more…]

Thinking Outside the Box: Takács Quartet and Julien Labro bring their collaborative program to the Artist Recital Series

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Reposted with the permission of Oberlin Conservatory

by Stephanie Manning

Twirling tango music, or maybe the composer Astor Piazzolla, might come to mind when you think of the word “bandoneon.” Or maybe nothing does. After all, the accordion-like instrument often flies under the radar within the classical and jazz scenes.

“It’s going to take some time until my instruments are household names of either genre,” says Julien Labro, who plays both the bandoneon and its musical cousin, the accordion. “I don’t necessarily think it’s going to happen, but at the same time, I’m very optimistic about the trajectory that they’ve taken in the last 50 years—it’s amazing to witness.”

[Read more…]

Keeping Creation Collaborative with Silkroad

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by Stephanie Manning

Ask Haruka Fujii what instrument she plays, and she won’t be able to tell you exactly.

“I play anything that makes noise,” the percussionist says. “Anything that I can make music with—including pure water, to ceramic rice bowls, to anything.”

A specialist in contemporary music, Fujii says she focuses on working with living composers to “innovate and invent the boundary of what the percussionist can do.” Since 2010, she’s been doing just that as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective dedicated to cross-cultural collaboration.

On April 26, she’ll be coming to Oberlin for the first time, as part of the group performing Silkroad’s program “Uplifted Voices.” Tickets are available online.

[Read more…]

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