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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…]

Artemis captivates at Finney Chapel (Mar. 13)

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by Max Newman

For students at Oberlin College, jazz is something that is always present. It floats through quads, down streets, over buildings, from speakers, and live from students in the Conservatory’s jazz department. That makes Oberlin a perfect destination for groups of jazz visionaries when it comes to performing, really strutting their stuff. And for the unbelievably talented collective Artemis, who performed at Finney Chapel on March 13, strutting their stuff is exactly what they did in a mesmerizing performance that will last long in the minds of all who were there.

Highly notable was the chemistry among the five musicians, who gave the impression of being a single living entity experiencing complex emotions as it moved through the world. When one musician moved forwards for a solo, it didn’t feel like a separate act, but rather an extension of this collective expression. It was impossible to look away.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series Presents Artemis

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Re-posted courtesy of Oberlin College and Conservatory

2023 DownBeat Readers Poll “Jazz Group of the Year” to perform in Finney Chapel. While on campus they’ll also work with students.

What do the words powerful, wonderful, extraordinary, appealing, undeniable, palpable, natural, immediate, unique, organic, and brilliant have in common?

They are all adjectives that have been used to describe the musical chemistry of Artemis, the collective of modern jazz bandleaders and composers that was named “Jazz Group of the Year” in the 2023 DownBeat Readers Poll.

The results of that musical chemistry?

“All of us know each other so well now, and we know each other’s playing, so it’s fun and inspiring to write for each person’s strengths,” says pianist and musical director Renee Rosnes.

[Read more…]

Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series Sets the Stage for a Gospel Experience

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by Stephanie Manning
Reposted courtesy of Oberlin College and Conservatory

Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar blur the boundaries of genre with contemporary gospel arrangements. Their latest tour, “The Zamar Experience,” arrives in Oberlin February 10 for a community workshop and concert on the Artist Recital Series in Finney Chapel.

For Trey McLaughlin, each and every rehearsal is the creation of something special.

“It’s where  the magic first happens, you know,” says the vocalist and director. “It’s that moment where you’re starting a new piece and you’re starting to hear what it could be.”

For McLaughlin, who has been singing since age four, his love for rehearsing started early. “I would line up my mom’s perfume bottles on her dresser, or my toys, or anything that would stand, and I would have choir rehearsal,” he says. A CD recording would serve as the finished product. But that was almost an afterthought—his favorite part was the teaching.

The singer and arranger is leading plenty of rehearsals these days thanks in part to his touring group, Trey McLaughlin & The Sounds of Zamar. The contemporary gospel choir will take their latest show around the U.S. and Canada this February, stopping in Oberlin for the first time. Their February 10 performance in Finney Chapel is part of the 2023-24 Artist Recital Series. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Dynamic Buffet from Pianist Jeremy Denk (Nov. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin alumnus Jeremy Denk returned to Finney Chapel on Thursday, November 30 to play an intriguing program on the Artist Recital Series. Inspired in part by Judy Chicago’s 1979 permanent installation at the Brooklyn Museum that sets 39 personalized place settings for famous women at an enormous table, for the first half of his program, the pianist chose pieces by nine women to create a dynamic musical menu.

The second half featured a pair of 19th-century works by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, composers with close personal connections to Clara Schumann, whose Romanze, Op. 21, No. 1 launched the whole evening. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Seraph Brass at Finney (Oct. 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

In Medieval angelology, “Seraph” refers to the highest order of the nine ranks of angels, often depicted playing trumpets, whose members are associated with light, ardor, and purity.

In brassology, “Seraph” denominates an all-female brass organization, now in its 10th year, whose playing embraces all those astral virtues, plus impressive stamina, breathtaking virtuosity, and an engaging sense of showmanship.

Although angels are traditionally genderless, Seraph Brass was established “with a mission to showcase the excellence of female brass players and highlight musicians from marginalized groups, both in personnel and in programming.”

Performing in their usual configuration as a quintet, Seraph founder and trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden, trumpeter Raquel Samayoa, hornist Rachel Velvikis, trombonist Elisabeth Shafer, and tubist Robyn Black recently visited Oberlin to give master classes, hold a lunch conversation, and play an evening performance on Friday, October 13. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series
presents Seraph Brass

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Sometimes you find an old scrap of paper with ideas that may or may not have been worth writing down. (“Make friends through multilevel marketing” did not turn out to be a winner.) But if the idea holds real weight, then putting it in ink can have the effect of setting something valuable in motion.

“I found an old journal where I had written down the thought that I wanted to form a touring brass quintet composed of all women musicians,” trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden said during a recent interview. The idea marinated, and eventually, after her solo career had begun, the timing was right. “I felt like I had the tools, and also the time and energy, to really start this group.”

Now, Seraph Brass — with its mission to highlight female brass players and musicians from marginalized groups — is celebrating its tenth-anniversary season, which will take the group to Oberlin Conservatory next week for a three-day residency.

Bowden will be joined by fellow trumpeter Raquel Samayoa, hornist Rachel Velvikis, trombonist Elisabeth Shafer, and tubist Robyn Black for an itinerary that includes master classes, a lunch conversation, and finally a performance at Finney Chapel on Friday, October 13 at 7:30 pm as part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series. Tickets are available here.

[Read more…]

Emerson Quartet launches Oberlin series with its own farewell concert (Sept. 22)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Photo: Abe Frato

Nearing the end of their distinguished 47-year run with only one change of personnel, the Emerson String Quartet bid adieu to its local fans in a nostalgic yet festive program that launched Oberlin’s Artist Recital Series on Friday, September 22 in Finney Chapel.

The Emersons (Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker — who have always shared first violin duties — violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist Paul Watkins — who replaced David Finckel for the past decade) gave the capacity audience parting gifts of Mendelssohn, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Beethoven. Plus an exquisite Bach chorale arrangement which should linger long in many listeners’ memories. [Read more…]

Emersons Revisit Oberlin on Farewell Tour: a conversation with violinist Philip Setzer

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 by Daniel Hathaway

After 47 years of touring, the Emerson String Quartet will be retiring as an ensemble this season, but not before revisiting the Oberlin Artist Recital Series during a farewell tour. (L-R: Philip Setzer, Eugene Drucker, Paul Watkins, Lawrence Dutton.)

On Friday, September 22 at 7:30 pm in Finney Chapel, the Emersons will play Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 in a, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Drink the Wild Ayre, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet No. 13 in B-flat and Große Fuge. Tickets can be purchased online.

I caught up with violinist and Cleveland native Philip Setzer — both of whose parents were violinists in The Cleveland Orchestra — via Zoom to talk about the group’s four and a half decades on the road and its plans for this season’s grand finale.

Daniel Hathaway: I’m really pleased to have the opportunity to chat with you at the end of your long, distinguished run with the Emerson, having had a small part in launching your career by presenting the quartet on the Gund Concert Series at Groton School way back in 1976. We were looking for an exciting new ensemble of young musicians who would connect well with high school age students, and you were all fresh out of Juilliard and making waves by alternating first and second violins.

Philip Setzer: And here we are 47 years later and those kids are all like 60, right? Crazy, isn’t it? We’ve got quite a farewell season lined up. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: pianist Bruce Liu at Finney (Apr. 30)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Canadian pianist Xiaoyu Liu was 15 when he won second place in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition in 2012 with his performance of “Rach 2” at Severance Hall with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra.

Having in the meantime won the top prize at the 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2021, Liu returned to Oberlin on April 30 — now as 26-year-old Bruce Liu — to play a solo recital on the Artist Recital Series in Finney Chapel.

There are two distinct topics to address in reporting on a solo performance. First, was the program a good fit for the performer and the occasion? Second, how well did the performer put the music across?

As might be expected, Liu gave his audience plenty of Chopin, choosing contrasting pieces from different categories of the Polish composer’s oeuvre — a rondo, a ballade, a set of variations, a sonata, and three “new” études, ending with Franz Liszt’s improvisatory musings on a notorious opera character already introduced in the variations set.

[Read more…]

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