by Timothy Robson
There are few major composers of organ music whose complete works for the instrument can be combined into a single concert of reasonable length. Maurice Duruflé, virtuoso French organist active from the 1930s almost until his death in 1986, is such a composer. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Founded in 1998 as a collection of composers, improvisers and interpreters committed to making adventurous music, the New York City-based Wet Ink Ensemble has quickly garnered an international reputation for their innovative and virtuosic performances. Although the ensemble usually performs as a septet, on Friday, February 12 beginning at 6:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Stull Recital Hall, the Wet Ink Trio, Josh Modney (violin), Eric Wubbels (piano), and Sam Pluta (electronics) will present a concert titled hydra | the children of fire. A solo electronic set by Sarah Snider will precede the Trio’s performance.
“The Trio version of the ensemble was formed last year,” violinist Josh Modney said during an recent interview. “Although our main ensemble is a septet, we also wanted to play repertoire by Wet Ink composers that has been written for smaller configurations.”
Modney, who joined Wet Ink eight years ago, pointed out that although they wanted to tour Eric’s 2012 composition the children of fire come looking for fire, they were in need of another piece that would fill out the program. “We asked Sam to write something that would involve himself, so in 2014 he wrote hydra (for violin, piano & live electronics). We made our first Trio tour to England in January 2015. We’ve also toured this program to California, so this will be our third tour.” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
The Oberlin Conservatory has been at the nation’s forefront in the training of undergraduate musicians for 150 years. The school’s outstanding programs encompass a variety of musical disciplines, and have produced an impressive list of world-renowned performers, composers, and innovators. On Saturday, January 30, in Symphony Center, Chicago, the conservatory’s orchestral program took center stage when Raphael Jiménez led the Oberlin Orchestra in outstanding performances of works by Hector Berlioz, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky. The concert was presented as part of Oberlin’s sesquicentennial celebration tour to Chicago. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
Opera is a great medium for exploring the courage of acting for freedom and the personal cost of heroic resistance. There is something built into the art form that deepens our view of even the most resolute of actions, showing us the often tragic consequences of taking the courageous path. We can hardly hear Vissi d’arte without understanding both Tosca’s heroism and the pain that comes with it. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Opera doesn’t get much more intimate than Oberlin Conservatory’s Winter Term production of Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop. Imaginatively directed by Sally Stunkel, Oberlin’s associate professor of opera theater, Wargo’s musical version of an Anton Chekhov story took place on the stage of Warner Concert Hall with the audience seated at the auditorium edge of the platform. Off in one corner, musical director and pianist Daniel Michalak provided the orchestral accompaniment, and the fine and energetic cast of four singers were so close you could see the perspiration on their brows as the action heated up. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
New music concerts aren’t what they used to be — in a good way. Today’s composers are writing in a myriad of musical styles, and the continuously evolving technical demands their compositions place on players are no longer insurmountable. Undistracted by technical flaws during performances, listeners are free to engage with the music itself. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Now that winter has finally arrived and the excitement of the holidays has subsided, it’s tempting to burrow in and hibernate for a few weeks. But there’s plenty to do during January. Let’s have a look at some of what the month has to offer, beginning with orchestra concerts.
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra are back at work early in the month with a round of all-Beethoven concerts from January 7-9 featuring pianist Yefim Bronfman (left) in the third piano concerto, and Bronfman and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus in the Choral Fantasy. Soprano Barbara Hannigan will be featured in the U.S. premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s let me tell you on January 14 and 15, sharing a program with Dmitri Shostakovich’s fourth symphony. On Saturday the 16th, Robert Porco will lead the annual Martin Luther King Jr Celebration, followed by a Severance Hall Open House on Monday the 17th from 12 Noon to 5 pm. Community ensemble performances will be bracketed by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus (12:30) and Youth Orchestra (4:15). The Cleveland Philharmonic will host its own MLK Observance at Tri-C Metro Auditorium on Sunday, January 17. [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
In the closing movements of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the full brass section makes a spectacular entrance. In 1830, it must have seemed a sound that had never been heard before. Even in the jaded 21st century, it has a startling sonic complexity — at times as metallic as a locomotive’s firebox, and at others as smooth as the oiled bearings that drive the machine. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hautzinger
reprinted with permission from the Oberlin Conservatory
There was no Cleveland Orchestra when the Oberlin Conservatory of Music opened 150 years ago.
By the time the orchestra was founded in 1918 — with pivotal support from Oberlin’s John Long Severance ’85 — the conservatory was 53 years old and well into a phase of monumental growth. In 1919, the year-old orchestra performed for the first time in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel. It has returned to campus every year since — well over 200 performances and counting.
Ninety-six seasons later, as the conservatory celebrates its 150th anniversary, it honors these extensive ties to the Cleveland Orchestra with the commission of a work for English horn by composer Bernard Rands. [Read more…]
Oberlin, OH — The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has named Brian Alegant, Oberlin Conservatory’s longtime Barker Professor of Music Theory, as “U.S. Professor of the Year” for 2015, the first music professor to be so honored since the award was established 35 years ago.
Alegant is one of four faculty members to receive the award in 2015, selected from a field of nearly 400 nominees. In receiving the honor, he joins another Oberlin College faculty member, History Professor Steven Volk, who claimed the award in 2011, making Oberlin one of only a few institutions in the country to boast two national winners.
Alegant received the award at a banquet in Washington, D.C. on November 19. Read the complete story on the Oberlin Conservatory website. (Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones.)