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Live streaming: a roundtable discussion and Q&A’s with recent performers

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by Daniel Hathaway, Jarrett Hoffman, and Mike Telin

With the recent spread of COVID-19, the opportunity to attend live classical music performances has come to a complete halt and will likely remain that way for the foreseeable future. Many organizations and individual artists are seeking to fill that void through online streaming.

On Thursday, March 19, two area institutions presented the first of what will likely be many live-streamed concerts. At 4:30 pm in Oberlin Conservatory’s Stull Recital Hall, Flute Professor Alexa Still and Faculty Collaborative Pianist Evan Hines presented a program of works by Koechlin, Chopin, Coleman, and Debussy.

On the same day at 7:30 pm in Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland, Piano Cleveland presented the first of its Quarantine Concerts. Pianist Yaron Kohlberg played selections by Schumann and Grieg, and duo pianists Irwin Shung and Natsumi Shibagaki played works by Bach, Rachmaninoff, and Gershwin.

Remotely streamed concerts raise an interesting question for journalists: is it possible to critically evaluate live performances when you’re not in the same room? Three of ClevelandClassical’s writers attempted to answer that and other questions about covering virtual performances.

[Read more…]

A guide to staying home and streaming videos of concerts

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Live streams, re-broadcasts, digital archives, and YouTube channels — here are some videos of performances to keep you occupied during social distancing.

Beginning locally, some performances are still taking place via live stream, without an audience. On Thursday, March 19 at 4:30 pm, Oberlin Conservatory will stream a faculty and guest concert from Stull Recital Hall. Flutist Alexa Still, cellist Mihai Tetel, and pianist Evan Hines come together in Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Assobio a Játo (“Jet Whistle”) and Valerie Coleman’s 2019 Amazonia.

Piano Cleveland, the presenting organization of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, has announced a new weekly series called The Quarantine Concerts, to be streamed every Thursday at 7:30 pm from Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland. The first concert, on March 19, will feature pianist Yaron Kohlberg as well as the piano duo of Natsumi Shibagaki and Irwin Shung. Online audience members have the opportunity to offer their support directly to these artists by donating to Piano Cleveland’s Musicians’ Fund.

[Read more…]

TIMARA turns 50, and
there’s going to be a party

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by Mike Telin

There’s going to be a party at Finney Chapel on Saturday, November 16 beginning at 7:30 pm. The grand occasion marks the fiftieth anniversary of Oberlin Conservatory’s TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) program, the nation’s first conservatory program in electronic music.

“Olly Wilson taught the first electronic music course in 1969 and John Clough taught the first computer music class in the spring of 1970,” associate professor of computer music and digital arts Tom Lopez said during an interview. “We thought that 50 years was cause to celebrate.”

Organized by Lopez, the free Kaleidosonic Music Festival will feature nearly 500 musicians performing a variety of styles — gospel, classical, rock and roll, jazz, early music, marching band, serious, funny, and avant-garde.

“Kaleidosonic will be an epic celebration of music at Oberlin. It includes musicians and ensembles from the Conservatory, the College, and the community,” Lopez said. “We’re calling it a festival because it is more than a concert. It will be many hours long and the music will be non-stop — one big, long, sonic collage of ensembles, groups, and individual musicians. People can come and go as they wish and there will be food trucks available from 7:00 until 10:00.” [Read more…]

Kimberly Marshall in first recital on Oberlin’s Spanish Organ (Sep. 22)

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by Timothy Robson

American organist Kimberly Marshall gave the first of a series of dedicatory recitals on Oberlin’s Fenner Douglass Memorial Organ on Sunday, September 22. An Oberlin alumnus, Douglass was Professor of Organ at the Conservatory from 1949 to 1974. The organ was originally built by Greg Harrold in 1989 for Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, California. It was dismantled in 2017 and reinstalled at the rear of Warner Concert Hall in August 2018, where it sits at the opposite end of the room from its Dutch cousin, the large Flentrop organ in the front organ loft. [Read more…]

Kirsten Docter to premiere new viola concerto by Jesse Jones

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by Mike Telin 

For many years, Jesse Jones has led a double musical life. In one, he serves on the composition faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works have been performed by ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony, the Juilliard String Quartet, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and Sō Percussion.

In the other life, he is a mandolinist/composer who has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, Wintergrass, and the Sister’s Folk Festival, and toured with the genre-bending ensemble String Helix. In March of this year, he and his duo partner, bassist Craig Butterfield, released their third album, Eclipse, on Summit Records.  

In spite of his success in both lives, Jones has always been reluctant to combine the two. That changed when he was presented with the opportunity to write a new viola concerto.

[Read more…]

Meints and friends to play all 15 of Purcell’s fantasias for viol consort 

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin Conservatory viola da gamba and cello professor Catharina Meints has invited former and current students to join her in performing Henry Purcell’s 15 fantasias for consorts of three to seven viols on Friday, September 13 at 7:30 pm in Oberlin’s Kulas Recital Hall.

The seven gambists will play instruments from the collection assembled by Meints and her late husband James Caldwell, most of them having been made during Purcell’s own lifetime (he died in 1695).

People who take up the viola da gamba, that Renaissance and Baroque instrument that comes in different sizes, looks like a cello, has frets like a guitar, and which inspired the film Tous les Matins du Monde, quickly fall in love with the instrument and its repertoire.

“It’s relatively easy to play, there’s a massive amount of accessible but intellectually interesting music that’s been written for it, and most of that is consort music to be played with friends,” Meints said in a conversation in her Oberin studio. “ [Read more…]

Wrongful conviction as told through music: KSU and Oberlin to present The Innocents

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Imagine spending even a year of your life in jail, and what that would do to you and to those around you. Now imagine it’s for a crime you didn’t commit, and that the punishment stretches on much longer than one year, possibly for decades.

That scenario is more common than you may think. Percussionists Allen Otte and John Lane will explore the issue of wrongful conviction in the U.S. justice system this weekend through their work The Innocents, which involves the spoken word, non-traditional instruments, African mbiras/kalimbas, and electronics.

The free concerts take place at Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University on Saturday, September 14 at 7:30 pm, presented as part of the Vanguard Guest Artists Series, and at Stull Recital Hall at Oberlin Conservatory on Sunday, September 15 at 4:30 pm.

[Read more…]

Oberlin’s second opening festival to consider “End of Life, End of Time”

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by Daniel Hathaway

Last September, Oberlin violin professor Sibbi Bernhardsson was the catalyst for a two-day festival, “Creative Arts & Music in the Shadow of War,” marking the centenary of the end of World War I with four concerts, two panel discussions, and parallel events at Oberlin’s Allen Art Museum.

That festival built on Bernhardsson’s fascination with music written during The Great War, and proved to be a great success. “Although the topic was somber, it ended up being an energizing and fun project — a way to collaborate with different professors in the College and the Conservatory, and a great opportunity for students to kick off the school year and see the faculty in action as performers and speakers,” the violinist said in a telephone conversation. “Since Oberlin has so many intellectual and musical resources, I wanted to do some kind of compelling project as a follow-up.”

The impetus for this year’s Festival came from Bernhardsson’s colleagues, who wanted to perform Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, written and performed in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941. “It’s such a great and important work that it’s not the kind of piece you play on a Sunday afternoon faculty recital and then go out and have a dessert afterward. But it occurred to me that maybe it would be a great work to build a festival around.” [Read more…]

Cooper International Competition: a chat with two young violinists

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by Mike Telin

Later this week, 24 young violinists representing seven U.S. States and eight countries will arrive in Oberlin to participate in the tenth edition of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition. Events begin with the semifinal rounds on Saturday, July 20 at 1:30 pm in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory.

At stake is a grand prize of $20,000, in addition to second and third prizes of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. The Competition will continue into next week and culminate with the three finalists playing concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Gemma New (replacing Bramwell Tovey) in Severance Hall on Friday, July 26 at 7:30 pm. (See our concert listings for details about the semi-final, concerto and recital rounds that will determine who plays in the finals.)

All performances at Oberlin are free. Tickets for the July 26 Concerto Finals at Severance Hall range from $13-$30. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling 800-686-1141. Student tickets are free with a paying adult. All rounds held in Oberlin  will be live-streamed on www.oberlin.edu/cooper. The Recital Round at Oberlin and Concerto Finals at Severance Hall will be broadcast on WCLV FM 104.9. The Recital Round will be broadcast on delay on Thursday evening, July 25.  [Read more…]

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