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Ursula Oppens to perform Harvey’s Bird Concerto with Oberlin CME

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by Mike Telin

Oppens-UrsulaThe music of birds has served as inspiration for composers since the beginning of time. In 2016, Classical-music.com, the official website of BBC Music Magazine, honored their 50,000 Twitter followers by naming the six best compositions inspired by birdsong. The list included Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Respighi’s Gli uccelli (The Birds), Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, Elgar’s Owls, and Messiaen’s Le merle noir (The blackbird). Also on that list is Jonathan Harvey’s Bird Concerto with Pianosong.

On Friday, April 6 at 8:00 pm in Warner Concert Hall, pianist Ursula Oppens will join the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble for a performance of Harvey’s colorful work which features the sounds of 40 Californian birds, including the indigo bunting, orchard oriole, and the golden crowned sparrow. Under the direction of Timothy Weiss, the program also includes Christopher Stark’s True North, Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint, Jesse Jones’ Snippet Variations, and Lee Hyla’s Polish Folk Songs. The concert will be streamed here. Oppens will also present a master class on Wednesday, April 4 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Conservatory’s Bibbins Hall, room 224. Both events are free.  [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at Cleveland Museum of Art (March 4)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin CMEOn Sunday afternoon, March 4 in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Tim Weiss and his Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble once again made seemingly easy work out of several challenging scores. It must be every composer’s dream come true to have their creations brought to life by an ensemble that can play at such a high level of precision and understanding. Surely that sentiment was shared by the good-sized audience. [Read more…]

CD Review — cellist Darrett Adkins in Myth & Tradition

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Adkins-Myth-and-Tradition-CD

Myth & Tradition unfolds like a series of trials that our protagonist, cellist Darrett Adkins, must overcome. Alongside the impressive Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, directed by Timothy Weiss, Adkins conjures a mythical bird in the world premiere recording of Su Lian Tan’s five-movement Legends of Kintamani (2016). Next he navigates the brainy twists and turns of Philip Cashian’s Concerto for Cello and Strings (2012), another work written for Adkins.

[Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble (Nov. 3)

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by Mike Telin

Chandler-TheoCRLike a great dinner menu, concert programs should provide listeners with a variety of tastes. On Friday, November 3 in Oberlin Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall, Timothy Weiss and his top-notch Contemporary Music Ensemble deftly performed three works that never ran out of inventive musical ideas. [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Cleveland Museum of Art, April 9

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by Mike Telin

Koh-IyerDescribed by The New York Times as “a hotbed of contemporary-classical players” and a “rural experimental haven,” Oberlin College and Conservatory will exemplify those quotes when it plays host to a week-long residency by Oberlin alum violinist Jennifer Koh and composer, jazz pianist, and writer Vijay Iyer.

The week will culminate in a performance by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble under the direction of Timothy Weiss on Sunday, April 9 at 2:00 pm. The concert, in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will include Clint Needham’s Chamber Symphony as well as a workshop performance of Trouble, Vijay Iyer’s new concerto for violin and chamber orchestra. The program will also be presented in Oberlin’s Warner Concert Hall on Friday, April 7 at 8:00 pm.  [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at CMA: a conversation with conductor Gregory Ristow

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by Jeremy Reynolds

RistowContinuing a collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art that began in 2014, Oberlin Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) will give the third of four performances this season on Sunday, February 26 at 2:00 pm in CMA’s Gartner Auditorium. While student vocalists have long performed with CME, the upcoming concert is the first time that a museum program by the Ensemble will be dedicated to vocal music.

The program, under the direction of Gregory Ristow, will include Harrison Birtwistle’s Entr’actes and Sappho Fragments, as well as  Oberlin Professor of Composition Stephen Hartke’s Tituli.

Ristow is now in his second year as director of vocal ensembles at the Conservatory. An Oberlin alumnus, he earned his doctoral of musical arts in conducting from the Eastman School of Music.

Ristow also conducts the Interlochen Singers and has previously led the Houston Foundation for Modern Music, and the Voices chamber choir in Rochester.

We caught up with Ristow by phone recently to discuss the upcoming performance and learn more about the program. [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Dec. 4)

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by Timothy Robson

Oberlin-CME-MastroianniThe Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble gave a rock-solid and virtuosic concert on Sunday afternoon, December 4, in Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Director Timothy Weiss assembled a program of eclectic works by leading composers of our day, all of which received professional-level performances by the student ensemble. [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at Gartner Auditorium, CMA (Nov. 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

hartkeAfter a year’s hiatus, Timothy Weiss and his Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble returned to Gartner Auditorium on Saturday afternoon, November 5, for the first of four performances this season. Literary texts and visual imagery gave the audience engaging handles on works by Oberlin faculty composers Elizabeth Ogonek and Stephen Hartke and Scottish composer James MacMillan. [Read more…]

Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble returns to CMA for four-concert series

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by Daniel Hathaway

Oberlin-CME-Mastroianni“Too frequently, new music gets performed without enough preparation. These meticulously rehearsed performances were confident and settled, yet sounded completely fresh. Any composer would be thrilled to have their music treated with the level of care that Timothy Weiss and the CME lavished on the four pieces we heard on Saturday.”

That’s what ClevelandClassical.com wrote about the first of five performances by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Cleveland Museum of Art during the 2014-2015 season. After a year’s absence from the Museum’s Performing Arts Series, Weiss and his young players will return to Gartner Auditorium on Saturday, November 5 at 2:00 pm for the first of four weekend concerts this season. [Read more…]

On the Road: Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble at Ganz Hall of Roosevelt University in Chicago (Jan. 29)

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by Mike Telin

WeissNew 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…]

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