The St. Petersburg String Quartet Wins CMA Award
The St. Petersburg String Quartet, the Conservatory's quartet-in-residence, won a Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for Best Chamber Music Album of 2001. The ensemble was honored for its Hyperion recording of the Shostakovich String Quartets nos. 5, 7, and 9. (For more information, click here.)

The ensemble further enhanced its constellation in 2001 courtesy of the BBC Music Magazine, which gave the group five stars for their May 2001 Delos release of Glazunov's Novelettes and Quartet no. 5. The Strad was also taken, praising the ensemble's "gorgeous tone."

During the 2001 summer and fall seasons, the group presented sold-out performances in June in London's Wigmore Hall and in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. Other summer appearances included the Middelburg Chamber Music Festival (the Netherlands), the San Miguel de Allende Festival (Mexico), and the Frick Collection (New York City).

The fall season found them in Detroit, Memphis, Philadelphia, and Juneau. In Los Angeles, in November, their offering of Beethoven's String Quartet, op. 59, no. 1, prompted Chris Pasles of the Los Angeles Times to call them "masters of subtlety and refinement."

In September, the ensemble released the complete quartets of Borodin on Dorian. Praised by ClassicsToday for its "clean intensity," among other traits, the CD has been favorably compared to the Borodin Quartet's legendary recording of these works.

The quartet's 2002 schedule includes a January performance at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the completion of their recording of the Shostakovich quartet cycle on Hyperion. They will also begin recording Dvorak's complete string quartets on Dorian. "Recording is an added bonus," says violist Aleksey Koptev. "Performing and teaching are what really motivate us."

- Joanna Chang

Oberlin's 2001-2002 Concerto Competition Winners
Each fall, Conservatory students compete for solo performance spots on the Oberlin Orchestra and Oberlin Chamber Orchestra's season schedule. For the 2001-2002 competition, held in October 2001 in Finney Chapel, five winners were selected from 17 finalists: Harpist Nuiko Wadden '02 from Wilmette, Illinois; pianist Hye Eun Suh '02 from Seoul, South Korea; violinist Yang Xu '02 from Nanjing, China; soprano Marcy Stonikas '02 from Elmhurst, Illinois; and soprano Elizabeth Dehn '02 from Anoka, Minnesota.

Wadden studies with Assistant Pro-fessor of Harp Yolanda Kondonassis, Suh is a student of Associate Professor of Pianoforte Haewon Song, Xu studies with Assistant Professor of Violin Kyung Sun Lee, and Stonikas and Dehn are students of Professor of Singing Daune Mahy.

One faculty member from each performance division, one faculty member from a non-performance division, and an outside adjudicator serve on the jury each year. This year's judges included Milan Vitek, Professor of Violin; Antonio Pompa-Baldi; Visiting Assistant Professor of Pianoforte; Gerald Crawford, Professor of Singing and Director of the Division of Vocal Studies; Roland Pandolfi, Professor of Horn; John Knight, Director of Con-ducting and Ensembles; Lewis Nielson, Associate Professor of Composition; and John Shirley-Quirk, world-renowned bass-baritone, from the Peabody Institute of Music.

- Joanna Chang

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