1930s

Thomas Williams (BM '30) writes that he has enjoyed 28 years of retirement. A few highlights of his musical life include a stint as guest soloist in oratorio throughout the Midwest; he served as executive secretary for N.A.S.M., 1958-65, from which he received an honorary life membership in 1969. Williams was a charter member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, of which he is an honorary life member. He is also an honorary life member of M.T.N.A.

 

1940s

Judith Thom Phelps (BM '42, MM '49) recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband David, at the First Presbyterian Church in Homedale, Idaho. Phelps is well known in Homedale as a piano teacher and performer in musical productions.

 

1950s

Forty-seven years after leaving Oberlin, William Cundiff (BM '51, MM '52) is still performing. He offered an October recital of Beethoven, Chopin and Gershwin in California, followed by a repeat performance in Tokyo, Japan. Also in October, Cundiff performed Poulenc's "Babar" with Janet Huntley Linde ('50) as narrator. Cundiff taught 43 years with the music department of Miyagi College for Women in Sendai, Japan. He retired to Claremont, Calif., in 1995. He writes that Linde and he live in the same retirement community.

 

Suzann Young-Davids (BM '53) is instructor of harp at the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, Valparaiso University, Indiana University at South Bend and Goshen College, all in Indiana. She offered a January 1999, master class in Bangkok, Thailand, under the auspices of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, and performed an ensemble recital with members of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

 

1960s

Julius Erlenbach (BA /BM '67) is chancellor at University of Wisconsin-Superior (UW-S), the public liberal arts college of Wisconsin.

Rebecca Erlenbach (BM '67) is the middle school band director at the Marshall School, a college preparatory school for grades 5-12, in Duluth, Minn. Both have performed on UW-S faculty recitals. Julius was recently elected to serve as chairman of the board for the Superior-Douglas County Chamber of Commerce. This spring, daughter Elisa will graduate from Cornell Law School, daughter Erika will graduate from UW-EC and son Jay will graduate from Superior Senior High School.

 

 

Thomas L. Read's (BM '60) recent orchestral work On October Ground, commissioned by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, was featured in performances led by two different conductors on the orchestra's autumn tour. Another recent work, Alcyone, an hour-long melodrama for narrator, chorus and instruments, written in collaboration with the noted author F.D. Reeve, had its London premiere in March at the Barbican Centre as part of that organization's "Inventing America" festival. (Read and Reeve have been asked to provide another composition for performance at the centre in the year 2000.) His Contraries for handbell choir was published in August by Tunbridge Music. Read is Professor of Music at the University of Vermont.

Beth (Schwartz) Robinson (BM '88) recently completed her 24th season with the Chautauqua (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra under Uriel Segal. She taped the PBS special "My Favorite Broadway Leading Ladies" with American Theatre Orchestra which aired in March, and may be heard on the new CD of "Follies" conducted by Jonathan Tunick.

 

1970s

David Aks (BM/MM '72) recently appeared as guest conductor of the Black Sea Philharmonic in Romania and the Antelope Valley Symphony (California). In March 1999, he conducted the California All-State Honor Orchestra. He was recently appointed music director of the CSUN Opera Theater at California State University, Northridge, where he continues to serve as conductor of the CSUN Symphony and chair of the string area. In addition, he is music director of the Bakersfield (California) Youth Symphony. He is married to opera coach Ann Baltz. They have an eight-year-old daughter, Julia Rose.

E-mail: baltzaks@aol.com or david.aks@csun.edu

 

Jonathan Dimmock (BM '79) returned to the Conservatory in October for an ambitious all-Bach performance in Warner Concert Hall that included the third part of J.S. Bach's Clavierubung, first published in 1739. Dimmock recently recorded the entire Clavierubung Part 3, on German organs that were contemporaneous with the compositions: a Klosterkirche in Grauhof and a St. Wihadi in Stade. The program was arranged by alumni as a celebration of the recording. While at Oberlin, Dimmock studied with Haskell Thomson who said, "Jonathan Dimmock was certainly one of the finest talents in the Oberlin organ department during the 1970s. From the outset he showed himself to be a dedicated musician with a broad range of interests that, of course, led to a rich palette of possibilities. It is no surprise that he has gone on to great achievements." Following his studies at Oberlin, Dimmock completed graduate studies at Yale University, after which he was appointed organ scholar at Westminister Abbey in London, under the direction of Simon Preston. He later served as assistant organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, director of music at St. Stephen's in Belvedere, Calif., and director of music at St. Luke's in San Francisco. In November, he was named organist and director of music at St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis, Minn.

 

Daniel Mendelow (BM '76) is celebrating 21 years as principal trumpet with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, directed by Edo de Waart. Since his arrival in Australia in 1978 via the Israel Philharmonic, Mendelow has become one of the most sought-after brass musicians "down under," as an orchestral player, clinician and teacher. He is also lecturer in trumpet at the Canberra School of Music. E-mail: danielmendelow@hotmail.com

1980s

Ward Holmquist (BM '81) returned to campus to conduct the sold-out, fall Oberlin Conservatory Opera Theater production of Romeo et Juliette, directed by Jonathon Field. Holmquist was named one of the top 11 young conductors in America "To Keep Your Eye On" by Opera News. The former music director/conductor for the opera program at the University of Southern California, Holmquist recently accepted the position of artistic director for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. As the resident conductor for Houston Grand Opera, Holmquist distinguished himself by leading over 20 productions in a wide variety of musical styles, including world premieres of challenging contemporary works, general operatic repertoire and innovative musical theater works. He was a Fulbright grant recipient to Vienna, Austria.

 

 

Graham C. Johns (BM, MM '82) performs as principal percussionist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in England, where he is celebrating his 16th season with the orchestra. Highlights of the past year include his selection to perform with the World Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden, Germany, conducted by Valerie Gergiev. This marked his second performance with the orchestra; the first occasion was in Geneva with Sir George Solti to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of the United Nations. Johns has offered recent master classes at the Paris Conservatoire, Lyon Conservatoire, Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium, Conservatory of Geneva, and at various venues in Spain, Luxembourg, Iceland, London, Manchester and Edinburgh. He is the owner of Graham C. Johns Percussion, a retail company specializing in the distribution of quality percussion instruments in the U.K. and Europe. Johns writes that he is becoming a fanatic organic vegetable grower: must be a sign of middle age setting in! He's married to Jill and they have a three-year-old son Jasper. E-mail: Gcjperc@aol.com

 

After seven years as the associate professor of violin and viola at Drake University, Jonathan Sturm (BM '83) resigned to become the violist with the Ames Piano Quartet, under management with Joanne Rile. Sturm remains the concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony. Last spring he presented a clinic at the American String Teacher National Convention and was keynote speaker at the Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention.

Jonathan Sturm '83

Christopher Landriau ('85) teaches music to young students at Trevor Day School in New York City. This past summer he taught a teacher-training course in Taiwan, then traveled to China to participate in an international volunteer work camp that restored an ancient Taoist temple.

Ward Holmquist conducting Romeo et Juliette. Photo: John Seyfried

 

return to contents