 |
 |
|
Please send comments,
questions, and suggestions
about Oberlin Online news
and feature articles to
online.news@oberlin.edu.
OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC HOSTS FROM THE TOP WITH SPECIAL GUEST BOBBY McFERRIN JANUARY 28
DECEMBER 16, 2002--From the Top, the hit public radio program that NBC’s Today Show calls "classy reality programming," comes to Northeast Ohio Tuesday, January 28, at 8:00 p.m. to record a show before a live audience in Finney Chapel at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College. The program, which is being recorded for broadcast later this year, will feature special guest Bobby McFerrin joined by talented young musicians from around the country. Hosted by internationally renowned pianist Christopher O'Riley, From the Top can be heard every Sunday at 6:00 p.m. on WCLV-FM 104.9 FM, Cleveland's classical music station, with encore performances Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. The program is carried on more than 240 radio stations coast-to-coast. Media sponsorship for From the Top at Oberlin is provided by WCLV.
General admission tickets for the live taping are $20 for the public; $16 for seniors, educators, and those with an OCID (Oberlin College faculty, staff, alumni, and parents); and $7 for students and children. Because this event is being taped for national radio broadcast, children under the age of seven will not be admitted. Tickets purchased at the door are an additional $2. Discounts for groups of 10 or more are also available; please call Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at 440-775-8169 for more information.
From the Top features the stories and performances of young, pre-collegiate musicians. Among the performers who will be featured on the Oberlin program are members of a wind nonet from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra: Allison Green, age 16, a flutist from Strongsville; oboists Jeff Kish of Mentor and David Kulma of Lakewood, both 17; clarinetists Mara Mayer, 17, from University Heights and Erika Cikraji, 16, of Bay Village; bassoonists Katie Brooks, 16, of Pepper Pike and Katie Pletka, 17, from Parma; and horn players Savas Altuntas, 19, from Sheffield Lake and Sarah Greenlee, 17, of Shaker Heights. The ensemble will perform Charles François Gounod’s Petite Symphonie. Other musicians hail from Wisconsin and from the Juilliard School of Music’s Pre-College Division.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has called the show "the best thing to happen to classical music since Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts," and in just over three years it has become the country’s most popular weekly classical music program.
Bobby McFerrin has been called "one of the natural wonders of the music world." A 10-time Grammy Award winner, he is one of the world’s best-known vocal innovators and improvisers, a world-renowned classical conductor, the creator of one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century, and a passionate spokesman for music education. His recordings have sold more than 20 million copies, and his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, the Vienna Philharmonic, and Herbie Hancock have established him as an ambassador of both the classical and jazz worlds.
Co-producer of From the Top is Scott Schillin, a 1968 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Sara Stackhouse, a 1991 Oberlin College graduate, is the show’s guest artist coordinator and education director.
From the Top is made possible through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and The PRI Program Fund, whose contributors include Mr. and Mrs. J. Irwin Miller. It is also supported by the contributions of individuals and foundations as well as public radio stations. The program is a creation of Concert Productions, Inc., in association with WGBH Radio Boston and the New England Conservatory of Music, its home and education partner. From the Top is distributed by Public Radio International.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865, became part of Oberlin College in 1867. It is the oldest, continuously operating conservatory in the United States, and is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber situated within the intellectual vitality of a liberal arts college.
Media Contact: Marci Janas
       |