Dean’s Greeting
Greetings from Oberlin!
We have enjoyed another fantastic year and are looking forward to a series of exciting opportunities over the next two seasons.
The Oberlin Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Timothy Weiss, returned to China in December for a spectacular tour of the major concert halls in Wuhan, Hangzou, Shanghai, and Beijing. We were also very fortunate to end our tour in Singapore, with the deputy prime minister in attendance as well as the American ambassador. We could not have secured the opportunity for an engagement in Singapore without the assistance of our soloist Lee-Chin Siow ’95 or Associate Dean Gloria Kim ’01, both of whom did a spectacular job.
This year we also welcomed the return of Marilyn Horne, visiting distinguished professor of voice, for a series of brilliant master classes. This spring, we made a return trip to the Kennedy Center, and on May 1, 2010, we had a thrilling dedication of the Kohl Building, with an extraordinary concert in Finney Chapel featuring Stevie Wonder and our jazz faculty and students. It has been a tremendous year.
In looking ahead, we are very excited about three events: the advent of the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, which will take place January 18-22, 2012, under the leadership of Alex Ross; the return of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music to Carnegie Hall in January 2013; and most importantly, the first all-conservatory alumni reunion on the weekend of June 15, 2012. We are very excited about the prospect of welcoming everyone to Oberlin for this landmark event. More information will be coming to you this fall.
In closing, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Associate Dean Marci Alegant for her extraordinary service to our students over this last decade. Marci will be undertaking an exciting new responsibility as the executive director of Music In America at Oberlin, an ambitious new program that is the subject of an article in this issue. Her work on behalf of our students has been outstanding, and she will be missed in this capacity.
I hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine. It remains a privilege and honor to serve as dean of the conservatory.
David H. Stull
Dean of the Conservatory
Telephone: 440-775-8200
E-mail: David.Stull@oberlin.edu