Accolades
HUANG RUO'S "THREE PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA" CHOSEN FOR PERFORMANCE WITH PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA IN OCTOBER
The Philadelphia
Orchestra has selected "Three Pieces for Orchestra," a composition by
Huang Ruo '00, a Chinese-born American composer, as one of three finalists
in The Philadelphia Orchestra's Centennial Composition Competition whose
stated purpose is "to identify and support works that will 
have
appeal across the musical spectrum -- works that critics will want to
review, orchestras will want to perform and audiences will want to hear."
Huang's piece was selected from a pool of 330 submitted compositions.
In the final concert slated for Thursday, October 5, 2000, the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform all three finalists' pieces, under the baton of music director Wolfgang Sawallisch. The three composers' works will be voted on by orchestra and audience, and the winner will be announced at the end of the concert. The two runners-up will each receive $2,500; the winner will receive $10,000 plus two subscription performances in Philadelphia on October 6 and 7, and a performance in New York's Carnegie Hall on October 10.
ANNA
RUBIN RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN
MUSICIANS GRANT
Anna Rubin, assistant professor of composition, received a grant in recognition of two works. The first - "Dreaming Fire, Tasting Rain" --a work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, was written in 1995 for the Nash Ensemble of England. It was recently selected by the International Association of Women Musicians for presentation at the National Museum of Women in Washington, D.C. on June 11.
Rubin's second work - "A Short Entertainment Concerning the Delaware & Raritan Canal," was composed for tenor, flute, clarinet, viola, bass, percussion, piano and synthesizer. The narrative work portrays five distinct characters, ranging from an anonymous Irish canal digger to the historical figures of Rev. Samuel Cornish and Robert Stockton, all related to the tumultuous pre-Civil War era in the mid-Atlantic area.
COURSE ASSIGNMENT FOR KATHLEEN CHASTAIN'S FLUTE PEDAGOGY CLASS EVOLVED INTO NATIONAL PUBLICATION FOR THREE STUDENTS
Three Conservatory flute performance majors from the studio of Michel Debost and Kathleen Chastain - Eric Lamb '00, Sandra Sutak '01 and Sarah Wass '99 - wrote articles selected for publication in Flute Talk, one of the country's leading flute magazines.
Lamb, a flutist and modern dancer from Detroit, Michigan, chose to discuss in his article the relationship between movement and music in the context of flute pedagogy. Sutak, from Burlington, Connecticut, wrote about efficient practice and the misconceptions that often accompany a conservatory mentality of productivity. Wass, from West Seneca, New York, says she explored "the similarities between playing the flute and singing, from concrete aspects, such as what you do with your lungs and breathing apparatus to more idiomatic aspects, such as phrasing 'like a singer.' I chose this topic because I was a singer before I was a flute player, and my sister is a voice student, so the connection between flute and voice is a natural one for me."
TWO HARP STUDENTS - NUIKO WADDEN AND CATHERINE BARRETT '00 - RECEIVE NATIONAL HONORS
Two students
of professor of harp Yolanda Kondonassis, - sophomore harp performance
major Nuiko Wadden (Willmette, Illinois) and senior Catherine Barrett
(North Egremont, Massachusetts) - were awarded top prizes at two 
noted
national competitions. In mid-May, Wadden won the Senior Harp Division
of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Competition. Catherine
Barrett '00 took first prize in the Elizabeth Harper Vaughn Concerto
Competition. Earlier this year Barrett also was awarded first prize
in the String Division of the Ohio Federation of Music Club's 2000 Statewide
Competition.
"I'm very proud of the studio," says Kondonassis. "Students like Nuiko and Catherine give me great satisfaction as a teacher, not only because they have limitless potential as harpists; they both have that magical combination of talent and incredibly strong work ethics."
SENIOR KENDRA JUUL SPENDS JULY IN PARIS, STUDYING AT LES ATELIERS UPIC ELECTRONIC-ACOUSTIC STUDIOS OF IANNIS XENAKIS
For the month of July, Kendra Juul, a double-degree senior (English/TIMARA) from Northvale, New Jersey, attended Les Ateliers UPIC, the acclaimed electro-acoustic studios of Iannis Xenakis, for a month-long intensive course in electronic music and composition. Senior TIMARA major Raja Das will also attend this year's program.
Yet even prior to her arrival in Paris, Juul made her mark in the festival's history as the first woman to ever apply and one of the first women to be chosen for the select group of participants. "The person I sent my application to told me it was such a relief to see that it wasn't an all-boys club anymore," says Juul.
Juul,
who transferred to Oberlin after her first year from New York University,
has thrived here, creatively and academically. With the guidance of
profs Richard Povall, Brenda Hutchinson, Jeffrey Pence, Tom Lopez and
Gary Nelson, the majority of her artistic work has been within the mediums
of multi-media performance installations and multi-media interactive
sculpture. While interested and engaged in aural and visual composition
processes via electronic media, Juul's English major is never neglected;
it is her goal to combine in composition and live performance, the knowledge
of cultural, literary and film theory. She is currently exploring both
electronic musical composition--including sample based, improvisatory
and DSP--and digital video.
At Les Ateliers, Juul will attend full-day workshops with Gerard Pape, Curtis Roads, Joel Chadabe and Sylviane Sapir, all leading figures in the electro-acoustic music field. The workshops will focus on specific electronic music programs and other aspects of electronic music creation. Juul's schedule will also include plenty of studio time: three hours a day, five days a week.