Alumni Notes |
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1930s Mallory W. Bransford (BM '34) is minister of music emeritus/ professor of organ emeritus at Butler University. He is organist at Zion Evangelical United Church of Christ in Indianapolis; chairman of the organ department of Jordan College of Fine Arts, Butler University; organist at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis; and organist for the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America. Bransford has received numerous awards, including membership in the National Honorary Music Fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia; Who's Who in the Midwest; the International Who's Who in Music; the Distinguished Service Award from the Indiana Music Educators' Association; the Demolay Legion of Honor and the Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor. Sidney P. Davis '35 was inducted into the Elyria Alumni Hall of Fame (Elyria, Ohio) and was presented the distinguished staff award in honor of instilling deep love and appreciation of music. Here's what they said about Mr. Davis at the awards ceremony! For thousands of Elyria students, Sydney Davis was the equivalent of Mr. Holland in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus. As the director of the Elyria High School Orchestra for 28 years and a music teacher in Elyria elementary and junior high schools, Mr. Davis instilled a love for orchestral music and all types of music that has lasted throughout the lives of his students. One former student said that Davis' powerful impact has transcended generations, with grandchildren of his original prodigies benefiting from his legacy. This Oberlin Conservatory graduate, who also completed a master's degree and some doctoral work at Northwestern University, is an Elyria legend and more. He played in the Cleveland Philharmonic, the Oberlin Pro Art Orchestra, served as concert master of the Elyria Little Symphony, and president of the Musical Arts during their golden anniversary year. He was published several times in Strings Magazine when he wrote on the subject of teaching music in public schools. Like so many great teachers, Mr. Davis went beyond the call of duty. In addition to directing the orchestra, he directed a string quartet and worked with many students during off hours. Listeners of WEOL Radio would tune in weekly to hear Mr. Davis direct student renditions of great orchestral pieces. Many of his students participated in county and state competitions and with the Ohio State Youth Orchestra, thanks to his direction and support. 1940s Dr. Edwin E. Heilakka (BM, BME, MME '41-48) recently retired from his position as curator of the Leopold Stokowski Collection at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He held the position since 1980. He had previously served as music supervisor, then director of the Division of Music Education for the Philadelphia city school system, beginning in 1948. Heilakka has been a Trustee of the Presser Foundation since 1973 and serves on the Board of Directors of the Presser Publishing Co. He was on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Musical Academy (from which he earned a doctorate), the Settlement School and the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. From 1972 through 1983 he served as a member of the ASCAP Standard Awards Panel. While with the school system, he composed and arranged numerous compositions for the nationally acclaimed Philadelphia "Schools on Parade" featuring primary and secondary school choirs, bands, orchestra and pre-orchestral instrument ensembles. Heilakka writes that with retirement, comes more time to spend with Mary Jean Mapes Heilakka (BA '46) and the "wonderful doings of three sons, their wives and six grandchildren." He added a note to "Oberlin elders: let's not forget Dean Shaw, professors Gegrkens, Williams, Waln, Kessler, Lytle, Lindquist, Burns, et al." 1950s In November 1999, John Clough '53, lectured at three universities in Korea on his recent research in music and mathematics, results of which appeared last year in Journal of Music Theory and Music Theory Spectrum. The third edition of his programmed textbook, Scales, Intervals, Keys, Triads, Rhythm and Meter, co-authored with Claire Boge and Joyce Conley and published by W. W. Norton, also appeared last year. The original edition was published in 1964, after trials in classes at Oberlin Conservatory, where he was a faculty member at the time. Clough continues as Frederick and Alice Slee Professor of Music Theory at State University of New York at Buffalo, and would be glad to hear from old friends at clough@acsu.buffalo.edu. Gene Featherstone '55 took time from an active spring recital schedule to write: "Where I am organist at First Presbyterian Church, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, we have a new 25-stop tracker organ from Richards, Fowkes & Co. of Ooltewah, Tennessee, with lots of Oberlin connections. For example, when he heard that we were searching for an organ builder, Fenner Douglass '42 called me to tell me about 'the new boys on the block.' Grigg Fountain (Douglass' Oberlin faculty colleague and my teacher) with family ties to our church, and I investigated by phone, letter, and visit to their [1991] Opus 1 in Greenwich, CT, ending with our contract for their Opus 8. Dedicated on May 7 by Duke University Chapel organist David Arcus '81, the organ has been visited by other Obies including Fenner and Jane Douglass '53. Plus: Ralph Richards '78 (partner in Richards, Fowkes & Co.), who studied at Oberlin with William Porter '68." Featherstone adds, "My interest in tracker organs was generated by Grigg Fountain's 1953-54 Fulbright scholarship to Frankfurt, during which he played historic tracker organs in Germany and Holland and subsequently reported to John Mueller '50 his recommendation of Flentrop as the best of modern tracker organ builders. Mueller's 1955 contract with Flentrop for a 2-manual, 16-stop organ for Salem College, North Carolina, cost $10,200! When I played the instrument, I discovered that a pipe organ can, after all, be a tactile-sensitive music-making instrument - after having rejected organ for a career. I believe that this Salem organ was the third Flentrop in U.S., one-manual Flentrops having been built earlier for Oberlin and Texas. E. Power Biggs' 3-manual Flentrop at Harvard's Germanic Museum was installed in 1958." Gerald Ginsburg's (BM '54) An American À Paris theater lieder in English and French, was performed in May in the Merkin Concert Hall of the Abraham Goodman House in New York City. Performers included soprano Phoebe Yadon, alto Emily Eyre and tenor David Blackburn, with Ginsburg on piano. 1960s Margaret
Brouwer '62, head of the composition department, Vincent K. and
Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition, and director of the New Music Ensemble
Charles Timbrell (BM '64, piano) is currently professor of music and coordinator of keyboard studies at Howard University. Recent performances have included his participation in the North American premiere of Liszt's large piano cycle, Bunte Reihe, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The revised second edition of his book, French Pianism, was published in 1999 by Amadeus Press. During the past three years he has served as a national judge for the Fulbright Awards in Piano. He has recorded songs of Walter Rummel on the Dante label (with soprano Regina McConnell) and has recently been named editor of the Journal of the American Liszt Society. E-mail: ctimbrell@aol.com. 1970s In honor of their 25th Reunion, the Class of 1974 raised $55,000 for a Conservatory Master Class Fund. The income earned from this fund will be used to bring musicians to Oberlin to teach master classes each year. Wendy Rolfe-Dunham and Jan Heininger spear-headed the project and several other members of the Class of 1974 helped fund raise for this special project including: Christopher Baswell, Jim Christie, Stuart Ferguson, Peter Garst, David Goodman, Carol Hallowitz, Ted Heavenrich, Willie Katzin, Holly Kempner, Clyde McGregor, Dave Petersen, Andy Quint, Eugene Sawyer, Howard Spindler, Steve Watter and Rick Wolkowitz. This past spring, the 1974 Master Class Fund helped bring the Juilliard String Quartet to Oberlin, which includes Ronald Copes '71 as Second Violinist. Founded in 1946, this quartet is considered by many to be America's premier string ensemble. Known for its extremely comprehensive repertoire, the group has stunned audiences across the globe with works ranging from Bach to Mozart to Dvorak to works by 20th century masters. Thanks to the generosity of the Class of 1974, Oberlin students were able to learn and grow from first class musicians! Thank you Class of '74! Juanita M. Becker '75 received her DM in piano performance: accompanying and chamber music from Florida State University in August 1998. She's currently assistant professor of piano and coordinator of accompanying at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Becker writes that she's a first-time cat owner with her new feline housemate "Tip." Organ performance major James Russell Brown '75 has been promoted to the position of vice president of administration at the Music Institute of Chicago. He continues as head of the keyboard division, and also serves as organist and director of music for St. Giles' Episcopal Church of Northbrook, Illinois. The Music Institute of Chicago (formerly known as The Music Center of the North Shore) is one of the largest community music schools in the country, serving over 2,000 students from pre-schoolers to senior citizens. Kyle Gann
'77 is a major force in American music," says John Luther Adams, former
associate professor of composition. "The range of his musical It's only fitting then, that when Gann returned to Oberlin in November as a guest artist of the Contemporary Music Division, his work would be showcased in many areas: music criticism, composition, musicology and performance. During his four-day residency, he offered a lecture "Music Critics and Criticism;" a composition seminar "Non-Tempered and Acoustically-Perfect Tuning;" the Richard Murphy Symposium: "The Rhythmic Legacy of Henry Cowell;" and a concert featuring selections from his recent CD Custer's Ghost, in which Gann was assisted by students. (Hear audio clips from Custer's Ghost on the Con homepage Listening Room feature: www.oberlin.edu/con). In other noteworthy news: In a ceremony held in New York in February, Gann received a Stagebill music journalism award for "The String Quartet Ain't Over 'til the Drummer Solos," his cover story in the February 1999 issue of Chamber Music. Gann teaches music history and theory at Bard College, and has taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books, 1997) Gann has been the new music critic for the Village Voice since 1986 and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times. His writings include more than 1500 articles for more than 30 publications. Visit his website at: http://home.earthlink.net~kgann/ 1980s Candie Cramer
'85 a.k.a: "Flutina" has a new release, Caught Up! , which Mitchell Glickman '84, executive director of the American Jazz Philharmonic (AJP) and its summer educational program, the Henry Mancini Institute, returned to Oberlin in February to offer a career master class entitled "Music for Hire: Can an Obie Survive in Hollywood?" For the career master class, Glickman drew from his rich, diverse career to provide top tips for students as they make the transition from academia to the professional world. In addition to his executive position with the AJP, he is a conductor, Emmy-nominated composer and Grammy-nominated producer. Glickman told the students, "A life in music is challenging at best. More commonly, it has chosen us, not the other way around. If a life in music is what you must do, then you will find a way to pursue it. Having said that, I think that it's important for musicians to expose themselves to as many different types of music as they can. I tell students to attend as many concerts as you can, play in and compose for as many different groups as you can, and always keep your ears open to all kinds of new sounds." Even as an undergraduate, Glickman sought interesting work to complement his studies. During his junior year, Glickman apprenticed with theater composer Richard Peaslee in New York. His work with Peaslee led him to AJP, an organization dedicated to the genre of music he was writing: symphonic jazz. In 1985 Glickman began work with AJP music director Jack Elliott, whom he assisted in scoring "Wildside" on ABC. The project led to 15 years of work with Elliott, including such shows as "Night Court," "Grammy Living Legends" and the annual "Grammy Award Show." He also has worked with composer Craig Safan on "Life Goes On" (for which the team garnered an Emmy nomination in 1990) and the three final seasons of "Cheers." In 1993 Glickman composed the score to the film Proudheart, the critically acclaimed TNN production. He served as music production supervisor for all four seasons of "Picket Fences" and more recently, "The Practice" on ABC. His orchestral concert works include Olympic Memories for trumpeter Byron Stripling and Chapters commissioned by the Turtle Island String Quartet. As a conductor, Glickman has worked with orchestras around the world for concerts and recordings, including the United Kingdom Symphony and the American Jazz Philharmonic. Producer credits include "The Bud Shank Sextet Salutes Harold Arlen," "Guido Basso" and "American Jazz Philharmonic," nominated for a Grammy Award in 1994. Frederick Hass '83 is living in Philadelphia where he chairs a committee charged with commissioning the design of a new pipe organ for the Regional Performing Arts Center, the city's new concert hall complex currently under construction. He is a trustee of the Curtis Institute of Music, and of the Rosenbach Museum and Library, a house museum with a renowned collection of rare books and manuscripts. Hass chairs the building committee for the museum's expansion into new quarters. Hass shares his home with his partner of four years, Daniel Meyer, MD, who is completing a two-year fellowship in Infectious Disease at the University of Pennsylvania. They hosted a benefit in April for Curtis; Robert Spano '84 was an honoree. In May classical music critic Joshua Kosman highlighted the work of composer Pierre Jalbert '89 in a San Francisco Chronicle review of a premiere performed by the California Symphony. Each year, Kosman notes, the orchestra's Young American Composer-in-Residence program "helps nurture a new score into life, and there never seems to be a clinker in the bunch." Pierre Jalbert's "In Aeternam" proved to be "a crafty and affecting 14-minute work" that "revealed powerful command of the orchestra and a vivid emotional range." Kosman comments that the work "made a listener eager to hear more." When Michael Philip Mossman '82 returned to Oberlin in May for a two-day jazz residency, he offered master classes and performed again as a member of the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble (OJE). Mossman, director of the Jazz Studies program at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College/CUNY, describes his membership with OJE as a highlight of his undergraduate years. "Young musicians," he says, "can profit from the OJE experience and college education in general, by performing as much as possible. The practice time is essential, but in rehearsal and performance we gain special insights that serve us well when we enter the professional world. These insights, based on experience, cannot/should not be 'taught.' They are observed and managed by us as we encounter them in a social setting." Of his brass master class, Mossman says, "In my master class, I speak about how to integrate advanced harmonic/rhythmic concepts into the type of material that we wind players must practice everyday. I stress the need for practice in fundamentals in tone production. The message is, however, that in practicing these fundamentals, more sophisticated content can and should be worked in.
Vocalist, composer, and electronic percussionist Amy X Neuburg (BM/BA '85) released her third CD on Racer Records. "Sports! Chips! Booty!" features Amy's "electronic avant-cabaret" ensemble Amy X Neuburg & Men playing a number of unusual electronic instruments designed in collaboration with legendary synthesizer inventor Don Buchla. Amy also composes for several San Francisco area modern dance companies and is currently working on a score for New York filmmaker Owen Land. As a vocalist she has toured Europe, Japan, and the U.S. with Robert Ashley's opera ensemble, and performed with Culture Clash in their musical adaptation of Aristophanes' "The Birds." Amy frequently performs her original compositions for voice and electronics at Bay Area concert venues and technology events. Keyboard magazine hailed Amy as "America's answer to Kate Bush. a unique voice in the true sense of the word." Visit her website at www.isproductions.com. E-mail: amyx@isproductions.com The Absolute
Sound, The High End Journal of Audio & Music (Issue 121, December
1999/January 2000) has awarded a "Golden Ear Award" for best recordings
of 1999 to organist Keith S. Toth '83 for his CD Paris on Park
Avenue (Ethereal Recordings: www.etherealrecordings.com) The CD was
In March, clarinetist Richard York '69, cellist Daniel Kazez '80 and pianist Christopher Durrenberger '88 performed trios by Beethoven, Chen and Brahms at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Kazez is associate professor of music at Wittenberg; Durrenberger was appointed to the Wittenberg faculty in fall 1999. E-mail: kazez@wittenberg.edu. 1990s Tsitsi Jaji
(BA/ BMus '98) is currently on a leave of absence from a doctoral program
in comparative literature at Stanford University. In 1999 Tsitsi founded
Stillwater Collaborations dance company, with friends from her native
Zimbabwe and fellow Obie Cathy
Elliott ('97). They have planned a summer tour to Zimbabwe, South
Africa, Mozambique and perhaps, Scotland. Jaji recently received a copy
of her first published article, which appeared in the spring 1999 issue
of Literay Griot. She teaches piano, accompanies dance classes and performs
in Jacksonville, Florida. E-mail: Kristofer Johnson (BMus Voice '98) teaches voice, choral music and music history at the Canterbury School, an independent college preparatory school in New Milford, Connecticut. His program won the Mike Sheehy Endowment for vocal arts in 1999-2000. This grant will fund guest artists and conductors, tours, and also provides for the construction of a new choral/vocal arts center on the Canterbury Campus. In summer 2000, Johnson celebrates his sixth season teaching theory and aural skills with Oberlin's Vocal Academy for High School Students. He also serves as the Institute's faculty coordinator. E-mail: kjohnson@cbury.org. Trumpeter Joshua MacCluer '98 is the co-principal trumpeter of the Florida West Coast Symphony and faculty at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. A career shift
is in the works for Boston-based Matthew Mascolo '97. While Mascolo
received his double degrees - BM in TIMARA and a BA in an individual
major of "Earth, Atmosphere and Climate Interactions," he's currently
breaking Heidi Pinter (BMus '94 ) teaches flute, chamber music, world music, music theory and American music theory at California State University - Chico. E-mail heidipinter@csuchico.edu. In January Limmie Pulliam '98 made his Opera Memphis debut in performances of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca at The Orpheum Theatre. Local audiences will remember Pulliam's strong performance in the role of Romeo in the 1998 Oberlin Opera Theater production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. Also at Opera Memphis is Vincent Danner '88, who directs the Memphis Youth Symphony, in Memphis and on the youth symphony's European tour. Marty Regan (BM composition/ BA English, East Asian Studies '95) is currently studying traditional Japanese Music and composition at Tokyo College of Music as a Monbusho Scholar. The Monbusho (Japanese Ministry of Education) Scholarship is awarded to research students for a two-year period. Regan will study in Japan from April 2000 to March 2002. Regan's studies include private lessons on the Shakuhachi -- a Japanese bamboo flute. He also studies Japanese Theater Music (Bunraku, Noh, and Kabuki) and composition with Masao Endo and Miki Minoru. Aside from classes and lessons, he is also an active member of a Taiko (Japanese drums) ensemble and Javanese Gamelan Ensemble. He is on leave from a graduate program in composition at the University of California, Riverside during his stint in Japan.
"I've been received very warmly in Japan," says Regan. "All of my teachers are very dedicated and Tokyo is a very live and thriving city -- there is so much to do -- I go to concerts and various cultural events almost every day, just like when I was at Oberlin." E-mail: marty.r@f2.dion.ne.jp. Thomas Rosenkranz
'99 was the National Winner at the 1999 Collegiate Competition sponsored
by the MTNA. He has recently given performances at the Pennsylvania
and Washington State Music Teacher's Conventions, the Claude Sim (BM violin performance '99) was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for the 2000-2001 season, and appointed to the violin section of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, beginning in the summer of 2000.
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