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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.
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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
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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.
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.
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