• Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of
Unknowing, composed by John Luther
Adams, associate professor of composition, was
released in 1998 to enthusiastic reviews. His work
was explored in "Sonic Geography of the Arctic," a
feature article in the Spring 1998, issue of
Musicworks. Adams's In the White
Silence, performed by the Oberlin Contemporary
Music Ensemble and directed by Timothy Weiss,
associate professor of wind conducting, received
its world premiere at the Conservatory in November,
and his Strange and Sacred Noise was
performed in Warner Concert Hall in November by The
Percussion Group-Cincinnati. Clouds of
Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing will be
performed this summer at the 1999 Spoleto Festival
USA in Charleston, SC.
• Brian Alegant, associate professor
of music theory, received a $30,000 grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to
examine the organizing principles of Luigi
Dallapiccola's 12-tone music. Alegant aims to
unveil the salient characteristics and techniques
of Dallapiccola's works and provide the first
in-depth study of the compositional language and
harmonic logic of the composer, who lived between
1904 and 1975.
• David Breitman, assistant
professor of historical performance, was invited to
discuss and play Haydn's F minor variations as part
of a Haydn conference in March at the Pierpont
Morgan Library in New York, sponsored by the
Orchestra of St. Lukes. Other participants included
noted Haydn scholar Elaine Sisman, professor of
musicology at Columbia University, James Keller
('75) of The New York sponsored by the Orchestra of
St. Lukes. Other participants included noted Haydn
scholar Elaine Sisman, professor of musicology at
Columbia University, James Keller ('75) of The
New Yorker. In the fall, Breitman performed a
program of all American songs with Sanford Sylvan
in Hertz Hall at the University of
California-Berkeley. His spring concert activities
included a recital of American songs with baritone
Sanford Sylvan at Alice Tully Hall, and two Mozart
concerti with the Tulsa Philharmonic. The
first-ever recording of the complete Beethoven
piano sonatas on original instruments includes
Breitman as one of seven fortepianists. The
Complete Piano Sonatas on Period Instruments/Ludwig
van Beethoven, a 10-CD set, was released on the
Claves label in September 1997.
• Performance and publication activities
of Paul Cohen, teacher of classical
saxophone, include the following:
Solo performances: Wayne Chamber Orchestra,
Philip Glass Facades (soprano saxophone);
Syracuse Symphonic Winds, Dahl Concerto for Alto
Saxophone; Juilliard Dance Theater (Lincoln Center)
and Wallach Glancing Below (sopranino,
soprano and baritone saxophones).
Orchestra appearances: Long Island Philharmonic
(Music of Bernstein); Ohio Chamber Orchestra (Music
of Milhaud, Gershwin, Ives); Oregon Symphony
(special guest for Slow Dance, a new
contemporary work with solo saxophone by David
Schiff).
Concerto performance: the New Hudson Saxophone
Quartet (NHQ), which is comprised of Cohen and two
Oberlin grads Tim Ruedeman and Noah Getz, performed
Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra by
former Con student Calvin Hampton, with the
Metamorphosis Orchestra.
Cohen's feature articles "Grainger and the
Intimate Saxophone" was published in the February
1999, Instrumentalist magazine. His "Cohen's
Quartet Arrangement of Copland's 4 Piano Blues," "A
Gift to be Simple" and "Suite from Our Town" were
published in Boosey & Hawkes&emdash;
(spring/summer, 1999).
Recordings: Soundtrack for an independent film
The Ugliest Man in the World. He performed on a
recording of American music for the Allegro label,
slated for a spring 1999 release.
• Harmonia Mundi France has issued a new CD
by Lisa Crawford, NEA Conservatory Challenge
Professor of Harpsichord, and her former student
Mitzie Meyerson '79. Le Roux: Piéces de
calvecin is music for two harpsichords by
Gaspard Le Roux. Crawford and Meyerson made the
recording on antique harpsichords in Edinburgh. The
album received a five-star review from Le Monde
de la Musique. Crawford performed three
two-harpsichord concerts with Meyerson in January
and February. The first concert, in Edinburgh,
Scotland, was performed for the Georgian Concert
Series, a series which uses the antique instruments
from the Russell Collection of Early Keyboard
Instruments at the University of Edinburgh.
Concerts were performed in the18th century St.
Cecilin's Hall. The second concert was hosted by
the Iowa City Early Keyboard Society, where the
artists also offered a master class for the
University of Iowa. The third concert was hosted by
the Cleveland Museum of Art.
• Professor of music theory Warren
Darcy '68 presented a paper entitled
"Rotational Form, Teleological Genesis, and
Fantasy-Projection in the Slow Movement of Mahler's
Sixth Symphony" at the annual meeting of the
Society for Music Theory, held in December in
Chapel Hill, NC.
• In December 1998, professor of pianoforte
Monique Duphil released a CD for Electra of
solo piano pieces by Venezuelan composers entitled
Venezuela. In January 1999, she performed
the Grieg piano concerto with the Tupelo Symphony
Orchestra in Mississippi, under conductor Louis
Lane.
• Kay Edwards, visiting assistant
professor of music education, presented a two-day
workshop in July on "Multicultural Music in the
Curriculum" at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Her article "Multicultural Music Instruction: What
Can Be Achieved?" was published in The Bulletin
of the Council for Research in Music Education.
It includes Edwards' qualitative research in the
elementary schools. Another article focusing on
Edwards' quantitative research regarding cultural
perceptions and music stereotypes of fourth-grade
students, was published in the Southeastern
Journal of Music Education Research. In
November, Edwards presented a music workshop in
Oberlin entitled "Multicultural Songs, Games and
Stories for the Elementary Classroom" for area
music teachers.
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• Professor of violin Taras Gabora
offered an all-Brahms recital at the University of
North Texas in April 1998, a July 1998, recital
during the "Oberlin at Casalmaggiore," Italy, and
an August 1998 recital "Victoria Summer Festival,"
in Victoria, Canada. He offered a three-day master
class in Athens, Greece, in November, and attended
the Salzburg International Mozart Competition,
January 8&endash;22, 1999. In April, he will serve
as a member of the jury for the Yfrah Neaman
International Violin Competition in Mainz,
Germany.
• Herbert Henke '53 emeritus
professor of Eurythmics and music education,
presented two sessions at the Alabama Music
Educators Conference in January, and also served as
artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama.
• Professor of viola Jeffrey Irvine
taught a December master class at the Interlochen
Arts Academy. Irvine says an Interlochen viola
teacher, David Holland, is the father of Jennifer
Holland, one of Irvine's freshman students at
Oberlin. Last summer, Irvine taught technique
classes, a formal master class and private lessons
at Interlochen. He also performed in concert,
Lament for Two Violas by Frank Bridge, with
Laura Kuennen-Poper, Conservatory associate dean/
director of career development. Last summer marked
Irvine's seventh summer at Bucknell, where he
taught viola and chamber music with the Quartet
Program, June 21 through mid-July. Following that
season, Irvine resigned to take a position at
Encore School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio. In
December, Irvine (along with teacher of viola Lynn
Ramsey) performed with the Amici String Quartet at
Gray's Armory in Cleveland. The concert was a
benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Association
(presented by the Association of Cleveland
Firefighters).
• Publishing and performance highlights of
Jody Kerchner, assistant professor of music
education, include the following. Her article
"Teaching Ideas" was published in the December
1998, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Guide for
Teachers, educational materials designed to
prepare teachers and students to attend the CSO
Youth Programs at Orchestra Hall. Kerchner's "A
Model for Educational Partnerships" was published
in the fall issue of Journal of Music Teacher
Education. The fall issue of the Bulletin
for the Council of Research in Music Education
featured "The Effect of Music Performance on Music
Listening," which was co-written by Kerchner and J.
Kjelland. Kerchner's performances as a professional
choir member include two August concerts: the
Robert Page Cleveland Singers at the Hinshaw
Publisher Music Workshop at Chapel Hill, N.C., and
the Robert Page Cleveland Singers, Chautauqua Music
Festival, Chautauqua, N.Y. As conductor of the
Oberlin Youth Chorale, she performed with the
Chorale Holiday Concert in December at the United
Methodist Church in Oberlin, and with other choirs
of the Oberlin Choristers at the Stocker Center on
Valentine's Day.
• John Knight, professor of music
education and chair of the division of conducting
and ensembles, was guest conductor of the
All-County Symphonic Band at Long Island University
in January. The concert was sponsored by the New
York Music Educators Association. The all-county
band personnel were chosen by auditions for 153
members from 83 participating high schools in Long
Island. In March, Knight was guest conductor of
four honor bands in Kansas City, Mo. In April, he
will conduct the Elkhart (Indiana) High School
orchestra and wind ensemble. In addition to his
guest conducting, Knight is consulting editor of
The Instrumentalist magazine where he had
the following articles published in 1998: "Lessons
from Hemingway: The Eloquence of Simplicity"
(November), "Lessons from Otto Klemperer"
(October), "An Interpretive Analysis of H. Owen
Reed's LaFiesta Mexicana" (September), "The Night
We Found Nimrod" and "Elgar's Majestic, Lyrical
'Nimrod'" (July), "Refining the Preparatory Beat"
and "A Conducting Analysis of Selected Band
Repertoire" (May), and "Learning the Art of
Conducting" (January). Knight's 1999
Instrumentalist features have included
"Tyranny on the Podium, An Interpretive Analysis of
George Szell Conducting Dvorak's Symphony #9 in E
Minor" (January). Knight is writing two conducting
textbooks for teachers of band and orchestra. The
band textbook will be devoted to the conducting
pedagogy needed for interpreting the major concert
band repertoire, and the orchestra textbook,
Legacy of the Maestros, will compare and
contrast interpretive practices of the great
conductors of the past.
• Ocora (Radio France) has reissued a 1971
production by Roderic Knight, professor of
musicology. Gambie'L'Art de la kora: Jali Nyam
Suso is a CD version of the vinyl recording
Gambie: Mandinka kora par Jali Nyama Suso.
The CD includes three new songs, and Knight has
updated the liner notes.
• Numerous compositions by Wendell
Logan, professor of African-American music and
chair of the jazz studies program, have received
performances. These include "Moments," performed by
the contemporary group Thamyris at the National
Black Arts Festival (Atlanta, July 1998) and by
Oberlin alums eighth blackbird (Oberlin, February
1998). Excerpts from the opera Doxology were also
performed at the National Black Arts Festival with
Logan conducting. "Roots, Branches, Shapes and
Shades" for piano and chamber orchestra, was
performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in
April 1998 with Neal Creque, teacher of jazz piano,
as guest soloist, and Edwin London conducting.
Logan's "Tin Tin Deo" was performed by the Jazz
Heritage Orchestra (November 1998). He performed
with Oberlin Jazz Ensemble (OJE) at the Notre Dame,
Ohio State and Tri-C Jazz festivals. The ensemble
received outstanding ratings at all of the
festivals. Logan played in concert at the
Diamondback Brewery in Cleveland (March 1998) with
the OJE. The Oberlin Jazz Septet was the
title for the group's December release. Logan also
performed with a group of jazz studies majors at
Grafton State Prison.
Recordings of his work include: "Roots,
Branches, Shapes and Shades" by the Cleveland
Chamber Symphony; "Runagate, Runagate" for tenor
and orchestra, recorded by the Czech National
Symphony with William Brown, soloist and Paul
Freeman, conductor; and "Afro-Blue" (an
arrangement) by the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble. Logan
received the Vladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award from
the American Academy of Arts and Letters at a June
meeting of the academy, and an ASCAP award for
composition. He appeared on "Around Noon," on WCPN
radio, Cleveland's NPR affiliate, and on a December
WRUW radio round-table discussion "Why Duke?" as a
part of the "Everything Ellington" celebration.
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• Recent performances for Michael
Lynn, associate professor of recorder and
associate dean for facilities and technology,
include a September performance for the Northern
Ohio Live Awards. Lynn is a member of Apollo's
Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, that won the
Classical Music Award and played at the State
Theater ceremony. The ceremony and performance were
broadcast live on WCLV. In November, Lynn performed
Monteverdi's Vespers with Apollo's Fire at Rocky
River, Akron, Cleveland Heights and Cleveland
(which was broadcast on WKSU). Also in November
with Apollo's Fire, Lynn performed "Candles and
Carols from the Olde World" in Akron, Cleveland and
Westlake. The Cleveland concert was recorded and
distributed nationwide as part of National Public
Radio's special holiday offerings. Lynn's
performance with the Stan Hywet Series, along with
fellow professors Lisa Crawford and Kathie Lynn,
was broadcast in February on WKSU. In January, Lynn
performed "Concertos from Zimmerman's Coffeehouse"
in Rocky River, Cleveland Heights, Pittsburgh
(broadcast live on WQED), and Akron (recorded for
broadcast by WKSU). Lynn, with Apollo's Fire,
performed in a Fox 8 TV morning broadcast, and
performed at First Waltz, Cleveland, in January.
Lynn also played six concerts in five months with
the Irish band, Turn the Corner. Kathie
Lynn, visiting teacher of baroque flute and
recorder, Conservatory harpsichord tuner, and also
a member of Apollo's Fire, performed at all the
above-mentioned events except the Carols
Concerts.
• Professor of singing, Daune Mahy,
was honored by the city of Urbania, Italy, for her
direction of the Oberlin In Italy Program. A plaque
was presented to commemorate the decade of
co-operation between Urbania and Oberlin.
Approximately 35 students participated this year
and presented two in-house concerts, an evening of
chamber operas, a double bill of Rita by
Donizetti and La Cantarina by Haydn, and a
final gala concert. The evening of chamber operas
was presented in the theater in Novafeltira, and
the opera scenes evening was presented in
Fermigniano. Four students, Rhiannon Giddens
(Mellon Fellowship), John Rodgers, Michael Preacely
and Maleata Carson, also worked on their research
projects at the Rossini Foundation in Pesaro.
• While on a fall semester sabbatical,
professor of violin Marilyn McDonald played
in the Renwick Gallery Series (affiliated with the
Smithsonian Institution), with the newly formed
Axelrod Quartet, in Washington, D.C. and Little
Washington, Va., and with the Castle Trio in
Houston, Texas. These two groups are in residence
at the Smithsonian. The quartet is named after
Herbert Axelrod, who donated the Stradivarius
instruments on which they performed. McDonald
recorded Mozart and Beethoven string trios for an
AT&T Labs experimental project with
Conservatory engineer Michael Schulze. McDonald's
sabbatical project involved the solo sonatas of
J.S. Bach. She performed at Baileys Harbor, Wisc.,
and at Lawrence University, Appleton, where she
also offered a master class. In March, she
performed a concert in Boston's Jordan Hall with
the Boston Baroque, an original instrument
orchestra, of which she is concertmaster. She also
performed as soloist with orchestra at the
Hardin-Simmons University of Abilene, Texas.
• In January, Catharina Meints, teacher of
viola da gamba and baroque cello, traveled for a
two-week tour of the Canary Islands, Spain (Madrid,
Barcelona and Valencia) and Paris with the
Cleveland Orchestra. She was interviewed about the
tour for a February 2, Cleveland Plain
Dealer feature story. Later that week, she
presented a program of baroque style cello and
viola da gamba for the Cleveland Cello Society,
which included a master class with and performance
by several young cellists. Meints, on cello,
performed in a November faculty recital in Kulas
Recital Hall, with David Breitman, on piano. She
performed again with Breitman for a March concert
of early 19th century music (with Breitman's
replica of an 1824 Graf piano), at Harkness Chapel
of Case Western Reserve University. The instrument
collections of Meints and James Caldwell,
professor of oboe, were featured in the Winter
1998-1999 issue of Early Music America
(including the cover shot of the couple's Johann
Tielke (c.1680) gamba. The article included an
extensive interview about the couple's private
collection of antique musical instruments. Meints
was featured in Channel 19 news coverage during a
second grade classroom visit to Margaret Ireland
School in Cleveland. Meints teaches at the school
eight times a year as part of the Learning Through
Music Program, established by the Cleveland
Orchestra.
• Winter term was an exciting month for
Richard Miller, professor of singing/director of
the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center. He
presented master classes in technique and
literature coaching at the University of Utah, Salt
Lake City, and at Brigham Young University at
Provo. Miller also presented a workshop in
systematic technique and literature coaching for
Australian Operatic Productions and Opera
Auditions, Ltd., at the Melba Conservatorium,
located in Melbourne, Australia.
• Gary Lee Nelson, professor of
electronic and computer music, was featured in a
January, Discovery Channel online feature article:
"The Sound Of Chaos: The Music Makers." The piece
highlighted composers (including Nelson), offered
audio clips and visual clips, and invited readers
to "take a fantastic voyage," "create your own
chaos" and "try your hand at creating a fractal
tune."
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• A September performance by professor of
composition Pauline Oliveros and her Deep
Listening Band was reviewed in The New York
Times. In "When the Audience is Asked to Listen
in a Different Way," Anthony Tommasini wrote: "At
65, Ms. Oliveros still seems to have a hold on
young people, for on three nights this past
weekend, the Deep Listening Band, an ensemble she
has headed for 10 years, drew standing-room-only
crowds to the Low Library Rotunda at Columbia
University. The idea is to listen, as the title of
the ensemble suggests, in a deep manner, not
intellectually deep, but spiritually and
intuitively. Occasionally, those in the audience
not attuned to such deep listening grabbed their
backpacks and fled. But most were at least curious,
and many seem transfixed."
• In September, professor of musicology
Stephen Plank offered a preconcert lecture
before each of the Apollo's Fire performances of
Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas at the
Cleveland Museum of Art. He talked about Henry
Purcell and the Dido tapestries on view in the
museum's Armor Court. The lectures and concerts
celebrated the reopening of the newly restored
court.
• In mid-May 1998, Paul Polivnick,
music director of the Oberlin Orchestra and the
Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, traveled to Kiev in the
Ukraine to record a CD of the music of the
contemporary Viennese composer, Alexander
Blechinger with the Kiev Camerata. During the
summer, Polivnick completed his seventh season as
Music Director of the New Hampshire Music Festival,
a six-week orchestral and chamber music festival in
the beautiful Lake District of central New
Hampshire. During those six weeks, he conducted 17
concerts of masterworks and premieres. In October,
he guest conducted two concerts with the Vermont
Symphony in Burlington, with music by Tchaikovsky,
Plaine, Saint-Saens and Gershwin. In November,
Polivnick guest conducted seven concerts with the
Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Virginia. The
diverse repertoire included work by Bartok,
Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert, Peck, Plaine, Larsen,
Faure, Grainger, Bach, Handel and Rossini. One of
the concert venues was a Richmond rock club. In
January, Polivnick made his French debut with
L'Orchestre National de Lille for its annual
Recontre Internationale Robert Casadesus. He
conducted seven piano concertos with three 1998
winners of international piano competitions.
• Richard Povall, director of the
division of contemporary music and chair of TIMARA,
will be resident composer within the Choreographic
Research and Development Programme at Firkin Crane,
Cork, Ireland. Firkin Crane is Ireland's leading
center for the development of contemporary dance.
Povall was co-production resident composer at the
Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada in January, and
will return in August and September.
He presented his work with Jools Gilson-Ellis
(who visited Oberlin for a fall residency) at
numerous conferences and workshops, including the
International Dance & Technology 1999
conference at Arizona State University, the annual
conference of the International Association of Word
and Image in Claremont, Calif., and the California
Institute for the Arts. He will also present
current research at the Digital Creativity 99
conference in England in April.
Povall was awarded a
$12,000 grant from the Irish Arts Council, in
support of his current collaborative work with
Gilson-Ellis, The Secret Project, which is
co-produced with Firkin Crane and the Banff Centre
for the Arts. It will premiere in Canada in
September 1999, then tour Ireland and the United
Kingdom for the remainder of the year. The work
makes use of motion sensitive haptic boxes that
contain a number of different sound environments.
Povall also continues work on The Dartmoor
Project, a major digital project involving
experimental interactive interfaces. This work is
slated for a September premiere, and will continue
through 2001 when the final exhibition will take
place.
• In June, George Sakakeeny,
associate professor of bassoon, performed
Blechinger's Bassoon Concerto at the
International Double Reed Society conference in
Tempe, Ariz., with the Phoenix Symphony. The
concerto was written for him. Also appearing on the
program were the principal oboists of the Cleveland
and Chicago symphonies and the principal bassoonist
of Orpheus. In March, Sakakeeny performed the world
premier of Peter Shickele's bassoon concerto with
the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, at
the Southern Theatre in Columbus. The concerto was
commissioned by Pro Musica and was written
especially for Sakakeeny. In June, he will perform
a concerto at the Bluebird International Music
Festival in Near Budapest, Hungary, and in August,
he will offer a repeat performance of the Shickele
bassoon concerto at the International Double Reed
Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin.
Sakakeeny's recording of the Blechinger bassoon
concerto was released by Harmonia Classica Records
in June. It was recorded with the Kiev Camerata,
with conductor Paul Polivnick. It is available
through Forrests Music: 1-800-322-6263 or www.forrestsmusic.com
• Robert Spano, associate professor
of conducting and music director of the Brooklyn
Philharmonic, conducted a November performance that
was reviewed in The New York Times. In "Brooklyn
Orchestra Takes on Avant-Garde,"Allan Kozinn wrote:
"In his first two seasons as music director of the
Brooklyn Philharmonic, Robert Spano has had a
revitalizing effect on the freelance players who
make up the ensemble. But as telling as his work
has been in programs that have danced around the
periphery of the standard repertory, the assurance,
solidity and polish these players brought to a
difficult program of contemporary works on Saturday
evening gave the impression that the orchestra had
reached a new level." The concert, which opened the
orchestra's 45th season, was also part of the
Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, and
was called "AB&C" after its three composers,
John Adams, Luciano Berio and Elliott Carter.
• Haskell Thomson, professor of
organ and chair of the division of keyboard
studies, performed a concert at the Cleveland
Museum of Art on Valentine's Day. The program
showcased piano works by Franz Liszt, and organ
works by J.S. Bach, Olivier Messiaen and Vincent
Persichetti.
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