David Boe, professor of organ and harpsichord, performed an organ recital at Ohio University last April. The concert was part of the dedication series on the new organ built by Gene Bedient, his opus 56, in Galabreath Chapel.
Kathleen Chastain, teacher of flute and chamber music with winds, and Michel Debost, professor of flute, recently traveled to Yugoslavia and France to play at the Belgrade Festival and to teach masterclasses in Paris. The French city of Le Havre will name its next international competition Concours Michel Debost. One of Michel's former students, Heidi Pinter (BM '94) has named her doctoral thesis at Florida State University at Tallahassee, The Life and Teachings of Flutist Michel Debost. Michel has been nominated as a 1998 Ed Press Distinguished Achievement Award finalist for his columns Debosts's Comments in the March, May, July, September, and November 1997 issues of Flute Talk.
In the spring, Randolph Coleman, professor of composition and music theory, participated in the symposium, Celebrating 20th Century Music, held to dedicate a new electronic music facility at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. One of Coleman's compositions, dig.it, a work for solo percussionist and electronic tape, was performed there by Gregory Secor. Coleman also presented a paper, Prometheus Bound and Gagged: the American Fin de Siècle which served as the source material for a panel discussion. During July, he was guest composer/moderator at Walden School in Dublin, New Hampshire. The only summer school devoted exclusively to the training of young composers, Walden hosted 40 composers between the ages of nine and eighteen years old. Coleman critiqued and led discussions on the compositions of each student. He also gave a public lecture on his own music and, in another session, developed an extensive experimental piece which was publicly performed by the students. Also this summer, Coleman's work for orchestra, The Great Lalula, was performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, with guest conductor Tim Weiss, assistant professor of wind conducting at Oberlin, and soprano Rebecca Cross. The piece was choreographed by Nusha Martynuk, associate professor of dance at Oberlin, for the Cleveland Repertory Theatre Dance Company and performed at Cain Park in Cleveland on July 23 for the last program of the SummerFest series.
Lisa Crawford, professor of harpsichord, just released her newest CD on Harmonia Mundi France. It features Pièces de clavecin by Gaspard Le Roux, a work arranged for two harpsichords by herself and Mitzi Meyerson (AD '79), currently a professor of harpsichord in Berlin. The recording was named one of the "exceptional CD's of the month" in July by the French magazine, Le Monde de la Musique. Earlier this year Crawford gave a lecture-recital at a symposium on Baroque music during the opening of the Splendors of Versailles exhibit in Jackson, Mississippi. She also gave a recital in the concert series at Montevallo College in Alabama. Together with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, she recently performed in the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Series in Yellow Springs, Ohio. 
Professor of music theory Warren Darcy will present 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, to be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in December.
In January Peter Dominguez, associate professor of jazz studies/bass, performed with the Bill Sears Quintet featuring saxophonist Rick Margitza at the 25th annual International Association of Jazz Educators conference in New York City. In Feburary he performed original works by composer Kysia Bostic and worked with Dianne McIntyre, writer, director and choreographer of Stop on a Dime and Get 10 Cents Change at the Cleveland Playhouse. In April, he taught and performed with bassists Richard Davis, Rufus Reid, Jerry Jermont, Diana Gannet, David Murray, and Barry Green at the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists Inc. annual conference at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. This summer, Peter performed with saxophonist Richie Cole at the Diamondback Brewery in Cleveland. In July he played principal double bass with the American Sinfonietta at the Wintergreen Music Festival, Wintergreen, Virginia. He also appeared as soloist with the Sinfonietta whose guest artists included Janos Starker, David Hickman, William Preucil and Julia Faulkner. He was also featured on the June released CD entitled Warm by Detroit saxophonist Larry Nozero (A Dominic Records/Nozette Production, Inc.)
Joanne Erwin, assistant professor of music education, was busy this summer writing the curriculum for the River Run Arts-Earth Studies Camp sponsored by the National Park Service in the Cuyahoga Valley Recreation Area. She collaborated with visual artist Megan Burness and actor Karen Moser for a curriculum that includes all of the arts and their impact on the environment. There were three sections of the camp from July 12-August 8. Ms. Erwin will also be conducting the Columbus High School Honor Orchestra on November 14.
Herbert Henke (BM '53), professor of eurhythmics, was a faculty member for eurhythmics workshops at the National Taipei Teachers College in May, and at the Dalcroze Society of America's National Conference at Westminster Choir College in June. He also presented at the 23rd Eurhythmics Workshops at Carnegie Mellon University in July, and the Dalcroze Eurhythmics Summer Institute at the Longy School of Music in August.
Jody Kerchner recently traveled to Kruger National Park and Pretoria, South Africa, to attend a teacher education seminar and international conference of the International Society of Music Education (ISME). While in Pretoria, she presented a research poster, Portrait Created with Multisensory Paintbrushes: A Child's Music Listening Experience, and a workshop session for music educators and researchers, Guided Music Listening: Hints from the Music.
Last spring, the Oberlin Youth Chorale, an extracurricular high school group that Kerchner conducts, sang a joint concert with the Louisville Youth Chorale, under the direction of Frank Heller. This summer, Kerchner sang professionally in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Chatauqua, New York, with the Robert Page Cleveland Singers. In the fall, she will once again write educational concert preparation materials for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her article, Educational Partnerships: Making the Connection, will also be published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education this fall.
John Knight, professor of music education and chair of the conducting division, published an essay, Learning the Art of Conducting in the January 1998 issue of Instrumentalist, and was also featured in the cover story of that issue. In April, Knight was guest conductor of the Elkhart, Indiana Central High School Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He had two more articles published in Instrumentalist. Lessons from Hemingway: The Eloquence of Simplicity, was published in the April issue, and The Art of Conducting Part II in May.
Yolanda Kondanassis, teacher of harp, was interviewed and featured in the March/April 1998 issue of Fanfare magazine.
Professor of Voice, Richard Miller reviewed four new books for Choice. The books were Rosa Ponselle: American diva, by Mary Jane Phillips Matz, Dramma per musica: Italian opera seria of the eighteenth century, by Reinhard Strohm, Selected letters of Berlioz, ed. by Hugh MacDonald; tr.by Roger Nichols, and Plácido Domingo, a biography by Cornelius Schnauber.
Jennifer Wamsley, visiting assistant director of opera theater and Alan Montgomery, assistant director of opera theater were the director and music director, respectively, of two performances of Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio, given in January at Finney Chapel. Alan Montgomery also performed at the University of Indianapolis Vocal Arts Institute Faculty Concert in June.
Richard Povall, associate professor of electronic/computer music, was a resident artist at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, together with his art partner, Jools Gilson-Ellis this past summer. They were working on their new performance project, The Secret Project, which will premiere in Canada and Ireland in 1999. The piece is being co-produced by the Banff Center and the Firkin Crane Dance Centre in Cork, Ireland. Povall has been appointed to the Planning Committee of the Interenational Dance & Technology '99 Conference, to be held in Arizona in February. He was also recently appointed to the Editorial Board of Digital Creativity, a periodical published by Swets and Zeitlinger in the Netherlands. He will speak about his work, and present new work-in-progress at a conference in Manchester, England, in September, at the 6th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence in Padua, and the 12th Colloquium on Musical Informatics in Gorizia, Italy, also in September. In October, he will perform at the University of Limerick in Ireland, and will discuss his work at the Deviance and Discipline Conference at Duke University. He will be a resident artist at Firkin Crane (Ireland) in December/January. His article on music compositional issues in contemporary dance was recently published in the Dance Research Journal.
Peter Rejto, professor of violincello traveled and taught in several locations this summer, including the Round Top Festival and the Oberlin at Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy in June. In July he played concerts with the Los Angeles Piano Quartet at the Vermont Mozart Festival in Burlington, and at other venues throughout the state. In addition, he gave two recitals at Barge Music Concerts in Brooklyn, and performed at the Skaneateles Festival in New York state during August. This summer also saw the release of his recording, Twentieth Century masterpieces--Sonatas of Barber, Kodaly, Janacek, and Martinu-on Round Top Records.
Michael Rosen gave three cymbal clinics at MusicFest Canada in May 1998. He also directed the Oberlin Percussion Institute from July 12 through July 17 held on campus, at which thirty-five students participated from as far away as Taiwan, Uruguay and China. The OPI faculty this year consisted of Alan Abel, percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Don Liuzzi, timpanist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Al Otte (BM '72) of the Cincinnati Conservatory, and Larry Snider of the University of Akron.
Peter Takács, professor of pianoforte, gave masterclasses and a performance for Leon Fleisher's 70th birthday celebration at the University of Kansas, Lawrence; he also gave masterclasses and lectures at the Texas Christian University/Cliburn Institute, Fort Worth. In July he performed Mozart's Concerto K453 and César Franck's Symphonic Variations with the Missouri Chamber Orchestra in Columbia, Missouri. Upcoming performances include the Ohio premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Four Parables for Piano and Orchestra, with the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Sandusky, Ohio, and the first four recitals in a projected two-year, 8-recital traversal of the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas at Finney Chapel.
Last spring, Andor Toth, professor of cello and chamber music, played In Praise of Cellos II, a benefit concert at the Wellfleet Congregational Church in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
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