The Cleveland Museum of Art has been a welcome performing ground for Conservatory musicians and composers for nearly a decade. Students relish the idea of escaping Oberlin’s cornfield-bounded campus to perform in the real world.
Paul Cox, OC ’82, CMA’s Assistant Curator of Musical Arts, has actively sought musicians from his alma mater to perform.
“Students don’t have time to play outside Oberlin,” Cox said. The contemporary music ensembles and chamber groups on campus are a valuable resource for the museum’s musical programming,” he said.
“Sometimes Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert can seem like beating a dead horse, “ he said. “There is a wealth of experimental repertoire that is hard to find ensembles traveling around the country doing.” He added that Oberlin students excel in performing this new music.
The collaboration between Conservatory and museum took off when Cox was hired as assistant curator in 1994. Cox stated that he quickly formed ties within the Conservatory, both from connections he had as a former student and others formed later in the composition and conducting departments.
Explaining the process, Cox said: “You just go out for a beer and start talking, and the next thing you know, you have a relationship.”
“It’s kind of like building a business,” he said. The conductor of the Contemporary Music Ensemble, Tim Weiss, has had a longstanding relationship with the museum, Cox said.
Weekly concerts held in the museum’s concert and exhibition halls have attracted a slew of Oberlin alumni and students, performing everything from 15th century Josquin to avant-garde Ligeti.
This weekend, the Erato Quartet will play a concert at the museum featuring Haydn’s String Quartet in D-flat major, “Surprise” and Dvorak’s String Quartet in D-flat major, “American.” The concert will begin at 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s Gartner Hall. The musicians of the quartet are seniors Julia Sakharova, violin, Jacob Adams, viola, Elias Suarez, cello, as well as junior Gared Crawford, violin.
The museum’s Musical Arts division was formed in 1920. As one of the few performing arts divisions of any U.S. art museum, the CMA program is a “Curatorital Department, “ putting it on equal par with the visual arts displays in the nationally acclaimed museum.
“Most museums use live performances just to get people through the door, “ Cox said. The Musical Arts Division of the museum presents concerts in the Gartner Hall that seats 765, the Inner Garden Court as well as in the various display galleries around the museum.
Ursula Oppens and Eliot Carter have performed concerts at the museum, and the Pacifica Quartet will play in fall 2003.
Cox understands that the start times of the concerts on weekend nights make it hard for students to attend. But he said many Oberlin students show up for the larger events, like the semiannual “Aki “ festival of new music.
“When we do the new music festival, we always have a large Oberlin contingent, “ Cox noted.
The next “Aki “ festival, planned for this fall, will include a large volume of works by John Cage. The eclectic event will span 16 days and over 60 composers are expected to participate. The festival, whose name translates to “Autumn “ in Japanese, will be held in galleries throughout the museum.
The Contemporary Music Ensemble and smaller chamber groups also play in the museum’s concert series. The museum presents dozens of concerts throughout the year. All events not part of the Musart Mondial and Gala Concert series are free and open to the general public.