|
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is the oldest continously operating conservatory in the United States. It was founded in 1865 in the small Midwestern town of Oberlin, Ohio, 35 miles southwest of Cleveland and home to Oberlin College. In 1867 the Conservatory was incorporated into the College, making it one of the few major music schools in the country linked to a liberal arts academic institution.
In recent years Oberlin Conservatory has become an important center of contemporary musicmaking. Its graduates have gone on to form prominent US new music groups such as the sextet eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Last year the conservatory presented a tour on the West Coast with Oberlin musicians and eighth blackbird performing new commissions and premieres by Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and alumnus Huang Ruo.
The rise in new music activity at Oberlin stems from the efforts of Timothy Weiss, director of the conservatory's Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME). Weiss suggests that the isolation of the Oberlin campus combined with its focus on undergraduate education lends itself to a greater willingness on the part of the students to experiment and take interpretive risks. In addition, Weiss helped to make the CME satisfy a core performance requirement, putting it on the same footing as the orchestra or wind ensemble -- not typically the case in many music schools. Equally important is the liberal education and intellectual climate of Oberlin College; at least one quarter of the Conservatory's students pursue additional degrees outside of music, which tends to foster an outlook to think creatively about their work as musicians.
Weiss describes the Oberlin CME as "... an ensemble of about 15 to 20, sometimes 25 players. The repertory is supposed to represent the broadest landscape of contemporary music today, which can mean anything. Absolutely anything: works that are notated with the greatest degree of complexity to open scores that require improvisation and self-discovery ... Sometimes pieces can be very politically charged or inspired; but often times they're just abstract objects of expression."
Art of the States presents five works performed by Oberlin students under the direction of Timothy Weiss:
 Yün (1969) by Chou Wen-chung (b. 1923)
the soadie waste (2002-2003) by James Dillon (b. 1950)
Bright Days of Little Sunlight (2008) by Peter V. Swendsen (b. 1977)
Anea (2008) by Chaya Czernowin (b. 1957)
Modules (1985) by Mel Powell (1923-1998)
All are live concert performances with the exception of an electroacoustic work by Oberlin faculty member Peter V. Swendsen. Both James Dillon and Chaya Czernowin were guest composers at the conservatory and worked closely with the students on their performances here.
|
