For prospective Conservatory students whose schedules didn't allow them a chance to sit in on a rehearsal of the Oberlin College Choir or meet with a hoped-for teacher, the Conservatory web site is now the next best thing to being there. April 2008 saw the launch of a dynamic new web feature: videos of Conservatory faculty. Click here to view some of the video profiles currently online.

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The Cleveland Orchestra announced in early April that pianist Da Wang ’09 has been chosen as one its two Artist-in-Residence Fellows. He achieved the distinction through a competitive audition process, and will work in close collaboration with acclaimed pianist and Cleveland Orchestra Artist-in-Residence Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Wang, a student of Professor of Piano Robert Shannon, says that he is “very excited and happy” about the honor.

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Although no stranger to the highest accolades, baritone Edward Parks '06 landed a big one when he became one of five young singers to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He was selected from nine finalists, who performed arias with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, under the direction of Steven Lord '71, during the Grand Finals concert, held February 24 on the Met's stage.

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The Oberlin Conservatory of Music's esteemed Artist Recital Series resumes in April with a spring brew of baroque, contemporary, and classical music. Oberlin's magnificent Finney Chapel, with its superb acoustics, will be the stage for such luminaries as double bassist Edgar Meyer and pianist Amy Dorfman, frequent collaborators; pianist Angela Hewitt; violinist Hilary Hahn and singer/songwriter Josh Ritter '99, who are reuniting after a 2007 summer tour; and Sweden's mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter.

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Eighth blackbird, the fearless (and lower-cased) new music ensemble born and bred at the Conservatory a dozen years ago, won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for strange imaginary animals, its fifth recording. This is the first Grammy nomination for eighth blackbird, its fourth release on the Chicago-based Cedille Records label, and the only new music nominee in the category. A track from strange imaginary animals, Jennifer Higdon's Zaka, received a nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

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This year the Conservatory is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Oberlin in Italy summer program in a new home – the town of Arezzo, in the heart of Tuscany. The five-week intensive language and musical study program begins June 7 and concludes July 11, 2008. Director and cofounder of the program Daune Mahy, Professor of Singing, calls it an "opportunity of a lifetime for singers, musicians, and linguists to delve deeply into Italian language and culture."

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The building fund for the Phyllis Litoff Building, "the roof that jazz is raising," has been enhanced by two $4 million gifts. Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov announced in early November that of three separate, $4 million gifts that were pledged to the College, two of them — $8 million — are earmarked for construction of Oberlin’s new home for jazz studies.
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