Oberlin at the Aki Festival By Marci Janas ’91
			The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is well represented at Aki, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s biennial festival of new music taking place this month. Aki, the Japanese word for autumn, features 17 concerts throughout October and includes works by 60 composers from around the world. Included in this ambitious programming are Oberlin students, faculty and alumni. The Museum’s Department of Musical Arts (whose assistant curator is Oberlin graduate Paul Cox ’91, contributor to the Conservatory Website’s Listening Room) coordinates the festival’s artistic direction. Senior piano performance major Emily Manzo gave a recital of John Cage’s prepared piano works on October 6 that caught the attention of Donald Rosenberg,music critic of The Plain Dealer, who wrote in the paper’s October 9 edition: "Manzo . . . proved to be a superb Cage champion. She played the works [the rarely performed Sonatas and Interludes] with utmost attention to clarity and detail, underlining the kaleidoscope of sonorities and pacing each piece with remarkable concentration." Oberlin alumnus Edwin London ’52, Director of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony [CCS], participated in a celebratory homage to internationally known composer and conductor Karel Husa on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The CCS presented an evening of chamber music and chamber orchestral works by Husa on October 10. Kathleen Chastain, Teacher of Wind Chamber Music and Flute, offered a recital on October 13 with her Today Band at SPACES Gallery. The evening featured works by, among others, Harold Meltzer, Dennis Eberhard and Andrew Rindfleisch. On Wednesday, October 17, Associate Professor of Wind Conducting Timothy Weiss conducts the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble in the Museum’s Gartner Auditorium in works presented at Oberlin the preceding day: William Bolcom’s Orphée Sérénade, György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto, and Chen Yi’s QI. Eighth blackbird, winner of the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, takes the Gartner stage on Wednesday, October 24, in a program that includes the world premier of Portals . . . where birds fly still, a work by Professor of Composition Randolph Coleman. Flutist Molly Alicia Barth ’97; clarinetist Michael Maccaferri ’95; violinist Matthew Albert’96; cellist Nicholas Photinos ’96; percussionist Matthew Duvall ‘95 and pianist Lisa Kaplan ’96 comprise the ensemble. Among the Cleveland composers featured in a concert by the Cavani String Quartet, which includes violist Kristen Docter ‘92, is a piece by Margaret Brouwer ’62, a past winner of the Cleveland Art Prize. For more information about venues and ticket prices (some events are free), call 216-421-7350 or 1-888-CMA-0033.
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