The Oberlin Orchestra, Conducted by Steven Smith, to Present Free Severance Hall Concert Wednesday, April 14 By Marci Janas '91
	Related: A Brief History of the Oberlin Orchestra		SOLD OUT The Oberlin Orchestra will present a free concert at Severance Hall Wednesday, April 14, at 8 p.m. Music Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras Steven Smith will lead the ensemble in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and György Ligeti's Atmosphères . Severance Hall is located at 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Seating is general admission. To reserve free tickets, or for more information, please contact the Severance Hall Box Office at 216-231-1111 or 1-800-686-1141, or visit www.clevelandorchestra.com This concert, part of an enhanced collaboration between the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and The Cleveland Orchestra, is produced with the generous support of the Clonick Family Foundation. Media sponsorship is provided by WCLV 104.9 FM, Cleveland's classical music radio station. WCLV will broadcast the concert live, with a simulcast on wclv.com, beginning at 8 p.m. “The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is honored to provide this free concert for the people of Cleveland and Northern Ohio, and we are very pleased with our evolving relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra,” says Acting Dean of the Conservatory David Stull. “This is a marvelous opportunity for our students, and it would not be possible without the significant generosity of the Clonick Family Foundation.” The Conservatory Dean's Office is making available free bus transportation, on a first-come, first-serve basis, for members of the Oberlin community who wish to attend the concert. To reserve a bus seat, please call Nita Karpf at 440-775-8926 or e-mail her at nita.karpf@oberlin.edu . Those planning to ride the bus to Severance Hall must do the following: •  Call the Severance Hall Box Office to reserve a ticket for the concert and •  Call or e-mail Nita Karpf to reserve a seat on the bus and to obtain departure location and time. According to Peter Laki, program annotator for The Cleveland Orchestra and visiting associate professor of music history at Oberlin, Ligeti's Atmosphères is “one of those epoch-making works by which classical music of the early '60s is remembered.” A central idea in the work, says Laki, is “the realization of complete stasis through extensive inner motion. Large portions of the piece consist of extremely dense counterpoint, with up to 56 voices (each string instrument has its own individual part to play). But the imitative entrances are so close to one another that it is impossible to perceive them separately, with apparent immobility as the result.   . . . If we stand by an apparently motionless lake long enough, we become aware of those minute vibrations that we miss if we just walk by — and these vibrations are certainly part of what Atmosphères is all about.” The Oberlin Orchestra is performing the third critical edition of Mahler's Fifth Symphony , which was first performed in Cologne in 1904 under the composer's baton. The appearance in Cleveland by the Oberlin Orchestra is one of several projects to emerge from a new, developing collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. This collaboration builds upon a core element of Oberlin's mission: professional training and contact with one of the world's great orchestras is seminal to a formal music education. On the institutions' collaboration, Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson says, "We are pleased to share our Severance Hall stage with the Oberlin Orchestra, and we welcome these talented young people to Cleveland. The Cleveland Orchestra has long enjoyed an association with Oberlin College and because of Franz Welser-Möst's commitment to education, our relationship with this fine conservatory has been invigorated."  Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst took the Oberlin Orchestra through a rehearsal of Beethoven's Leonore Overture last fall. Several students and recent graduates of the Conservatory's vocal studies program have performed with The Cleveland Orchestra the past two seasons, including the Women of the Oberlin College Choir and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong '02 who made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in March by joining Dame Felicity Lott in Debussy's La Damoiselle élue.
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