The Oberlin Orchestra is the largest of the more than 25
student ensembles at the Conservatory; more
than 120 members of the orchestra will appear on stage for the performance at
Severance Hall, for which Caroline Slack, of
Vashon Island, Washington, will be concertmaster. She is a student of Professor
of Violin Gregory Fulkerson and will graduate in May 2004.
Like the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, its
smaller counterpart, the Oberlin Orchestra follows a demanding schedule of six
hours of rehearsal each week as well as concerts every three to four weeks.
Students in both orchestras are exposed to a cross section of orchestral
literature, and both perform well-known works from the standard orchestral
repertoire as well as less familiar works ranging from the baroque to the
contemporary. Both orchestras also collaborate with the Oberlin Opera Theater
and the Conservatory¹s larger choral ensembles.
Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is professor of conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory. Guest conductors of the Oberlin Orchestra have included Robert Shaw, Michael Morgan, Hugh Wolff, Catherine Comet, Oscar Shumsky, and composer John Williams ‹ most recently at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. In addition to Franz Welser-Möst, Sir Simon Rattle of the Berlin Philharmonic rehearsed the orchestra in fall 2003.