Two upcoming concerts presented at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music will focus much-needed attention on HIV/AIDS awareness.

Acclaimed pianist Barbara Nissman, hailed by one New York critic as among “the last pianists in the grand Romantic tradition of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein,” and considered a “magnificent interpreter” of the music of Alberto Ginastera—by no less an authority than the late composer himself—will perform his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28, with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Bridget-Michaele Reischl. The free concert is Sunday, September 30, at 8 p.m. in Finney Chapel, and the program also includes Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68. Portions of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed in Finney Chapel during the concert. Seating for this free concert is by general admission.

Following the concert, the AIDS Quilt will be moved to Oberlin’s Student Union, in Wilder Hall, where it will be on view Monday, October 1, through Sunday, October 6, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

On Friday, October 5, 2007, at 8 p.m. in Warner Concert Hall, singer, guitarist, composer, storyteller, HIV/AIDS activist, and documentary filmmaker Salman Ahmad, of the famed Pakistani band Junoon, will present a concert of his Sufi and rock-infused music, accompanied by tabla. The New York Times music critic Jon Pareles has written that in Pakistan, Ahmad, who bridges East and West, Islam and Christianity,“has become a figure like Bono of U2: a positive-thinking, hugely popular rock musician whose songs address both spiritual and social questions.”

In addition to his performance at Oberlin, Ahmad will screen one of his documentary films, Islamabad Rock City (2001), about the rock group Junoon. A United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, Ahmad uses his celebrity status to work for the positive image of Islam abroad and to create awareness about HIV/AIDS in South Asia. His concert will include a talk that will address, among other things, his upcoming tour of South Asia, the Al-Vida to AIDS College Tour.
 
General admission tickets for Salman Ahmad are $5 for those with an Oberlin College I.D. and $8 for the general public, and can be purchased at Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service by calling 800-371-0178 or 440-775-8169. Local HIV/AIDS organizations will join campus organizations with informational displays in the lobby.

The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, with pianist Barbara Nissman, is sponsored by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Salman Ahmad’s performance is sponsored by Oberlin’s Center for Leadership in Health Promotion. Both concerts are presented with the support of the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation.

Barbara Nissman
Well known for her definitive recordings of the complete piano music of Alberto Ginastera and the complete piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev (recently reissued on Pierian Records), Barbara Nissman’s roots remain within the 19th century. Her connection to Romantic pianism reaffirms her approach to the 20th-century pianism of Prokofiev and Ginastera. Her international career was launched by Eugene Ormandy who had previously engaged her as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has performed with the leading orchestras of Europe and America including the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Munich Philharmonic; in the U.S. she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others. She has worked with some of the major conductors of our time, including Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, and Leonard Slatkin.

Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad is guitarist and composer of the Sufi rock band Junoon, which was founded in the early 1990s and is now a phenomenon in the South Asian music scene and beyond, performing live at BBC’s Mega Mela, the MTV music awards in India, and the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York. With Junoon, Mr. Ahmad has been increasingly involved in humanitarian efforts, playing at the Building Human Rights Culture Gala and the Empower Peace program with students in Pakistan, and fund-raising for Hurricane Katrina victims. Most recently, in coordination with the United Nations, he has joined relief operations for the October 2005 earthquake victims in northern Pakistan.
 
He has produced two documentary films. The Rock Star and the Mullahs tracks Ahmad’s visit to the northern Pakistani town of Peshawar, where he directly challenges the local Muslim clergy who have banned all forms of music. His most recent film, Muslims in America: It’s My Country Too, uncovers the authentic spirit of American Muslims and their experience wrestling with the personal and social consequences of the 9/11 attacks.
 
He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, acting as the U.S. national spokesperson in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He is also on the board of directors of Breakthrough, an international human rights organization that uses education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality, and justice.

HIV/AIDS in America
According to statistics published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,000,000 Americans are living with HIV, and one quarter of these are unaware of their infection. In addition, of the approximately 40,000 new HIV infections that occur each year in the United States, half occur in young adults under the age of 25. More than 40 million people throughout the world live with HIV.

Oberlin College has received a grant from the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and education for students and members of the community through several initiatives, including high-profile musical events and guest speakers.

The Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation
Robert J. Frascino, M.D., a member of Oberlin College’s Board of Trustees, cofounded the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation in 1999 with his life partner, Steven M. Natterstad, M.D. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology at Oberlin College in 1974 and a medical degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, he completed his postdoctoral clinical immunology/allergy fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Frascino then spent 14 years in private practice and as an associate clinical professor of medicine in Stanford University Medical Center’s Division of Immunology, Rheumatology, and Allergy. In 1991, while performing a routine medical procedure on a patient with AIDS, he sustained a hollow bore needle stick and laceration and converted to HIV positive. “I had suddenly transitioned from an HIV specialist physician who provides care to an HIV-positive person who would eventually need care,” he told an interviewer for the Oberlin Alumni Magazine. “My experience has provided me with a unique and privileged view of the pandemic from both sides of the examination table. It allows me to personally address this illness with the experience and mind of an HIV physician specialist, but with the eyes, heart, and soul of an HIV patient.”

Frascino retired from his medical practice in 1996 to concentrate his efforts on AIDS awareness, fund raising, and teaching. Also in 1996, he returned to giving classical piano concerts, having studied piano at the Conservatory while at Oberlin. A series of fundraising concerts to benefit AIDS service organizations, called A Concerted Effort, evolved into the Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation. A resident of Los Altos, California, Frascino is the founder of two medical clinics devoted to the comprehensive and compassionate care of people living with HIV/AIDS. With Dr. Natterstad, also an HIV/AIDS physician specialist and concert pianist, he has raised more than $1,000,000 for AIDS service organizations worldwide.

For more information about the Robert J. Frascino AIDS Foundation, please visit www.concertedeffort.org/.

For more information
To find out more about HIV/AIDS Education Programming at Oberlin College, please call Lori Morgan Flood, Assistant Dean and Director of the Center for Leadership in Health Promotion, at 440-775-5332 or e-mail her at lflood@oberlin.edu. For more information about the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra’s concert with pianist Barbara Nissman, please call the Conservatory’s 24-hour Concert Hotline at 440-775-6933. For more information about the concert by Salmad Ahmad, please call Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at 440-775-8169 or 800-371-0178. Visit www.oberlin.edu for more information about both events. Finney Chapel and Warner Concert Hall are wheelchair accessible, and free parking is available throughout the Oberlin College campus.
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