Lewis Nielson, chair Josh Levine Tom Lopez Randolph Coleman   • Audition Requirements CME 2008 Tour to Feature Faculty Works -Far From Music Capitals, an Ohio Conservatory Fosters Contemporary Sounds -The Conservatory to Present U.S. Premiere of Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway -The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble to Present World Premieres in Oberlin, Cleveland, and New York -Kevin McHugh '06 Is Named Watson Fellow -Award-Winning Contemporary Music Ensemble to Perform with Violinist Jennifer Koh ’97 at New York City’s Miller Theatre -Composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle in Residence at Oberlin May 1-9		CURRICULA The composition curriculum emphasizes comprehensive musical training that allows students to develop their own compositional voices. Introductory courses taken during the first two years provides broad exposure to various compositional styles. These courses are conducted in half-semester-long units, with each unit focused on a different aspect of the craft of composing and taught by a different member of the composition faculty. During the first and second years, students may also take courses in synthesizer/MIDI, sampling instruments and computer technology, jazz studies, and ethnomusicology. In the junior year students enter private instruction with the professor of their choice, culminating in the composition of two large-scale works, one for a large ensemble such as orchestra or wind ensemble and the second an extended piece for a smaller instrumentation. Juniors also take an orchestration class in which they compare techniques of orchestration used by composers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, analyze traditional orchestral settings, investigate the notational issues of more innovative contemporary music, and write and score original compositions. The composition seminar, open to majors in all years, provides students with a variety of activities designed to promote their development as composers. Students analyze works by composers who will be visiting the campus, attend score-reading sessions and open rehearsal-discussions of works being prepared for performance, and do readings in criticism and aesthetics. Visits from artists in the College departments of dance, theater, art, and creative writing offer other perspectives as well. PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES The composition curriculum is enhanced by Oberlin's varied concert life, which in a typical year includes experimental, jazz, improvisational, rock, technological, traditional, theater, avant-garde, minimalist, and composer-as-performer, among other forms of musical expression. Performance of students' works is a high priority, and virtually all students' pieces are performed and recorded on tape for further study. Most Composition modules conclude with a concert of works written for the courses. The department schedules three additional concerts each semester devoted entirely to new works by students. The Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Oberlin Orchestra, and the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra perform works by student composers, and the TIMARA program schedules concerts that include student works. The Midwest Composers Symposium (a consortium of five schools including Oberlin) and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony (a professional ensemble) also perform students' works. Composition majors are also encouraged to write for Oberlin's theater and dance productions, as well as for film and video projects, and in recent years they have written and produced an opera and a full-scale musical. ACCOLADES Oberlin student composers frequently take top honors in such prestigious competitions as the annual BMI and ASCAP competitions, and they have received Fulbright, Watson, Mellon, Guggenheim, and other fellowships. Three Oberlin composition graduates--Pierre Jalbert '86, John Fitz Rogers '89, and Benedict Weisser '89--won the three commissions awarded in the FIRST MUSIC 9 competition sponsored by the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra; their compositions were premiered in Carnegie Hall during the 1992-93 season. Two Oberlin graduates have won Pulitzer Prizes in music: George Walker '41 won the award in 1996 for his composition Lilacs, a work for soprano voice and orchestra commissioned and premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Christopher Rouse '71 won the award in 1993 for his Trombone Concerto, a three-movement work commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic. GUEST COMPOSERS Oberlin's new music committee brings distinguished composers and musicians to the campus each semester to give master classes, symposia, and sometimes to conduct student ensembles in presentations of the composers' own works. Recent visitors to campus have included John Adams, Luciano Berio, George Burt, David Del Tredeci, Donald Erb, Lukas Foss, Daniel Kennedy, Edwin London, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Gunther Schuller, Tan Dun, Nicholas Thorne, John Williams, and Ramon Zupko. ALUMNI Composition students are prepared for graduate study or professional work in music composition. The majority of students who continue their education are accepted at leading graduate schools of music, and they are usually awarded graduate assistantships and fellowships. Graduates pursue professional careers as composers of electronic and computer music, jazz, rock, concert music, and music for theater, dance, and film. Some work in the recording industry, while others conduct orchestras and new music ensembles or are resident composers with major orchestras. Still others teach composition at colleges and universities.