February 15, 2000
RELEASE ON RECEIPT

Oberlin College's 1999-2000 Convocations Continue with James M. Keller of The New Yorker

Tuesday, March 7, 2000

8:00 p.m.

Finney Chapel

"The Future of Culture in America"

OBERLIN, OHIO -- Oberlin College continues its yearlong consideration of the future of the United States with a lecture by James M. Keller, a writer and editor at The New Yorker. Keller, a 1975 graduate of Oberlin, will discuss the future of culture in America. His lecture is free and open to the public.

Keller's columns on the concert scene, recordings, fine arts and cultural events appear regularly in The New Yorker. A prolific author, his work has been published in numerous magazines, among them Opera News, Travel & Leisure, the Sunday New York Times, Le Monde de la Musique, Gramophone, Newsday, Strings and BBC Music Magazine. He is program editor of the New York Philharmonic and program annotator of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and Juilliard's Daniel Saidenberg faculty concert series. He has been heard as a critic and commentator on National Public Radio's Performance Today, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, and has served as artistic and programming advisor to numerous organizations and festivals.

Much in demand as a lecturer, Keller has been presented as a speaker by the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Purchase College Performing Arts Center, New Jersey Symphony, Caramoor Festival, LaJolla Chamber Music Festival, and Gilmore International Piano Festival. He regularly presents courses for Elderhostel.

Keller was trained as an oboist and musicologist at Oberlin, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree in music history and a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, in French. He holds a Master of Philosophy degree from Yale University and from the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (deuxième cycle). A former specialist in early music and historical performance, his recordings of medieval and Renaissance repertoire for Norton Books' History of Western Music have remained in print (on CBS/Sony Special Products) for more than twenty years.

Throughout the year, Oberlin's 1999-2000 Convocation Series has focused attention on American society by hosting distinguished speakers--nationally respected intellectuals from a broad political and social spectrum--who have explored the theme of the future of the United States.

The Finney Lecture and Student Assemblies committees sponsor the 1999-2000 convocations with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Office of the President of Oberlin College.

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