Music + Art = An Experiment in Synergy     by Betty Gabrielli     RELATED LINKS: Conservatory of Music Allen Memorial Art Museum Bonner Scholars Program Weil-Mier Duo, with Brea Weil-Hearon '05 and Elizabeth Mier '04, performing at the Mar. 7 concert in the Allen Memorial Art Museum. (All Photos by Rebecca Lammons '06) Can linking music and art produce a sum greater than their individual parts? Oberlin Bonner Scholar Brea Weil-Hearon believes it can. To prove it, the double-degree senior joined her interests in music, art, and community service to produce Museum Notes: A Concert Series now underway at the College's Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM). "What is unique about the concerts is that they are being performed in the vicinity of art works related to the music," says Weil-Hearon, who is majoring in flute performance and art history. "The musicians discuss the connections between the two art forms, such as the role the musical and artistic works played in a particular society or similarities in techniques and approaches," she says. Each concert will have a corresponding artistic genre and time period as visual backdrop. On March 18th, for example, The Night, a multimedia group, will perform near works by such modern artists as Carl Andre, Jim Dine, and Audrey Flack in the Ellen Johnson Gallery. The performers also will project visual images onto a wall while they play in the darkened space. Weil-Hearon developed the series as a community outreach project with Sara Hallberg, AMAM curator of education. "We hope Oberlin College and community members, not just those with an interest in art, will take advantage of this opportunity," says Hallberg. "The museum is an educational resource for all." Weil-Hearon is in the ninth semester of Oberlin's 10-semester-long (five year) double-degree program. "When I was looking at schools Oberlin seemed to be the only place where you could combine the intellectual and the artistic and still stay sane," she laughs. "The museum project enables me to explore my interests in music and art as well as community service." She hopes the Museum Notes series will become an annual event and plans to pass on its coordination to an undergraduate Bonner Scholar with similar interests. The Bonner Scholars Program promotes community involvement by replacing the work-study component of eligible students' financial aid awards with stipends, allowing them to devote time to community needs. The free concerts will be held on Thursday, March 18, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, April 18, at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, April 25, at 2 p.m. The performers, all Oberlin Conservatory students, include a flute and bassoon duo, and a multimedia group. The instrumental ensemble from Lake Ridge Academy, an area private school, also will perform. For more information about the series contact the AMAM Education Office at 440-775-8671.