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CREDO CHAMBER MUSIC ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES PROGRAMMING
JUNE 17, 2003--P eter Slowik, professor of viola at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College and artistic director of Credo Chamber Music Association, announces the organization's fifth summer of programming with activities that include a series of public Oberlin concerts--many of which are free--and a concert tour in Indiana and the Chicago area.
Credo’s Oberlin program will be held on the campus of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from July 6 to July 19. Approximately 60 college-age students chosen from nearly 120 applicants nationwide will participate in 14 days of chamber music, community service work, and worship.
Credo participants will perform volunteer work at the Lorain County Metroparks and at the Oberlin Early Childhood Center. They will also present free concerts at the Grafton Correctional Facility and at Kendal at Oberlin.
This year Credo announces a new program, Opus 1, designed for younger students ages 12 through 18. Held on the Conservatory campus from June 22 to July 5, Opus 1 will allow these young students to experience chamber music settings while modeling Credo’s design of nurturing students artistically and spiritually.
"Credo Chamber Music Association is unusual because of the way it combines musical excellence with high-level professional training in an environment of service," says Slowik, an internationally known concert and recording artist. "Credo's unique program of musical and personal growth continues to challenge and nurture the country's finest string players. It is a great pleasure to bring these national competition winners to Oberlin to share the vision of service with art and being."
Slowik founded Credo in 1999 as a professor at Northwestern University. Parents of serious music students, as well as several Chicago-area music educators and pastors, joined him in creating the first session.
Recent Credo students are an accomplished lot, having won on the state and national levels in the American String Teachers’ Solo Competition and at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They hail from the nation’s top conservatories, including Eastman, Indiana, Juilliard, Oberlin, and Peabody, and some have been principal players from youth orchestras in Atlanta, Chicago, and Milwaukee. CCMA faculty hold such positions as the dean of Juilliard and seats in the nation’s top orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony (principal). Artist Director Peter Slowik is past president of the American Viola Society.
"Credo’s success lies in its unique design," says Slowik. "Credo’s high-level professional training includes the most instructional time devoted to chamber music (1.5 hours daily) of any program in the country. Individual contact with faculty members, who are leading artist-teachers, is provided through private lessons and master classes. What further sets Credo apart is the program’s emphasis on service and spiritual growth. Credo teaches students to ‘offer’ every part of their being to others, serving them with simple physical labor (cleaning homeless shelters, etc.), as well as using their specially developed musical gifts by playing concerts for those who could not otherwise have the opportunity to hear live music. Through this unusually healthy approach to music study as the extension of a focused and balanced life, Credo empowers its students to be more productive members of their communities, musical ensembles, and families."
For more information about Credo Chamber Music Association, please contact Peter Slowik at 440-878-4539 (evening) or 440-775-8235 (day).
Media Contact: Marci Janas
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