JANUARY 23, 2003—Area children and their families are invited to attend a free workshop and concert to be presented Saturday, Feb. 7 by the Oberlin Music Coalition, an Oberlin Conservatory student music outreach organization.

Both Coalition events will take place in Warner Concert Hall in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the corner of Professor and West College Streets.

The workshop, titled "Opera and Ballet: a Fusion of the Arts," will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will offer audience members the opportunity to "learn about staging, costuming, swordfights, and the hows and whys of the two arts," says Coalition Chair Barry Garrett ’05. The workshop will also include the popular musical "petting zoo" in the Warner Concert Hall lobby, where "children of all ages will have the opportunity to see and touch the orchestral instruments they will encounter in the concert."

At 3 p.m., the Coalition’s All-Star Orchestra, comprised of Oberlin Conservatory students and conducted by John Goodell‘98, a co-founder of the Oberlin Music Coalition, will perform movements from several operas and ballets, including the overture from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and the opera’s "Queen of the Night" aria, sung by soprano Megan Radder '05; the overture to Smetana’s opera The Bartered Bride; the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night's Dream; and the finale of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

The concert will mark Goodell’s fourth appearance as guest conductor for the Oberlin Music Coalition Concerts. Last year, he completed a master's degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Michigan and is an associate conductor of the Boychoir of Ann Arbor, which will be touring in the Czech Republic this summer. He is also the founder of HearMePlay.com, a website that provides music resources for performers, teachers, students, and parents.

Now in its ninth year, the Oberlin Music Coalition aims to facilitate musical interaction between Oberlin students and the broader Oberlin community through music workshops for local schools and community groups and the annual winter children’s concert.