January 11, 2005—The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) will present a program at New York City's Merkin Concert Hall that will include the world premiere of a work by composer Lewis Nielson, professor of composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The Conservatory has long been an undergraduate haven for many nationally acclaimed chamber musicians and ensembles, including the new music group eight blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

The CME concert will take place Sunday, January 23, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 for the general public and free for those with an Oberlin College I.D. For more information, please call the Merkin Hall box office at (212) 501-3330. Merkin Hall is located in the Kaufman Center at 129 W. 67 th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam.

The program, conducted by Oberlin's Strickland Gardner Professor of Music Timothy Weiss, will feature Nielson's Anabasis as well as Charles Wuorinen's Arabia Felix , the U.S. premiere of Jonathan Harvey's Death of Light/Light of Death, and, with baritone Michael Weyandt, Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King. Stage direction for the Davies' piece is by Oberlin Assistant Director of Opera Theater Victoria Vaughan.

This is the second New York appearance of the CME in less than a year. In March 2004, Weiss led the ensemble in an all-Nielson program at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall that music critic Anthony Aibel, writing for the New York Concert Review, called "unbelievably polished, superb ... [and] impeccable."

Considered one of the premiere new music ensembles in higher education in the United States, the CME performs music of all styles and genres, with a repertoire that is as broad as the entirety of contemporary music. In addition to premiering works by student, faculty, and alumni composers, the CME has given first performances of new works by prominent composers, including James Dillon's The Soadie Waste and an upcoming work by Jason Eckhart. The CME also offers students the chance to perform with such famous exponents of modern music as Steven Schick, Marilyn Nonken, and Ursula Oppens, among many others. In May 2005, the CME, under the baton of Timothy Weiss, will perform two concerts of works by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, who will be in residence at the Oberlin Conservatory.

Timothy Weiss, who also directs the Oberlin Conservatory of Music's conducting division, holds a diploma from the Liège Conservatory and degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. His repertoire in contemporary music is vast, and includes masterworks, very recent compositions, and an impressive number of premieres. Weiss also conducts the Oberlin Wind Ensemble.

Lewis Nielson studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, at Clark University in Massachusetts, and at the University of Iowa, where he received a Ph.D. in music theory and composition. His more than 90 works are published by Seesaw Music Corp. and through American Composers Edition. He has received numerous commissions from chamber ensembles and solo performers, and many grants and awards, including those from the National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer. He chairs Oberlin's composition department and serves as director of its contemporary music division.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated within the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. It is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber, and its alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. Numerous Oberlin alumni have attained stature as solo performers, composers, and conductors, among them Jennifer Koh, Steven Isserlis, Denyce Graves, Franco Farina, Lisa Saffer, George Walker, Christopher Rouse, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. All of the members of the contemporary music ensembles eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) are Oberlin graduates, and members of the Miró, Pacifica, Juilliard, and Fry Street quartets, among others, include Oberlin alumni, who can also be found in major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world.

For more information about Oberlin, please visit Oberlin's web site.