March 31, 2005—The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra will present a concert at Cleveland's Severance Hall Friday, April 22, at 8 p.m. under the baton of James Gaffigan, assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. He will lead the ensemble in Debussy's Prélude à l'apres-midi d'un faune and La Mer as well as Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (the revised version of 1945), and the prelude to Mussorgsky's opera Khovantchina.

Tickets are $5 for the general public and free for those with an Oberlin College I.D.: students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents.

Seating is general admission. To order, please call the Severance Hall Box Office at 216.231.1111. Severance Hall is located at 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. For additional information please visit oberlin.edu.

This concert is produced with the support of the Kulas Foundation and is dedicated to the distinguished voice professor Helen Hodam, who taught at Oberlin from 1963 to 1984 and whose students included mezzo soprano Denyce Graves '85 and sopranos Lisa Saffer '82 and Ann Panagulias '84.  

Media sponsorship is provided by WCLV 104.9 FM, Cleveland's classical music radio station. WCLV will broadcast the concert live, with a simulcast on wclv.com, beginning at 8 p.m. thanks to the sponsorship of the Riverside Company, a leading private equity firm specializing in premier companies.

"The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is honored to provide this concert for the people of Cleveland and Northern Ohio, and to continue our relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra," says Dean of the Conservatory David Stull. "The opportunity to perform in one of the world's great music halls would not be possible without the generosity of the Kulas Foundation, and we are grateful for their support."

The Conservatory dean's office is making available free bus transportation, on a first-come, first-serve basis, for members of the Oberlin community who wish to attend the concert. Those wishing to ride the bus to Severance Hall must do the following:

• Call the Severance Hall Box Office (216-231-1111) to reserve a ticket for the concert;
• Reserve bus seats in advance by calling or e-mailing Nita Karpf at 440-775-8926 or nita.karpf@oberlin.edu; and
• Report to the Oberlin College Main Library at the Mudd Center parking lot on East College Street no later than 6:15 p.m. Buses will depart promptly at 6:30 p.m.   

According to Peter Laki, program annotator for The Cleveland Orchestra and visiting associate professor of music history at Oberlin, there had been, since the end of the 19th century, "a great affinity between Russia and France." The Oberlin program at Severance Hall, with works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky, reflects that cultural mutuality; Debussy admired and had been influenced by the music of the 19th-century Russian masters, and Sergei Diaghilev's Paris-based Ballets Russes (Diaghilev had worked with Debussy), was the company with whom Stravinsky began a rich and prolific history, beginning with the music he wrote for Michel Fokine's ballet, The Firebird. Laki notes that by virtue of Stravinsky's innovative handling of rhythm and his masterful orchestration (Oberlin is performing his 1945 version; the original was written in 1910), The Firebird has remained Stravinsky's most popular work.

The appearance in Cleveland by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra is one of several projects to emerge from the developing collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. This collaboration builds upon a core element of Oberlin's mission: professional training and contact with one of the world's great orchestras is seminal to a formal music education.

On the institutions' collaboration, Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson says: "We are pleased to share our Severance Hall stage with the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, and we welcome these talented young people to Cleveland. The Cleveland Orchestra has long enjoyed an association with Oberlin College and because of Franz Welser-Möst's commitment to education, our relationship with this fine conservatory has been invigorated." 

Welser-Möst, music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, took the Oberlin Orchestra through a rehearsal of Beethoven's Leonore Overture in 2003. Several students and recent graduates of the Conservatory's vocal studies program have performed with The Cleveland Orchestra the past several seasons, including Todd Boyce '05, Karen Jesse '04 Kathryn Leemhuis '05, Jean Lowe '04, Marie Masters '05, and Rebecca Ringle '02, who sang supporting roles last spring in Richard Strauss's Elektra.

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. Called "a national treasure" by the Washington Post, Oberlin 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.edu.

The Oberlin Conservatory and Music and The Cleveland Orchestra
The roots of the collaboration between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music run wide and deep:

• Founded in December 1918, The Cleveland Orchestra first performed at Oberlin's Finney Chapel in the spring of 1919. Since then it has appeared each season--204 times-- under the auspices of the College's Artist Recital Series. The musicians' roster of The Cleveland Orchestra has consistently included faculty members and graduates of the Oberlin Conservatory. Current and recent members of The Cleveland Orchestra are Associate Professor of Viola da Gamba and Cello Catharina Meints, Teachers of Double Bass Scott Haigh and Thomas Sperl, Teacher of Tuba Ronald Bishop, and Professor of Trombone James DeSano, who retired from the Orchestra in 2003 after more than 30 years. Current members of The Cleveland Orchestra who have graduated from the Conservatory are John Rautenberg '58, associate principal flute; Mary Kay Fink '83, flute and piccolo; Paul Kushious '83, cello; Michael Mayhew '92, associate principal horn; Donald Miller '72, percussion and librarian; and Trina Struble '91, assistant principal harp.
• Oberlin has conferred honorary doctor of music degrees on three past Cleveland Orchestra music directors: Artur Rodzinski, George Szell, and Christoph von Dohnányi.
• Former Oberlin College President Fred Starr served as a national trustee of The Cleveland Orchestra, from 1988 through 1992.
• John Long Severance graduated from Oberlin College in 1885. He was the lead donor for the construction of the Orchestra's opulent home, Severance Hall (the Oberlin campus also boasts a Severance Hall, originally built to house science classrooms). Severance was also the second president of The Cleveland Orchestra's board of trustees.
  

James Gaffigan Biography
James Gaffigan is in his second season as an assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, having been appointed to these posts by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst in June 2003. As assistant conductor, Gaffigan assists Welser-Möst, participates in the planning and conducting of education concerts, conducts Christmas concerts, and serves as cover conductor for Severance Hall subscription concerts and Blossom Festival concerts.

Gaffigan made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Festival in August of 2002, conducting a performance of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy as part of a collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School. During the summers of 2000-2002, he was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, which is directed by David Zinman. In 2002, Gaffigan was the recipient of the first Robert Harth Conducting Award at Aspen. During the summer of 2003, he attended Tanglewood as a conducting fellow. In September 2004, Gaffigan was one of two first prize winners at the Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition, the finals of which took place in Frankfurt, Germany.

Gaffigan served as music director of his first opera production, Mozart's Così fan tutte, in the spring of 2003. He conducted six performances of the opera at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he was enrolled in the graduate conducting program. During the fall of 2002, Gaffigan took part in Synergy, a program organized by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra League. As part of this program, he premiered a new work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the guidance of Esa-Pekka Salonen. Next, Gaffigan covered a series of concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with guest conductor André Previn. Also in the fall of 2002, Gaffigan conducted a regional tour with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he led the Houston Symphony in rehearsal for Hans Graf during the 2002-03 season.

Gaffigan is a native of New York City, where he began musical studies at the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, and in the Juilliard Preparatory Division. His undergraduate degree is from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he worked closely with Boston Philharmonic conductor Benjamin Zander and received the first Benjamin Zander Conducting Fellowship, which played a key role in Gaffigan's emergence as a young conductor. In May 2003, Gaffigan received his graduate degree in conducting from Rice University, where he studied with Larry Rachleff. Gaffigan also has studied conducting with Frank Battisti, Jorma Panula, and Robert Spano.

About the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra
The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra is one of more than 25 student ensembles at the Conservatory; 75 members of the chamber orchestra will appear on stage for the performance at Severance Hall, for which J Freivogel, of Kirkwood, Missouri, will be concertmaster. He is a student of Professor of Violin Marilyn McDonald and is completing his fourth year in Oberlin's double degree program; he will graduate in 2006 with a bachelor of music degree as well as a bachelor of arts in politics. A recipient of the Presser Music Award and the Kaufman Prize, he was named one of Northeast Ohio's "Best and Brightest" in 2004 by Northern Ohio Live magazine. Freivogel is first violinist of the Jasper Quartet; with them he will attend the Advanced Quartet Studies Program at the Aspen Music Festival this summer.

The Oberlin Chamber Orchestra follows a demanding schedule of six hours of rehearsal each week as well as concerts every three to four weeks. Students are exposed to a cross section of orchestral literature, and perform well-known works from the standard orchestral repertoire as well as less familiar works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. The orchestra also collaborates with the Oberlin Opera Theater and the Conservatory's larger choral ensembles.

Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, is professor of conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory. Other conductors on the Oberlin faculty are Timothy Weiss, Hugh Floyd, John Knight, Wendell Logan, and Philip Highfill. Guest conductors of the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra have included Sir Simon Rattle, Robert Shaw, Michael Morgan, Hugh Wolff, Catherine Comet, Oscar Shumsky, Eve Queler, and composer John William--most recently at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Helen Hodam
Helen Hodam is one of the most beloved and distinguished vocal teachers in the United States. She taught at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1963 until 1984, where her students included renowned mezzo soprano Denyce Graves '85 and sopranos Lisa Saffer '82 and Ann Panagulias '84. Hodam's students have performed with all of the major American opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and the San Francisco Opera, and with European opera companies, including those in Cologne, Munich, Bremen, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Madrid, and Amsterdam.

Currently retired from the voice faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music, she has been associated with the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy.

Hodam trained in New York, London, and Vienna.