Oberlin President Nancy S. Dye has been named one of eight recipients of the 1997 Greater Cleveland Women of Achievement awards by the YWCA of Cleveland. She and the other honorees received their awards May 9 at a benefit luncheon at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.
The award honors women who have demonstrated outstanding achievement or distinction in their careers or in community work, and whose leadership qualities allow them to serve as role models. Award winners are asked to work with the YWCA of Cleveland in acquainting Cleveland's young women with successful women leaders.
A community-wide nomination process and an independent roster of judges were utilized to determine the award recipients, according to the materials released by the YMCA.
Birdblind, the postgraduate senior honors project of Josh Bergey '96, Oberlin's first interdisciplinary performance major, was selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival Regionals last January.
The play, the story of a woman with Alzheimer's disease, was chosen for excellence in both script and production and was "strongly considered" as a contender to compete in the finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Both the opportunity to work directly with the playwright on the first production of Birdblind and the theater competition itself were described as "very exciting" by director Jane Armitage and stage manager Rebecca Gershowitz, a sophomore. The play was performed again at Oberlin during Commencement.
Denitza Kostova, a Conservatory senior, has won the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Violin Fellowship Competition and becomes concertmaster of that orchestra September 1, 1997. Her prize includes concerto performances with the symphony on the opening night of the next two seasons and three solo recitals.
The national competition, held at the Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts in Montgomery, was open to all violinists under age 35. Kostova, 23, prevailed over 25 entrants to win. Helen Steineker, manager of the Montgomery Symphony, marveled at Kostova's playing, saying that it "leapt off the stage and captured my attention with its spirit and immediacy."
Kostova, whose home is Pazardgik, Bulgaria, is a student of Professor of Violin Taras Gabora. Last year, she was a semifinalist at the Paganini Violin Competition in Italy. Her previous honors include the Gold Medal at the Bulgarian National Festival of Music, First Prize in the Nedialka Simeonova Competition, Second Prize in the Svetoslau Obretanov Competition, and First Prize in the Rio Hondo Symphony Concerto Competition.
Residential Life and Services recently organized a Housing Extravaganza to encourage students to file their housing and dining request forms before the deadline.
On the evening of March 5, live bands entertained hundreds of students while they explored information booths in Wilder Hall. Not only was the event "educational," according to Tracy Murry, an area coordinator, but it also made the process "easier and quicker."
A raffle was a further incentive for students to file early. Prizes included Oberlin gear and a small refrigerator, but the grand prize was a trip to Orlando, Florida. A trip for two to Walt Disney World "started out as a joke," explained Murry. But the dream became reality for junior Laura Franks, who was slated to travel in late April.
Oberlin students stole the show at a national conference of English faculty titled "Cultures of Writing: Places, Spaces, and Interfaces of Writing and Writing Technologies," held at Case Western Reserve University in late February.
An Oberlin team led by Professor of Expository Writing and English Len Podis attended the conference and presented a talk titled "Peer Tutoring as Alternative Culture of Writing." Co-presenting the talk were Jeremiah Dyehouse '97, Joshua Kizner '97, and Virginia Pryor '98, who are all peer tutors.
The talk focused on the position peer tutors hold between faculty members and students, and it also dealt with issues related to authority. The three Oberlin students were the only undergraduates attending the conference. Their talk was well received by the other participants, who went on to direct many of their questions to the students.
The renowned St. Petersburg String Quartet of St. Petersburg, Russia, will be the Quartet-in-Residence at the Conservatory of Music in 1997-98, Dean Karen L. Wolff recently announced. The residency will be funded by a $125,000 grant from the Reinberger Foundation.
The quartet will perform the entire cycle of the 15 Shostakovich string quartets in five concerts throughout the year. The group will also perform as part of the Artist Recital Series. The residency will also offer master classes, open rehearsals, and chamber music coaching sessions for Oberlin students. Quartet members and their families will live in Oberlin during the residency.
Working with such a premier ensemble promises to be an exceptional opportunity for Oberlin students, said Jeffrey Irvine, professor of viola and director of the string division. "They have a wonderful feel for the Russian quartet literature and for the classics, and they teach with an intensity and devotion that will be very inspiring to our students."
Associate Professor of Physics John Scofield's course "Energy Usage and Generation for Buildings," cross-listed with physics and environmental studies, is not just full of hot air. For a class project, 17 students made calculations of the heat loss of their professor's 90-year-old home and then put those calculations to the test.
The students compared their findings to those of the sophisticated computer programs, infrared camera , and smoke pencil observations of Energy Design Alternatives , a local contracting firm. According to Scofield, the students' results were fairly accurate, taking into account the many variables of the actual home.
"This project couples well with the kinds of community-school collaborations that we hope to see grow in the future," Scofield said. Ideally, he would like to purchase heat calculation and detection equipment and train his students to use it. Then he would like to open his classes to local contractors and set up related internships for his students.
Professors Roland and Almita Vamos, members of Oberlin's string faculty since 1992, have been named recipients of the 1997 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Distinguished Service Award.
The ASTA award is given each year to string teachers who have proven leadership and commitment to their profession. Between them, the Vamoses teach approximately 60 students; six of those students reside with the couple. Both have won Presidential Excellence in Teaching awards. The pair has become widely known for training students who go on to win major international competitions, including the Tibor Varga, Leopold Mozart, Yehudi Menuhin, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and International Bach competitions.
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