Hannah Parkins ’16 and Davis Erickson ’16

I’m Hannah, and I’m in my fourth year at Oberlin pursuing degrees in caffeine and all-nighters in Mudd, casually earning degrees in creative writing and French horn performance. As a career, I'm looking for a way to merge musical and literary worlds into educational outreach. I’ve been lucky enough to work with several nonprofit organizations in arts administration, which has since fueled a desire to blog, journalize and write creatively for a cause.

My name is Davis and I’m from Jacksonville, Illinois (I live in Langston Hall here on campus). I’m a third-year music student at the Oberlin Conservatory where I operate the heavy machinery at the back of the orchestra (i.e. the tuba). I hope to have a career in academia as both a performer and educator. I currently work as a tutor with America Reads where I do outreach in the Oberlin city schools, and I have served a similar role with the conservatory’s music mentors program. I am a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy where I studied tuba with Tom Riccobono and am currently a student of Detroit Symphony tubist Dennis Nulty.

Together, we are the hosts of our weekly podcast. We are both students in the conservatory (Hannah’s also in the college) and we have a passion for discussing music and the arts as they relate to the greater world. We have been good friends and colleagues here at Oberlin since day one. We both hope to have careers in creative fields and are really excited to share the podcast with you!

In these episodes, we will chat with other conservatory students and members of the Oberlin community. We will cover a variety of topics that will range from casual musings to more profound ponderings. One of our ultimate goals is to make classical music more accessible to more people, and we hope that by talking casually and passionately about the performing arts, we will include people who otherwise would not have considered classical music “for them."

Our podcast will address any and all topics relevant to being human, and the glue that binds these episodes together will be the general theme of music. We plan to just let the conversations evolve organically so every installment will be unique, not simply the same interview with a different person each week - frankly that would be very boring! We hope to get to know every one of our guests so that you can hear a variety of perspectives from performing artists and community members. The plan is to have an entertaining, thought-provoking weekly show that anyone can engage with at any time.

We look forward to recording many episodes with many exciting guests! Thanks for tuning in.