On Oberlin’s composition students
Prof. Lewis Nielson
“It’s routine for me to be told by our guests that our students are the best they encounter anywhere in the world, not just for the quality of the works they display but also for the incisiveness of their thinking and the well-informed nature of their views.”

What makes Oberlin Conservatory the leading undergraduate school in Composition is, quite simply, the new music community that exists here. We have an excellent faculty, a highly specialized and focused curriculum, and a wonderful array of concerts and guests. But the most central to the health of the program is the continuous, supportive, and basically harmonious interaction of student composers and performers, which has created a strong community of literally 100 majors in the Contemporary Music Division and another 50-odd performers from the Contemporary Music Ensemble and other groups. These students stimulate new ideas and push the level of creative activity to a level unknown at almost any other institution in the US, graduate or undergraduate.
When famous guests come here for a residency, the first thing they notice is this mixture of composers and performers (and also a goodly number of outstanding composer-performers) who are never hesitant to ask questions and have little inhibition in what they are willing and able to attempt musically. It’s routine for me to be told by our guests that our students are the best they encounter anywhere in the world, not just for the quality of the works they display in master classes but also for the incisiveness of their thinking and the well-informed nature of their views. This communal element is a substantial percentage of any Oberlin composer’s education, making our curriculum highly practical and professional in thrust.
During his residency at the Conservatory last May, composer Helmut Lachenmann spent hours upon hours coaching, teaching, and critiquing our Oberlin’s student performers and composers. His extended stay allowed the students to perform his works with his own verbal input in mind, and allowed him to really get to know our students. By hearing, studying, and playing many works by the same composer, we all gained a richer understanding of Lachenmann’s musical voice and ideas. At the end of his time in Oberlin, Herr Lachenmann told me that our students were most interesting, and he was so impressed at their ability to discuss their own and other music with him. Although I am honored, I am not surprised that Oberlin’s composers and contemporary music performers garner praise from such distinguished members of the global new music community.
Tags:
You may also like

On the common language of music
“In trying to redefine myself in a new place and establish my new identity as an Oberlin student, I soon realized that what had once made me stand out instead now connected me to everyone around me.”
Claire Coleman ’17

On learning to play the Gamelan
“...the difficulty helps me begin to lose my identity in the group and let me center myself. It’s become a way of life for me, and changed the way I view everything around me.”
Sean Hanson ’11

On Oberlin’s inclusive music scene
“Collaboration plays a fundamental role in the community’s constant appetite for great art. This inclusivity is indicative of the communal Oberlin personality that makes it such an incredible place.”
Charles Abbott ’14