Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music Awarded 2009 National Medal of Arts

What an exciting time to be alumni of Oberlin!

From the press release:


The Oberlin Conservatory of Music Awarded
2009 National Medal of Arts

Honor Conferred by President Barack Obama in White House Ceremony on February 25

OBERLIN, OHIO (February 25, 2010)—The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a recipient of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given by the United States government to artists and arts patrons in recognition of the wealth and depth of their creative expressions. President Barack Obama is presenting the award to Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull at a White House ceremony today in the East Room. Those in attendance include Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, Robert Lemle, chair of Oberlin College's Board of Trustees, and trustee Stewart Kohl. A gala dinner celebrating the honorees took place at the National Museum of American History yesterday evening, sponsored by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is the only professional music school to be so honored by President Obama. The other honorees for 2009 are: singer and songwriter Bob Dylan; director and actor Clint Eastwood; graphic designer Milton Glaser; architect and sculptor Maya Lin; singer, dancer, and actress Rita Moreno; soprano Jessye Norman; arts patron and design advocate Joseph P. Riley Jr.; painter and sculptor Frank Stella; conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; composer and conductor John Williams; and the School of American Ballet.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) administrates the National Medal of Arts.

“These individuals and organizations show us how many ways art works every day. They represent the breadth and depth of American architecture, design, film, music, performance, theatre, and visual art,” says NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “This lifetime honor recognizes their exceptional contributions, and I join the President and the country in saluting them.”

Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, who was appointed by President Obama to the National Council on the Humanities in 2009, says: “Being awarded the National Medal of Arts is a tremendous honor for the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. It is a great tribute to the conservatory’s faculty, staff, and students, past and present, whose relentless dedication to achieving excellence is the hallmark of music at Oberlin.”

Renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music has been called a “national treasure” by the Washington Post. Established in 1865 as one of the two divisions of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, the conservatory is America’s oldest continuously operating conservatory of music and is the only major music school in the U.S. devoted primarily to the education of undergraduate musicians.

“This is an extraordinary moment in the history of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music,” says Dean Stull. “It is directly attributable to the brilliant work undertaken by generations of faculty, students, and alumni since our founding more than 140 years ago. We should all take great pride in receiving the highest honor in the land for artistic excellence and achievement. I offer my deepest gratitude to President Obama for his recognition of Oberlin, and for including us in his first group of honorees to receive the National Medal of Arts.”

ABOUT THE NATIONAL MEDAL OF ARTS
The National Medal of Arts is designed to honor exemplary individuals and organizations that have encouraged the arts in America and offered inspiration to others through their distinguished achievement, support, or patronage. Unlike other awards, it is not limited to a single field or area of artistic endeavor. Congress established the award in 1984 to honor “individuals or groups who, in the President’s judgment, are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States.” The National Council on the Arts is responsible for making recommendations to the President of worthy individuals and organizations to receive the medal, which was designed by internationally renowned sculptor Robert Graham (1938-2008), who created the Olympic Gateway for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The Robert Graham Studio, located in Venice, California, produces the medals.

Past recipients of the National Medal of Arts include actors, architects, artists, art historians, arts patrons, choreographers and dancers, composers, musicians, poets and writers, ensembles, arts organizations, and schools. The pantheon of individuals and groups honored with the award include, among others, the actors Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, and James Earl Jones; artists Georgia O’Keefe, Romare Bearden, and Willem de Kooning; composers Elliott Carter Jr. and Aaron Copland; composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim; dancers and choreographers Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, and Merce Cunningham; musicians Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Rudolf Serkin, and Isaac Stern; singers Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn Horne (Distinguished Visiting Professor of Voice at Oberlin), and Barbra Streisand; writers Saul Bellow, Eudora Welty, and John Updike; National Public Radio, and, this year, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Civic Leadership Event in Oberlin

Have you ever wanted to use your knowledge and experience, along with your background as an Obie, to help out the next generation of Obies? Now you have a chance!

Some of the students that joined us for the Black River Café event have created an ExCo (Experimental College) course entitled "Civic Leadership." Poy, Jiayu, Luke and Phebe are teaching Oberlin students some of the practical skills they will need to accomplish their goals to change the world. One of the skills they're teaching is communication--how to pitch an idea effectively and concisely to a diverse group of people in a networking situation. The 16 students are working on social change issues, and are passionate about doing what they can to change the world, in true Oberlin spirit.

On Friday, March 12, from 6:30-8pm, join the students and teachers of the Civic Leadership ExCo course, Oberlin College Faculty and other Cleveland Area alumni at Peters Hall for an evening of meeting with students, helping them out and light refreshments.

We will meet with the students, get to know them and hear their ideas and proposals, and help them along their way to better achieve their goals, giving any input and advice we may have.

Peters Hall is located at 50 North Professor Street, Oberlin, OH. Parking is available along the street throughout town.

I do hope you can join us on Friday, March 12. Please RSVP by Wednesday, March 10 by contacting me at kmcgirr@gmail.com

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Collegium Musicum Reunion Concert

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Professor Steven Plank directing the Collegium Musicum of Oberlin. Over fifty alumni singers will return to campus for a gala concert on Saturday, February 20, featuring Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium as well as other compositions. This concert is sure to be spectacular. The concert will begin at 8pm in Warner Concert Hall at Oberlin Conservatory, 77 West College St., Oberlin, OH 44074. Admission is free.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dinner at Black River Café

For those of you that were able to make it to the dinner at Black River Café on January 28 – it was delightful to see all of you and meet so many new people! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and enjoyed meeting with the current Oberlin Students participating in the Winter Term Entrepreneurial Scholars Project.



Perhaps not the most fabulous photo ever, but it shows how full the event was!

I hope to see all of you again in the near future. For those of you that weren’t able to make it, we hope to make the dinner at Black River Café at least an annual event, and hope to see you there in the future. Many thanks to Joe Waltzer ’98, owner of Black River Café, for such a lovely evening.

March Event at MOCA

The Oberlin Club of Cleveland invites you and a guest to a very special alumni event at MOCA. From Then to Now: Masterworks of Contemporary African American Art will display pieces from the Allen Memorial Art Museum - unprecedented in our region, the exhibition brings together for the first time the rich holdings of contemporary African-American art drawn from preeminent collections of contemporary art in the region including the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Addressing a range of themes and issues, the exhibition presents an overview of the rich cultural heritage voiced by contemporary African-American artists in their examination of history, identity, and memory.

Thursday, March 18, 2010
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

MOCA
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
8501 Carnegie Avenue
Cleveland, OH
www.mocacleveland.org

6:00 p.m. - Registration and Reception with hors d'oeuvres & cocktails
6:30 p.m. - Introduction and remarks by Andria Derstine, Curator of Collections and Curator of European & American Art for the Allen Memorial Art Museum
7:00 - 8:00 p.m. - Reception and viewing of the galleries

RSVP by Monday, March 15th at www.alumni.oberlin.edu/eventregistration. Questions can be directed to the Alumni Office at 440-775-8692