Music / Conservatory
Jeffrey Hill '09
On his voice teacher, Kendra Colton '83: "She taught with a firm, guided, and encouraging hand, but always listened openly to my thoughts and ideas. She allowed me to find my own voice instead of telling me what I should be." [more]Nancy Chapple '83
On living the double-degree life: "There was no holding me back, and I plunged into both areas of study. My weekday schedule was intense ... the discipline to practice and study, the drive to learn came from inside." [more]Martha Cargo '07
On singing with Collegium Musicum: "Monday and Wednesday afternoons, beginning promptly at 4:30 in Fairchild Chapel, were brief windows of respite from our otherwise whirlwind college lives." [more]Sean Hanson '11
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." [more]Prof. Lewis Nielson
On Oberlin's composition students: "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." [more]Nathan Heidelberger '10
On working with composer Helmut Lachenmann: "Working with him was an opportunity of a lifetime, and I don't think it could have happened anywhere else, at least not for a non-pianist like me." [more]Hannah Levinson '09
On playing Carnegie Hall: "I never truly understood the relationship between a conductor and an orchestra until I played under Robert Spano '83." [more]Patty Stubel '09
On playing Ottavia: "While it's entertaining to talk about my grand expertise in lying on the floor, this experience truly did expand my abilities as a performer." [more]Lillie Chilen '08
On playing Poppea: "It's still hard to believe that as a lowly undergrad, I got the chance to play Poppea - opera's earliest gold digger - and find the music that truly fits my voice." [more]Avery Waite '10
On Oberlin's Contemporary Music Ensemble: "In this new music, I heard nothing, only an ugly idiom that my ear could not, would not grasp... Then something happened that I'll never forget." [more]Steven Roth '77
On Oberlin students singing Sondheim songs... for Sondheim: "The students sang some of the more difficult songs in the Sondheim canon and nailed each one - fully knowing that he was backstage listening to them." [more]
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