Music – The Oberlin Review

Twin Sister Duo KING Brings Warm Vibes to the Cat

March 13, 2020

Minneapolis-born twin sisters Paris and Amber Strother performed as the duo KING in the Cat in the Cream this past Saturday, March 7. Now based in Los Angeles, the twins call their self-produced electronic sound “eclectic.” Their self-titled first album received a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album of the Year in 2016. On Saturday, KING lit up the cozy space of the Cat, with Amber on high, fluid vocals and Paris on three different synthesizers and a laptop. They used an effect...

Behind the Scenes: “Cosi Fan Tutte” Opens This Wednesday

Casey Troost, Staff Writer

March 6, 2020

Beginning Wednesday at 8 p.m., the Oberlin Opera Theater will continue to uphold a tradition that’s at least four decades old: producing Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte once every 10 years. First performed in 1790, Cosi Fan Tutte is set in Naples and centered around a scheme between three military officers and a maid, Despina, to test the fidelity of two of the officers’ lovers. The eldest officer, Don Alfonso, bets against the younger Ferrando and Guglielmo that, by the end of the day, he will prove that their sweethearts, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, aren’t eternally loyal to them. “It can be a harsh and bitter comedy,” said Costume Designer Chris Flaharty. “At the beginning of its life, it was taken as a...

TIMARA Recital Showcases Combination of Coding and Music

March 6, 2020

At the end of double-degree fourth-year Max Addae’s junior recital, audience members danced on stage as the Technology in Music and Related Arts and Computer Science major coded live beats. The recital, which was performed in Fairchild Chapel last Sunday, was aptly titled Algorhythm, a phrase that refers to the combination of computer algorithms and music used throughout the show. In this performance, Addae used his coding skills in multiple creative ways, capitalizing on the intersection of his...

Emerging Artists to Perform at WOBIE Fest 2020

Jaimie Yue, Arts & Culture Editor

February 21, 2020

Over the next week, experimental, electronic, and rap genres will collide in WOBIE Fest 2020, a live music festival celebrating underrepresented and up-and-coming artists. The concerts will kick off tonight at The ’Sco with performances from HOOK and BKTHERULA. White Fence and L’Rain will perform this Saturday, with Nots and DANA closing the festival next Saturday. College third-year Bridget Conway and College fourth-years Amari Newman and Ben Stevens worked to organize these events. The three are leaders in Oberlin Hip Hop Collective, Student Union Program Committee, and F+ABB: FQTPOC Breaking Boundaries, and they decided to combine forces to host one blowout festival. While this is Oberlin’s first-ever WOBIE...

Behind the Scenes: How Bookers Bring Musicians to Campus

February 14, 2020

A few weeks ago at the 2020 Grammy Awards, pop legend, self-love queen, and all-around icon Lizzo opened the show with her back turned to the audience, arms waving as she conducted the full band in front of her while the celebrity audience cheered. Lizzo won three Grammys in this ceremony. Just over a year earlier, Lizzo headlined Oberlin College’s free rave-style concert, Solarity, in the Heisman Club Field House. This isn’t the only case in which Oberlin has booked musicians just...

Pop and Classical Played Together in “Art song, etc.” Show

February 14, 2020

At “Art song, etc.” this upcoming Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in Stull Recital Hall, “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles will be performed alongside the 1913 art song “À Chloris” composed by Reynaldo Hahn — and it works. Double-degree second-year Kenji Anderson and Conservatory second-year Julia Alexander are the duo behind every cover and performance. Anderson is a Piano and English major, while Alexander is majoring in Vocal Performance. “Art song, etc.” celebrates both stude...

Sing-Along Honors Composer Moses Hogan’s Legacy

February 14, 2020

The fourth annual Moses Hogan Sing-Along was an evening of beautiful music that brought the College and Conservatory as well as Oberlin community members together. This event — which honors Hogan’s legacy as a composer, pianist, arranger of choral music, and conductor — is one of the College’s many celebrations during Black History Month. Hogan graduated from the Conservatory in 1979 and later founded and conducted the Moses Hogan Chorale in 1993. The Chorale performed Hogan�...

Oberlin Students for Gender Inclusivity in Music Presents Phlox

February 7, 2020

Can you think of a famous female, transgender, or nonbinary classical music composer? The average person would likely know the name Beethoven or Bach, but might struggle to recall a composer who’s not a cisgender man. The Phlox Ensembles, an intensive two-week Winter Term orchestra and choir, aim to combat this lack of gender inclusivity by performing works by composers that are not cisgender men. Organized by Oberlin Students for Gender Inclusivity in Music, the ensembles are a spa...

“The Wild Beast of the Bungalow” Premiered at Warner Hall

February 7, 2020

The Winter Term Opera The Wild Beast of the Bungalow premiered this past weekend in a whirl of pink décor, human-sized prairie dogs, and singing chickenpox. Composer Rachel J. Peters describes her work as both “opera that sounds like musical theater” and “musical theater that sounds like opera.” For example, The Wild Beast features traditional opera with sparse orchestration, but also a libretto by Royce Vavrek sung in a barbershop quartet and sixties girl-group style. The opera was born w...

Conservatory Professor Celebrates Grammy Nomination

December 13, 2019

Frank Ocean Graces Our Headphones Once Again

Leo Lasdun

November 15, 2019

There are few living artists as frustrating as Frank Ocean. He has a wizardly ability to attract rabid speculation and curiosity, and yet for years on end he staunchly refuses to indulge any of it. Live performances and interviews rarely materialize; maybe here and there we’re graced with a cryptic Instagram post. The prospect of an album seems laughable. But still, there’s a constant low-frequency hum of cautious excitement for a Frank Ocean album lurking on Reddit forums or in tinfoil-hat essays on Instagram comments. Within the last month, Ocean has given his adoring hive a lot to chew on: DJ sets at exclusive nightclub events in Queens, new episodes of his Beats 1 show blonded RADIO, and most tantalizing o...

DuBois Salon First Step in Honoring Legacy On Campus

November 15, 2019

In February 2018, two Oberlin professors ran into each other in the archives and realized that they were both researching the thesis of the same highly-accomplished Oberlin alumna. Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Fredara Hadley and Assistant Professor of History and Comparative American Studies Tamika Nunley were both inspired by the life and work of Shirley Graham DuBois, OC ’34, and at Nunley’s suggestion they decided to craft a class around her tremendous accomplishments in m...