famous aria “Die Holle Rache,” which is among the music recordings on NASA’s Voyager space probe. The Post critic wrote: “I’m sorry the version making its way through the galaxy was not from the incandescent production of the opera conceived and directed by Peter Brook.”
Soprano Rebecca Ringle ’03 performed with the Metropolitan Opera this season as Rossweise in Robert Lepage’s landmark production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The three complete cycles performed in spring 2013 celebrated the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Ringle has previously performed with the Met in productions of John Adams’ Nixon in China and Wagner’s Die Walküre.
Fei Xie ’04, who joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in January 2008 as second bassoonist, was named principal
at the start of the 2012-13 season. That appointment followed what was described as “an extensive search” by Music Director Marin Alsop and an audition committee to find a successor to Phil Kolker, who retired in 2010. Xie is the first Chinese bassoonist to hold the principal position in a major American symphony, according to a statement from the orchestra.
Emily Brebach ’05 joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as its new English hornist and oboist in September 2012. Brebach studied oboe performance with James Caldwell and Robert Walters at the Oberlin Conservatory before earning her master’s degree from Rice University in 2007. Prior to joining the Atlanta Symphony, Brebach held the position of English horn and oboe with the Sarasota Orchestra for two seasons. Oberlin’s support has been indispensable to her success, she said— particularly her current connections with Walters. “I would be remiss if I didn’t say that a large part of my professional trajectory is due to the mentorship that I’ve had with Robert Walters,” she said. “He came in and subbed for Mr. Caldwell, and I’ve continued that relationship until now.” Brebach is excited to
OBERLIN conservatory magazine 2013
be in Atlanta to connect with the thriving community of Oberlin graduates there. Oberlin alumni inhabit the viola and bassoon sections, the conductor’s podium, and the Atlanta School of Composers, a group founded by conductor Robert Spano ’84 that works regularly with the orchestra.
James Feddeck ’05 is wrapping up his four-year term as assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and music director of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. In the spring, he stepped in for an ailing conductor Franz Welser-Möst for a three-concert series of Orff’s Carmina Burana, of which the Plain Dealer wrote: “Feddeck turned in an expertly balanced reading. Hot-blooded on one hand and smoothly polished on the other, his account was that of a conductor pegged to the work from the start.
Whole careers have been launched with less, and his was already on a brilliant track.” In May, Feddeck was recognized as the 2013 winner of the prestigious Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, which includes a $25,000 grant—among the largest bestowed upon young American conductors. Since finishing its 2010-12 stint as the Oberlin Conservatory’s quartet in residence, the Jasper String Quartet has toured the nation. The ensemble, whose members include Oberlin graduates J. Freivogel ’05 (violin), Sam Quintal ’06 (viola), and Rachel Henderson Freivogel ’05 (cello), has been hailed as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (the Strad) and “powerful” (New York Times). It was recognized for its efforts with the prestigious 2012 Chamber Music America Cleveland Quartet Award. Among
the quartet’s many 2013 performances, a February 11 appearance in West Palm Beach, Fla., earned considerable notice from critics. “The Jasper String Quartet is the young face of American chamber music, now and in the future,” wrote Rex Hearn of the Palm Beach ArtsPaper. “To my mind they are on their way to replacing the eminent, now disbanded, Emerson String Quartet.” In more recent news, the quartet made an extended appearance in New York with an April 12 performance at Carnegie Hall, as well as a concert on April 26 at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. Richard Hawkins’ former student, clarinetist Boris Allakhverdyan ’06, won the co-principal clarinet position of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The Armenian native has served as associate principal clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony
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