Michael Leibowitz '05 and Karen Piranian Burgman '05 reconnected last year after running into each other at a Philadelphia Youth Orchestra audition for their children. They reminisced about their wonderful years at Oberlin and began to talk about creating some kind of concert involving Oberlin alums in the greater Philadelphia area.
Through some composing, practicing and contacting friends in the area, they were able to make this become a reality. The entire Oberlin community, as well as the general public, is cordially invited to attend this “reunion” concert.
PERFORMERS:
J FREIVOGEL '06
J Freivogel is the founding and current first violinist of the Jasper String Quartet - winner of the prestigious CMA Cleveland Quartet Award, Professional Quartet in Residence at Temple University's Center for Gifted Young Musicians, Director of St. Paul Chamber Music Institute, and Artistic Director of Jasper Chamber Concerts. The Quartet released its 8th album this year and has upcoming and recent commissions from Lera Auerbach, Patrick Castillo, Vivian Fung, Brittany J. Green, Aaron Jay Kernis, Akira Nishimura, Reinaldo Moya, Michelle Ross, and Joan Tower. J is the co-Director of Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas with his wife, cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel, and the co-Executive Director of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. J has a thriving teaching studio in Philadelphia, PA, where he lives with Rachel and their two children, Leon and Evy.
KRISTINA GILES '05
Based in New York City, Dr. Kristina Giles (neé Hendricks) enjoys a creative and varied musical career. Trained as a classical violist, she has become known for her artistry on both the violin and viola and their baroque counterparts. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China, and recorded solo improvisations on folk and country albums. She has become widely known as the first artist to record Campagnoli's 41 Caprices for viola, available to view on YouTube. She is a member of the Berkshire Opera Festival Orchestra and SIREN Baroque, and is the founder and director of Riverside Community String Ensemble at The Riverside Church. Dr. Giles lives on Manhattan's Upper West side with her husband, three daughters, and two cats.
RACHEL HENDERSON FREIVOGEL '06
Cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel is a founding and current member of the Jasper String Quartet. With the quartet, Ms. Freivogel has performed around the world and premiered and recorded many works. Her recordings include quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, Vivian Fung, Annie Gosfield, Judd Greenstein, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Reinaldo Moya, Caroline Shaw and Franz Schubert among others. Ms. Freivogel is a faculty member at Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians, Affiliate Artist at Haverford College, and maintains a robust private cello studio in her home city of Philadelphia. Ms. Freivogel is also a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Jasper Chamber Concerts (Philadelphia, PA) and the Co-Director of the Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas (Asheville, NC).
KATHRYN LEEMHUIS '05
American mezzo-soprano Kathryn Leemhuis has performed with international opera companies such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro Colón, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Florentine Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater, among others. On the concert stage, she has performed at the Ravinia Festival, the Grant Park Music Festival, the Boise Philharmonic, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Kathryn recently released her first commercial album, Before She Became Fire, on the BCM&D label. In collaboration with pianist Samuel Martin, the premiere commercial recording showcases the artistry of American women composers, Lori Laitman, Judith Cloud, and Melissa Dunphy, who have graced the contemporary classical music scene.
In the competition arena, Kathryn has won several awards, most notably with the New York Lyric Opera, the National Opera Association, Florida Grand Opera, the Lissner Foundation, the McCammon Foundation, the Albanese-Puccini Foundation, the George London Foundation, and the Giulio Gari Foundation. She was a 2012 National Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is an alumna of the esteemed Ryan Opera Center, the Opera Theatre St. Louis’ Gerdine Young Artist Program, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center.
In addition to her performing accolades, Leemhuis is an Associate Professor of Voice & Opera at Temple University. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College.
MICHAEL WEYANDT '04
Throughout opera, concert and contemporary work, baritone Michael Weyandt has collaborated with many of the premiere conductors, composers, and ensembles of our time. He has sung acclaimed performances across the entire repertoire, from Handel (Almira, in its US staged premiere) to Eight Songs for a Mad King to world premieres of works by Oliveros, Neuwirth, and more. He brings “remarkable emotional range” (Opera News) to each “riveting, tour-de-force performance” (Chicago Classical Review).
Michael has sung some of the most demanding contemporary works, including operas by Pauline Oliveros, Peter Eötvös, Olga Neuwirth, and Clara Latham, as well as concert works by Kevin Puts, Lewis Nielson, Yotam Haber, Peter Maxwell Davies, Mauricio Kagel, and others. He has performed with the New York City Opera, International Contemporary Ensemble, Hawaii Opera Theater, Opera Tampa, the Talea Ensemble, and has also collaborated on original evening-length works with soprano Alice Teyssier and composer Bradley Scott Rosen.
He’s performed at some of the great venues of NYC, from Carnegie Hall to the Kitchen, Lincoln Center to Roulette, and many, many times in the lobby of the Gershwin Hotel. Because the truth is stranger than fiction, he also once co-wrote and performed an Adult Contemporary song that appeared in two episodes of Temptation Island.
Michael is an alumnus of Oberlin College, Indiana University, and the Tanglewood Music Center.
KAREN PIRANIAN BURGMAN '05
Karen Piranian Burgman has performed coast to coast in the US, Canada, and Europe as a solo and collaborative pianist. She has performed in notable venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, The National Gallery of Art, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Toronto Center for the Performing Arts where she premiered a work commissioned in her honor.
A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, she has won numerous prizes for her collaborative piano playing. She has performed with renowned musicians including Grammy-nominated artists, celebrated singers, members of top orchestras, and faculty of distinguished conservatories. She contributed original music and arrangements to the Broadway show, “Amazing Grace,” and she was featured alongside 9 other female composers of various ages and renown for her choral piece “Because I am a Woman,” premiered in Boston in 2016. Karen was awarded an Ovation prize at the Kimmel Center for her impact as a music educator, and she helped to found multiple musical training programs. She is a faculty member of the Credo Chamber Music Festival, a certified Dalcroze Eurhythmics instructor, and she has recorded improvisations on her own recording label. The esteemed composer, Morten Lauridsen, has dedicated his beloved piece “La Rose Complete” to her. Karen and her husband Michael have three young, musical daughters.
MICHAEL LEIBOWITZ '05
Michael Leibowitz is a composer and music educator living in Philadelphia, PA. He holds his Bachelors in Composition from Oberlin Conservatory and his Masters in Art and Teaching from the University of the Arts. Michael has studied composition privately with Randolph Coleman and Lewis Nielson at Oberlin Conservatory, Andrea Clearfield and Norman Davis at the University of the Arts, and Howard Frazin at the Longy School of Music.
Michael’s compositions explore the expressive possibilities of sound and the relationship between the composer, performer, and audience. At times subtly beautiful and at others violent and alienating, the audience is both challenged and rewarded by attentive listening.
Michael has had works performed and commissioned by numerous performers and ensembles including pianists Kimberly and Michelle Cann, the Jasper String Quartet, The Borderlands Ensemble, Philadelphia Opera on Tap, The Perspective Collective, cellists Arlen Hlusko and Timothy Leonard, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Sacks and the Marple Newtown High School Choir. His choral piece, One Last Seed, co-written with librettist Jeremy Basescu, will be presented as a finalist in the 2024 Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival.
JEREMY BASESCU
Jeremy Basescu is a playwright and lyricist based in Philadelphia. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Playwriting from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s in Theater from Amherst College. Jeremy studied writing for the stage with playwright/librettist Constance Congdon, lyricist Debroah Brevoort, and playwrights Eduardo Machado, Theresa Rebeck, Kelly Stuart, and Len Berkman. His written works place intimate, private moments in the context of sweeping cultural forces. Sometimes they’re funny too.
Jeremy has written and directed theatrical productions with the Perspective Collective, Flux Theater Ensemble, Feed the Herd Theater Company, and at various festivals in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. His musical collaborations with Michael Leibowitz for individual singers, small ensembles, and choirs have been performed in London, New York, Philadelphia, Princeton, and Asheville, NC. Their song “One Last Seed,” part of a song cycle for high school choir, will be featured as a finalist at the Ithaca College 2024 Choral Composition Festival.
As an arts educator, Jeremy has taught playwriting with Lincoln Center Education, Young Playwrights, Theatre for a New Audience, and Appel Farm Arts & Music Center. He served as Producing Director for the Story Pirates and currently sits on the organization’s Changemakers Council.
