[NEohioPAL]Renowned Oboist and Pedagogue James B. Caldwell, Professor of Oboe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dies at 67

[Marci Janas]

--Boundary_(ID_TW/n4XB/mAxwdlhCsCedMg)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable


Media Contact Only:
Marci Janas, Director of Conservatory Media Relations
(440) 775-8328 (office); (440) 667-2724 (cell); marci.janas at oberlin.edu


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


RENOWNED OBOIST AND PEDAGOGUE JAMES B. CALDWELL, PROFESSOR OF OBOE AT=20
THE OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, DIES AT 67

<Editors please note: a digital photo is available upon request.>

OBERLIN, OHIO (February 10, 2006) =97 James B. Caldwell, an East Texas=20=

native and railroad station master=92s son who went on to become one of=20=

the world=92s most respected and admired oboists, educators, and=20
proponents of early music, died on Wednesday, February 8, at the EMH=20
Regional Medical Center in Elyria, Ohio, where he was being treated for=20=

lung cancer. He was 67.
	A professor of oboe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since =
1971,=20
he trained many of the profession=92s leading oboists, including Alex=20
Klein, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
	=93James Caldwell was too big a person for just one activity,=94 =
says=20
Klein, a 1987 graduate of Oberlin who also received an Artist Diploma=20
in 1989. =93He was a great teacher and artist, a philosopher, a bonsai=20=

aficionado, an avid collector, and a wonderful mentor. He excelled at=20
everything. He opened the door to the world. He saw joy and beauty in=20
every millimeter of life, and he brought his vast knowledge and=20
experience into the practice of his teaching. I am sorry for the=20
generations of musicians who will not have the opportunity to study=20
with him.=94
	Caldwell=92s performance career included serving as principal =
oboist of=20
the National Symphony Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony, and the=20
Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia; he was also an oboist and a soloist=20
with the Philadelphia Orchestra; and soloist with the Casals Festival=20
Orchestra and the Chicago Little Symphony. He gave recitals at Carnegie=20=

Hall and Town Hall, and was a member of the Marlboro Music Festival. As=20=

a chamber musician, he performed with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, the=20=

Oberlin Woodwind Quintet, the Soni Ventorum Quintet, and many others.
	Caldwell=92s lifework as an artist extended well beyond the =
traditional=20
boundaries of a professional oboist. He was a founder of the Washington=20=

Consort of Viols, making frequent appearances at the Smithsonian=20
Institution, and he performed in other early music concerts at the=20
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at Aston Magna, a foundation dedicated=20=

to early music and its cultural context. But it was during Caldwell=92s=20=

tenure at the National Symphony Orchestra that his artistic life took=20
its sharpest baroque turn, a direction that would inevitably become the=20=

foundation of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music=92s reputation as a=20
center for the study of early-music performance.
	In a forthcoming article for Oberlin Conservatory, the music =
school=92s=20
annual magazine, Heidi Waleson writes: =93Caldwell, the principal oboist=20=

at the National Symphony and a passionate convert to the idea of=20
historical performance, had taken up the viola da gamba. He and his=20
wife, Catharina Meints, a cellist, traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to=20
study with famed cellist August Wenzinger, then the leading teacher of=20=

the instrument. They began to collect period instruments, and brought=20
them along to Ohio, where Caldwell was to teach oboe at Oberlin and=20
Meints joined the Cleveland Orchestra.=94
	They brought more than period instruments with them to Oberlin. =
In the=20
summer of 1972, Caldwell and Meints founded the Baroque Performance=20
Institute [BPI], the country=92s first summer institute for early-music=20=

singers and period-instrument players. They invited Wenzinger to=20
Oberlin to direct the three-week program. Now in its 34th year, BPI=20
trains many of the musicians who perform with the Cleveland baroque=20
orchestra Apollo=92s Fire, and other notable groups.
	In a review of a BPI faculty performance in June 1991, Plain =
Dealer=20
music critic Wilma Salisbury praised Caldwell and his colleagues for=20
their rendering of music by Henry Purcell: =93The well-matched players =85=
=20
played with beautiful tone, sensitive dynamic nuance, and exquisite=20
ensemble.=94
	Caldwell=92s colleagues held him in great regard for his =
extraordinary=20
musicianship and his broad range of artistic expertise. =93Jim was a=20
multi-faceted person, a superb musician held in the highest esteem in=20
the oboe world, but his friends all knew him as a creative genius who=20
ceaselessly pursued myriad interests,=94 says gamba player and BPI=20
faculty member Mary Anne Ballard.
	=93He built a monster harpsichord of three keyboards while =
living in the=20
Puerto Rican jungle and playing oboe with the Casals Festival,=94 she=20
recalls. =93He amassed and oversaw the meticulous restoration of perhaps=20=

the world=92s greatest collection of violas da gamba, carving bridges =
and=20
performing other maintenance tasks himself, as well as becoming a=20
quietly virtuosic player and performing as continuo accompanist and=20
duet partner with his wife, viol virtuoso and teacher Catharina Meints.=20=

His other interests included collecting art nouveau glass and=20
furniture, stained glass making and etching, jewelry making, bonsai=20
cultivation, and in the last two decades, computer art and musical=20
composition using synthesizers. He was a man who felt passionately=20
about everything he did, from playing the card game Liverpool=20
Rummy=97which became a theatrical and almost violent experience with him=20=

at the table=97to regaling and entertaining his friends as a consummate=20=

storyteller in the old Southern tradition, to crafting the finest oboe=20=

reeds. His stage persona, however, was visually modest; he achieved his=20=

brilliance and high expressiveness through an economy of means,=20
revealing a dedication to his art that transcended the individual, and=20=

that took his playing into the realm of the universal human spirit.=94
	In the academy, Caldwell=92s reputation was equally stellar. His=20=

appointment to Oberlin=92s faculty brought with it a three-fold increase=20=

in the number of prospective oboe students applying for admission.
	Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull says, =93James =
Caldwell=92s=20
professional accomplishments cannot be measured at this point in our=20
history. His reach into the world of music and art will be felt for=20
generations to come. He was an integral part of Oberlin, and his=20
profound work as an artist and teacher, conjoined with his intellectual=20=

capacity and unlimited curiosity, served to help shape the ideals we=20
prize most at our Conservatory. He will be greatly missed by all of=20
us.=94
	Caldwell=92s discography includes orchestral recordings on RCA =
and=20
Columbia Records and chamber music recordings for the Lyrichord, Desto,=20=

Cambridge, Phoenix, Gasparo, Vox, and Smithsonian labels. A reissue of=20=

recordings Caldwell made throughout the last 40 years=97on modern as =
well=20
as on baroque oboe=97is forthcoming this year on Boston Records. The=20
booklet for the CD, Building Castles in the Sky, will also feature his=20=

original artwork.
	James Caldwell earned his diploma at the Curtis Institute of =
Music in=20
1961, where he studied with John de Lancie, principal oboist of the=20
Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. Caldwell received the=20
Albert Spaulding Award at Tanglewood in 1958.
	Caldwell is survived by his wife, Catharina Meints, and their =
son,=20
Jonathan.
	On April 18, 2006, Alex Klein will perform with the Oberlin =
Chamber=20
Orchestra, conducted by Bridget-Michaele Reischl, at Severance Hall,=20
home of the Cleveland Orchestra, in a concert dedicated to Caldwell.
	Gifts in memory of James B. Caldwell may be sent to Oberlin =
College in=20
support of the James B. Caldwell Scholarship Fund or the Baroque=20
Performance Institute Endowment. For more information, please contact=20
Mary Kay Gray at Oberlin College=92s Office of Development and Alumni=20
Affairs, Bosworth Hall, 50 West Lorain Street, Oberlin, Ohio, 44074, or=20=

call 440-775-8545.

# # #

Marci Janas
Director of Conservatory Media Relations
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
39 West College Street
Oberlin, OH  44074
www.oberlin.edu/con
(P) 440-775-8328
(F) 440-775-5457
marci.janas at oberlin.edu=

--Boundary_(ID_TW/n4XB/mAxwdlhCsCedMg)
Content-type: text/enriched; charset=WINDOWS-1252
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

<fontfamily><param>Helvetica</param>

</fontfamily><flushright><underline>Media Contact Only:

</underline>Marci Janas, Director of Conservatory Media Relations

(440) 775-8328 (office); (440) 667-2724 (cell);
=
<underline><color><param>0000,0000,FFFD</param>marci.janas at oberlin.edu</co=
lor></underline>



</flushright><underline>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

<x-tad-smaller>

</x-tad-smaller></underline><bold>

</bold><center><bold><bigger>RENOWNED OBOIST AND PEDAGOGUE JAMES B.
CALDWELL, PROFESSOR OF OBOE AT THE OBERLIN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC, DIES
AT 67</bigger>


<italic><x-tad-smaller><<Editors please note: a digital photo is
available upon request.></x-tad-smaller><smaller>

</smaller></italic></bold></center><bold>

</bold>OBERLIN, OHIO (February 10, 2006) =97 James B. Caldwell, an East
Texas native and railroad station master=92s son who went on to become
one of the world=92s most respected and admired oboists, educators, and
proponents of early music, died on Wednesday, February 8, at the EMH
Regional Medical Center in Elyria, Ohio, where he was being treated
for lung cancer. He was 67.=20

	A professor of oboe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since =
1971,
he trained many of the profession=92s leading oboists, including Alex
Klein, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.=20

	=93James Caldwell was too big a person for just one activity,=94 =
says
Klein, a 1987 graduate of Oberlin who also received an Artist Diploma
in 1989. =93He was a great teacher and artist, a philosopher, a bonsai
aficionado, an avid collector, and a wonderful mentor. He excelled at
everything. He opened the door to the world. He saw joy and beauty in
every millimeter of life, and he brought his vast knowledge and
experience into the practice of his teaching. I am sorry for the
generations of musicians who will not have the opportunity to study
with him.=94

	Caldwell=92s performance career included serving as principal =
oboist of
the National Symphony Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony, and the
Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia; he was also an oboist and a soloist
with the Philadelphia Orchestra; and soloist with the Casals Festival
Orchestra and the Chicago Little Symphony. He gave recitals at
Carnegie Hall and Town Hall, and was a member of the Marlboro Music
Festival. As a chamber musician, he performed with the Oberlin Baroque
Ensemble, the Oberlin Woodwind Quintet, the Soni Ventorum Quintet, and
many others.=20

	Caldwell=92s lifework as an artist extended well beyond the =
traditional
boundaries of a professional oboist. He was a founder of the
Washington Consort of Viols, making frequent appearances at the
Smithsonian Institution, and he performed in other early music
concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at Aston Magna, a
foundation dedicated to early music and its cultural context. But it
was during Caldwell=92s tenure at the National Symphony Orchestra that
his artistic life took its sharpest baroque turn, a direction that
would inevitably become the foundation of the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music=92s reputation as a center for the study of early-music
performance.

	In a forthcoming article for <italic>Oberlin =
Conservatory</italic>,
the music school=92s annual magazine, Heidi Waleson writes: =93Caldwell,
the principal oboist at the National Symphony and a passionate convert
to the idea of historical performance, had taken up the viola da
gamba. He and his wife, Catharina Meints, a cellist, traveled to
Basel, Switzerland, to study with famed cellist August Wenzinger, then
the leading teacher of the instrument. They began to collect period
instruments, and brought them along to Ohio, where Caldwell was to
teach oboe at Oberlin and Meints joined the Cleveland Orchestra.=94

	They brought more than period instruments with them to Oberlin. =
In
the summer of 1972, Caldwell and Meints founded the Baroque
Performance Institute [BPI], the country=92s first summer institute for
early-music singers and period-instrument players. They invited
Wenzinger to Oberlin to direct the three-week program. Now in its 34th
year, BPI trains many of the musicians who perform with the Cleveland
baroque orchestra Apollo=92s Fire, and other notable groups.

	In a review of a BPI faculty performance in June 1991, =
<italic>Plain
Dealer</italic> music critic Wilma Salisbury praised Caldwell and his
colleagues for their rendering of music by Henry Purcell: =93The
well-matched players =85 played with beautiful tone, sensitive dynamic
nuance, and exquisite ensemble.=94

	Caldwell=92s colleagues held him in great regard for his =
extraordinary
musicianship and his broad range of artistic expertise. =93Jim was a
multi-faceted person, a superb musician held in the highest esteem in
the oboe world, but his friends all knew him as a creative genius who
ceaselessly pursued myriad interests,=94 says gamba player and BPI
faculty member Mary Anne Ballard.=20

	=93He built a monster harpsichord of three keyboards while =
living in
the Puerto Rican jungle and playing oboe with the Casals Festival,=94
she recalls. =93He amassed and oversaw the meticulous restoration of
perhaps the world=92s greatest collection of violas da gamba, carving
bridges and performing other maintenance tasks himself, as well as
becoming a quietly virtuosic player and performing as continuo
accompanist and duet partner with his wife, viol virtuoso and teacher
Catharina Meints. His other interests included collecting art nouveau
glass and furniture, stained glass making and etching, jewelry making,
bonsai cultivation, and in the last two decades, computer art and
musical composition using synthesizers. He was a man who felt
passionately about everything he did, from playing the card game
Liverpool Rummy=97which became a theatrical and almost violent
experience with him at the table=97to regaling and entertaining his
friends as a consummate storyteller in the old Southern tradition, to
crafting the finest oboe reeds. His stage persona, however, was
visually modest; he achieved his brilliance and high expressiveness
through an economy of means, revealing a dedication to his art that
transcended the individual, and that took his playing into the realm
of the universal human spirit.=94

	In the academy, Caldwell=92s reputation was equally stellar. His
appointment to Oberlin=92s faculty brought with it a three-fold increase
in the number of prospective oboe students applying for admission.=20

	Dean of the Conservatory David H. Stull says, =93James =
Caldwell=92s
professional accomplishments cannot be measured at this point in our
history. His reach into the world of music and art will be felt for
generations to come. He was an integral part of Oberlin, and his
profound work as an artist and teacher, conjoined with his
intellectual capacity and unlimited curiosity, served to help shape
the ideals we prize most at our Conservatory. He will be greatly
missed by all of us.=94

	Caldwell=92s discography includes orchestral recordings on RCA =
and
Columbia Records and chamber music recordings for the Lyrichord,
Desto, Cambridge, Phoenix, Gasparo, Vox, and Smithsonian labels. A
reissue of recordings Caldwell made throughout the last 40 years=97on
modern as well as on baroque oboe=97is forthcoming this year on Boston
Records. The booklet for the CD, <italic>Building</italic>
<italic>Castles in the Sky, </italic>will also feature his original
artwork.

	James Caldwell earned his diploma at the Curtis Institute of =
Music in
1961, where he studied with John de Lancie, principal oboist of the
Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. Caldwell received the
Albert Spaulding Award at Tanglewood in 1958.=20

	Caldwell is survived by his wife, Catharina Meints, and their =
son,
Jonathan.=20

	On April 18, 2006, Alex Klein will perform with the Oberlin =
Chamber
Orchestra, conducted by Bridget-Michaele Reischl, at Severance Hall,
home of the Cleveland Orchestra, in a concert dedicated to Caldwell.=20

	Gifts in memory of James B. Caldwell may be sent to Oberlin =
College
in support of the James B. Caldwell Scholarship Fund or the Baroque
Performance Institute Endowment. For more information, please contact
Mary Kay Gray at Oberlin College=92s Office of Development and Alumni
Affairs, Bosworth Hall, 50 West Lorain Street, Oberlin, Ohio, 44074,
or call 440-775-8545.


<center># # #

</center>

Marci Janas

Director of Conservatory Media Relations

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

39 West College Street

Oberlin, OH  44074

www.oberlin.edu/con

(P) 440-775-8328

(F) 440-775-5457

marci.janas at oberlin.edu=

--Boundary_(ID_TW/n4XB/mAxwdlhCsCedMg)--