CONSERVATORY Oberlin Jazz Musicians Take on Manhattan Oberlin Opera Theater Excavates History in World Premiere of Alice Tierney

Stephanie Manning rell has been involved with the project since its first workshop in fall 2020. She’s been singing the role of Alice 1 the entire time.

Archaeology provides little in the way of instant gratification. The work is slow, meticulous, and complicated — even as it builds to an eventual payoff. In many ways, creating an opera is the same. For the past two years, Oberlin Conservatory has become its own kind of archaeological dig site, hosting a number of workshops that allowed composer Melissa Dunphy and librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger to bring Alice Tierney to life.

“It’s empowering, in a backwards way, to take on this stereotypically problematic image of a woman and really get to spell it out for the audience that this is wrong,” Harrell said. “Women are more than just bodies and more than just objects for men.” upon hearing that his piece had moved audience members.

This January, Oberlin traveled to New York City to perform at some of the most famous musical venues in the country. The Oberlin Orchestra and Choir returned to Carnegie Hall — this time with R. Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses — Jan. 20, and the Oberlin Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble performed a double set at the iconic Dizzy’s Jazz Club at Lincoln Center Jan. 19. While in New York City, the Sonny Ensemble also toured New York’s Elisabeth Irwin High School, LaGuardia High School, Sunset Park Prep Middle School, Special Music School High School, and the Jazz House Kids in Montclair, NJ.

Founded on a commitment to service and a generous donation by jazz legend Sonny Rollins, the group prides itself on its mission to make community-based music. The ensemble visited schools ranging from elite arts high schools to schools in lower-income neighborhoods with limited access to music education. At each, the group played its repertoire, took questions from the students, and even performed with the students themselves. Second-year drummer Noah Nelson recounted that these school performances came with a unique and memorable energy.

“There was some kid who just got up and started to sing with the band,” Nelson said. “I think he was also this kind of shy kid but he just got up and started scatting and it ignited the rest of the kids in the audience.”

The group, composed of eight Jazz students chosen by faculty, then performed two sold-out hour-long sets with a program that featured both jazz standards and originals alike. One such original composition, titled “Homecoming,” was written by first-year alto saxophonist George Rogers. The lyrics, added to accommodate the vocalist of the group, are inspired by a short story about a knight in shining armor written by a high school friend of Rogers’.

“There’s a moment in the story when the knight takes off his helmet and it’s raining and he sticks out his tongue and drinks the rain,” Rogers said.

Rogers expressed his enthusiasm at the chance to have his piece performed at such an iconic venue and his initial surprise

“That’s, like, the best thing anyone can say to me, honestly,” Rogers said. “It showed me that it’s digestible to people who might not even be familiar with this kind of music.”

The Oberlin Jazz department performances also featured another performer, fourth-year vocalist Tyreek McDole, who made his Dizzy’s debut in a late night show and jam session following the Sonny Ensemble with two additional performances Jan. 20 and 21. Although McDole’s debut was originally scheduled for the fall of 2022 while he was studying away in New York City and interning with Jazz at Lincoln Center, the timing could not have ended up better.

“It was really cool because it felt like I’m just amongst my peers,” McDole said. “I was kind of inspired because it’s like I’m doing this in a professional sense and so are they, you know, we’re both coming from the same school. … You can’t get rid of Oberlin.”

Not only did McDole’s debut coincide with the Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble performance, but McDole also participated in the Oberlin Choir and Orchestra’s performance of The Ordering of Moses at Carnegie Hall.

“Carnegie Hall was really incredible,” McDole said. “I mean, the fact that I was in such a prestigious hall that so many of my heroes played in — like, John Horan played on that stage; Louis Armstrong played on that stage; Duke Ellington played on that stage. The list keeps going on, and now I’m a part of that lineage. It was a huge honor.”

When the concert at Carnegie ended, McDole headed over to Dizzy’s for the second night of his set.

“It was like night and day,” McDole said. “I would say two different cultural values were held in both of those spaces, but both have such a reverence for the music that’s being played in the artistry of that space.”

The Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble concert and tour, coupled with the choirs’ and orchestra’s performance at Carnegie and McDole’s solo debut at Dizzy’s, led to a weekend filled with Oberlin community, support, and music-making, concluding Winter Term 2023 on a beautiful note.

The duo’s collaboration culminated Jan. 27, 28, and 29, with performances directed by Assistant Director of Opera Theater Christopher Mirto and conducted by Benjamin Martin, OC ’22. The efforts to develop and stage the opera’s world premiere were made possible by the Oberlin Opera Commissioning Program, funded by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, OC ’71. While Alice Tierney wasn’t the first Winter Term opera to benefit from the program, it was the first to be commissioned from scratch, with Oberlin students and faculty involved every step of the way.

The opera’s connections to archaeology are more than metaphorical, as the story centers on four archaeology students excavating the former home of Alice Tierney. A real woman who lived in colonial Philadelphia, Tierney died under mysterious circumstances — found hanging by her own petticoats — yet her death at the time was ruled an accident. However, the group’s assumptions about who she was reveal less about Tierney and more about themselves.

Take Alice 1, the interpretation of archaeologist John, played by fourth-year Jon Motes, and the epitome of the male fantasy. Dressed in vivid red, fourth-year Mae Harrell brings Alice 1 to life by playing up her promiscuity — every bit the “dissipated woman” John imagines. Like the majority of her fellow cast members, Har-

Quinn, played by third-year Jordan Twadell, interprets Alice as the polar opposite of John’s portrayal. She imagines Alice 2, played by fourth-year Kylie Buckham, as a liberated, empowered suffragist. Ultimately, however, Quinn’s version is just as much of a fantasy. In their desperate search for certainty, the two researchers blur the lines between truth and fiction. Could someone create an Alice that still acknowledges what they don’t — or can’t — know?

That responsibility falls to Zandra, played by fourth-year Kayleigh Tolley, whose version leaves room for that uncertainty. A woman dealing with a lot of emotional baggage, Zandra is in the early stages of a relationship with fellow archaeologist Lyra, played by third-year Elizabeth Hanje.

“I don’t make any strong conclusions,” Tolley said of her character’s narrative journey. “I bring the point of view that we need to look at the facts and not put ourselves into our interpretation of Alice, because that’s what all the characters kind of do.”

Zandra’s, and by extension Lyra’s, interpretation — Alice 3, played by third-year Wooldjina Present — makes her entrance in dark clothes and a black veil.

“She’s the most mysterious because we’re not defining her,” Tolley said. “We’re making space for her in the unknown.”

Onstage, the three Alices spend a lot of time observing the dig site from above, perched on the scaffolding in the back of the stage. The careful thought behind their silent reactions is one example of the transition from score to stage, spearheaded by Mirto, lead dramaturg Julia Bumke, and institutional dramaturg and Assistant Professor of Musicology James O’Leary.

“I really liked inviting everybody into the process of creation,” Mirto said. “Not being a dictator about vision and style, but rather allowing the best idea, the strongest idea, to kind of bubble up to the surface. That way, everybody has a lot of ownership over the story that we’re telling.”

Harrell spoke positively about the collaborative process, particularly working closely with the composer and librettist.

“It was empowering because a lot of the hierarchies that you find in a lot of classical music — and especially opera — were not present in those rehearsal spaces,” Harrell said.

Tolley agreed with Harrell’s assessment.

“It’s really nice to feel so respected, cared for creatively, and listened to, even though we’re young students,” Tolley said.

Workshopping and premiering a new opera is a big task for any institution — and it’s almost unheard of at the undergraduate level.

“No major undergrad institutions or conservatories that I know of are commissioning new work at this level, with undergrads fully engaged throughout the process,” Mirto said.

The journey for this cast extends beyond Oberlin, with plans to perform the work at Opera Columbus in April. No matter where Alice Tierney goes next, these seven Oberlin students will remain a permanent influence, as the creative team tailored the work to its original performers.

“It’s a female-driven cast, it’s short, it’s in English,” Harrell said. “The music is accessible, the stories are relatable — all things that I think opera needs and is exciting to see coming to life here.”

John Elrod Kayla Kim Sports Editors

On Wednesday, Feb. 1., John Pont became the new head coach for Oberlin football, replacing Steve Opgenorth, who coached the Yeomen for two seasons. Pont came from Indiana University, Bloomington, as an offensive analyst and performance assistant and also worked in various positions at the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University. The Review sat down with him on his first day to discuss his vision for the football program.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your coaching role before you took the job at Oberlin?

I’ve coached football for about 15 years and most recently was at Indiana University Bloomington as an athletic performance assistant. I helped out on the offensive side of football as an analyst breaking down film, studying the next opponent, and helping the offensive coordinator and offensive staff develop a game plan. In the weight room, I was just an extra set of eyes, hands, and feet, and I helped out any way I could. I made sure that the student ath-