The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is part of the Baldwin Wallace University, in Berea, Ohio. The main building is Kulas Hall. The Conservatory is home to the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach Festival in the United States. The Music Theatre program, directed by Victoria Bussert, draws hundreds of auditioners each year. The instrumental programs have produced musicians; several BW alumni presently play with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Today's Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music was established during the Baldwin Institute's existence. At the time, the undergraduate-only conservatory was founded in 1898 by Dr. Albert Riemenschneider.[4] Before this time, music classes were offered at the Baldwin Institute for one dollar extra per term. In 1912, land donated by the citizens of Berea was used to expand the institution and improve the facilities for music. The Kulas Musical Arts Building was constructed, housing a $25,000 pipe organ.[5]
In 1975 the Conservatory expanded into an adjacent residence hall (Merner-Pfeiffer Hall) and later an enclosed bridge was constructed connecting the two buildings.[6] In 2009, the Berea First Congregational Church became part of the college. Then in 2011 an expansion was done to connect the Kulas Musical Arts Building with the Berea First Congregational Church.[7]
The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is home to the BW Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach festival in the nation, as well as the second-oldest Bach festival in the nation. The festival was founded in 1932 by Professor Albert Riemenschneider (longtime Director of the College Conservatory) and his wife, Selma. The then Baldwin-Wallace Festival Choir and Orchestra presented the first Bach Festival in June 1933 and has continued on an annual basis ever since.[8][9]
In 2007, the nation's oldest Bach Festival, The Bethlehem, and Baldwin Wallace performed together for BW's 75th anniversary of the festival.[10] These two groups have worked together to celebrate the milestones of their festivals. The Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) choir was founded in 1898 by J. Fred Wolle. Riemenschneider, founder of the BW festival, was inspired by a 1931 trip to the Bethlehem Bach Festival.[11][12][13] In 2012, internationally heiled Bach scholar Ton Koopman worked with the Conservatory's Motet choir.
The BBCCM Annex prior to renovation Merner-Pfeiffer Hall opened in 1913Boesel Musical Center opened in 2011Kulas Hall opened in 1912
The main conservatory buildings include Kulas Musical Arts Building, Merner-Pfeiffer Hall and Boesel Musical Arts Center. The Boesel Musical Arts Center opened in 2011. In the Conservatory's beginnings, Kulas Musical Arts Building was the sole home of the music students, with Merner-Pfeiffer Hall being a very close dormitory in proximity. Eventually, Merner-Pfeiffer was renovated and became a part of the Conservatory buildings. Kohler Hall, a nearby building, houses many conservatory students. Having outgrown its existing facilities in the early 2000s, the Conservatory embarked on a second expansion and renovation project, and in August 2008 acquired the adjacent First Congregational United Church of Christ building. This building was renovated to house conservatory programs and attached to Merner-Pfeiffer Hall via a new connecting structure. The connecting structure and what used to be the United Church of Christ were named Boesel Musical Arts Center.[14][15]
The Ferne Patterson Jones Music Library is located in the basement of Merner-Pfeiffer Hall. The library contains nearly 40,000 items, including approximately 13,000 volumes of printed music.
The Riemenschneider Bach Institute, located in the Boesel Musical Arts Center, holds a priceless collection of rare materials related to J. S. Bach and his circle. The Riemenschneider Bach Library, a unique collection of Bach-oriented books, manuscripts, archival materials, and scores, includes rare items such as the Emmy Martin Collection of first-edition scores; the Riemenschneider Graduate Library Collection; the Hans T. David Collection of books, manuscripts, archival items, and scores (including a number of first-edition scores); the opera-oriented Tom Villella collection of phonodiscs, books, archival materials, and memorabilia and the Albert and Helen Borowitz Recording Collection (2007). The library also holds a collection of Cleveland Orchestra programs (1902-1974). Currently, the total Bach Institute "volume count" exceeds the 20,000 mark. [16] The institute also publishes BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, a scholarly journal, and serves as the research arm of the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival.
Programs
Majors
Music Performance (all instruments including keyboard and voice)
Music Education
Music Therapy
Music History and Literature
Music Theory
Music Composition
Music Theatre
Music in the Liberal Arts
Additional Programs
Arts Management
Music Therapy Equivalency
Programs
Bach Festival
The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is the home of the first Collegiate Bach Festival in the nation. As well, the festival carries the title of the second oldest Bach festival in America.[17] The festival was founded in 1932 by music educator Albert Riemenschneider and his wife, Selma. The festival rotates Bach's four major works ~ the B-minor Mass, the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio ~ every four years in sequence. Since the inception of the Festival, Baldwin Wallace's vocal and instrumental students perform the major choral and orchestral works with a cast of vocal soloists, faculty and local professionals.[18] Today, the program has become a three-day, multi-event.
Music Theatre
In recent years, BW conservatory of music has become nationally recognized for its top tier musical theatre program. Under the direction of Victoria Bussert, the program has been recognized by many in the theatrical community as one of the best college education programs for musical theatre in the country, amongst the ranks of other elite programs such as the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University. The annual senior showcase in New York City has ended with every senior receiving representation from various talent agencies for the past ten years. Victoria Bussert is the director of musical theatre, Scott Plate is the department chair, Greg Daniels is the head of the dance department, and Matthew Webb is the program's music director.
Rent and La Bohème in Repertory
Rent was performed in the spring of 2011. The conservatory presented the Puccini and Larson works in repertory, for the first time in the world, in February 2011, with nearly 80 students from the music theater and voice departments. Some singers performed in both productions. Sharing the same set, "La Boheme," updated to the 1930s, had six performances during the run February 15–27, 2011, at BW's John Patrick Theatre, while "Rent" had ten performances.[19]
Phantom of the Opera
In 2007, Baldwin Wallace was selected to perform one of six pre-release pilot productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber'sPhantom of the Opera. The running had 12 performances, with a cast of more than 50. The production featured a 35-piece orchestra and a production staff of nearly 100 students.[20] The performances drew over 6,000 playgoers, averaging about 500 audience members per show.
While there are no plans at this time to release Phantom to the stock and amateur market, we want to be fully prepared for when that great day arrives. What we learn from the production at Baldwin-Wallace College and five other sites we've chosen will help us with the process of bringing the longest running musical in Broadway history to theaters across the country.
—Charlie Scatamacchia, vice president for R&H Theatricals [21]
R&H Theatricals cited BW's production as the responsible party for the planned staging of all non-professional productions of "Phantom".[22]
The Beatles Festival
During each spring since 2011, students from Baldwin Wallace have performed an entire album recorded by The Beatles, complete with full orchestrations. This ensemble features a unique collection of performers drawing from all majors in the Conservatory. In a nod to the school's Bach Festival, The Beatles Festival rotates four of group's works: Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, and The White Album.
Several of the staff members are full-time Cleveland Orchestra members, and all faculty maintain an active performance career. In 2009, BW added Wagnerian soprano Jane Eaglen to the staff, joining the 20th-century music performer Nanette Canfield, and heldentenor Dr. Timothy Mussard. The instrumental staff features Jack Sutte, Cleveland Orchestra trumpeter and Dr. Robert Mayerovitch, author and active clinician for keyboard studies.
Berea is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 18,545 at the 2020 census. A western suburb of Cleveland, it is a part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. Berea is home to Baldwin Wallace University, as well as the training facility for the Cleveland Browns and the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds.
Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio, United States. Established in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin, it merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace College. There are two campus sites: Berea, which serves as the main campus, and Corporate College East in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. The university enrolls approximately 3,300 full-time undergraduate and graduate students as of fall 2024. Baldwin Wallace's athletic teams compete as members of NCAA Division III athletics in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has 73 undergraduate majors of study, 17 minors, 25 graduate programs, and 4 certificate programs offered by four undergraduate colleges/schools and one School of Graduate and Professional Studies.
A Bach festival is a music festival held to celebrate the memory of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). Various locations throughout the world hold festivals dedicated to Bach. A notable example is the Bachfest Leipzig, held each year in the city of Leipzig, where the composer worked as Thomaskantor for the last 27 years of his life.
William Ifor Jones was a Welsh conductor and organist. Born into a large coal-mining family and raised in Merthyr Tydfil, Jones studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a scholarship student in London from 1920 to 1925. He studied the organ with Sir Stanley Marchant at St. Paul's Cathedral, London; orchestral conducting with Ernest Read and with Sir Henry Wood, ; and harmony with Benjamin Dale. He was for a time organist at the Welsh Baptist Church in Castle Street, London, worked at the Royal Opera House, as a vocal coach at Covent Garden, assisted with the British National Opera Company in the role of prompter, and was the Assistant Choir Master at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Alfred Bryan Bonds was an American public servant, educator, and college administrator. He served as the fifth president of Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, from 1955 to 1981. He succeeded Rev. John Lowden Knight. A building bears his name on the BW campus and serves as the universities' administration building.
Richard Durst is an academic administrator who served as the eighth and last president of Baldwin-Wallace College located in Berea, Ohio. He became president in 2006 and remained until 2012. Durst was replaced by Robert C. Helmer in July 2012 as the school converted to Baldwin Wallace University
Alan Bennett is an American lyric tenor known mostly for his performances in concert and oratorio work. He is particularly admired for his interpretations of the works of Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Mozart.
(Charles) Albert Riemenschneider was an American musician and Bach musicologist.
Loris Ohannes Chobanian was an American-Armenian composer of classical music, conductor, and guitar and lute teacher and performer. He served as Professor of Composition as well as Composer-in-Residence at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory.
The Bach Choir of Bethlehem is the oldest Bach choir in the United States. Dating back to 1712, according to the choir's archives, it was formally founded in 1898 by Central Moravian Church organist John Frederick Wolle, and was established at roughly the same time as Bethlehem Steel, which first began operations in 1899.
Iron Composer is a music competition operated where five composers are given just five hours to write a piece of music. The competition is operated by Analog Arts, and it was first organized as part of the ARTSaha! festival. Iron Composer is currently held at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio. The competition is open to composers of all ages.
Codarts University for the Arts is a Dutch vocational university in Rotterdam that teaches music, dance and circus. It was established in its present location in 2000.
The history of Baldwin Wallace University dates back to 1828, when co-founder John Baldwin settled in present-day Berea, Ohio. His founding eventually established Baldwin–Wallace College. This founding of present-day Baldwin Wallace University began when Baldwin Institute was established in 1845. With the help of James Wallace, Baldwin Institute began offering college courses. Eventually, in 1863, a resolution established a separate school from Baldwin University to serve the booming local German population called German Wallace College. Originally part of Baldwin Institute, German Wallace College was established just down the road. As a result of financial hardships the schools merged in 1913, forming Baldwin-Wallace College. In 2010, several buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places combining the former Lyceum Village Square and German Wallace College to form the BW South Campus Historic District. In 2012, Baldwin-Wallace College became Baldwin Wallace University and established the BW North Campus Historic District. The Conservatory is home to the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach Festival and the second-oldest Bach festival in the United States honoring Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Baldwin-Wallace College South Campus Historic District is an area of land on the south end of the Baldwin Wallace University campus. When the district was established, the school was Baldwin-Wallace College. BW is a four-year private, coeducation, liberal arts college in Berea, Ohio, United States. The school was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodists settlers. Eventually the school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace College, which adopted the present name in 2012. Several buildings since its founding have been established on the National Register of Historic Places, establishing this area as the Baldwin-Wallace College South Campus Historic District.
Baldwin-Wallace College North Campus Historic District is an area of land on the north end of the Baldwin Wallace University campus. BW is a four-year private, coeducation, liberal arts college in Berea, Ohio, United States. The school was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodists settlers. Eventually the school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace College, which changed its name to "Baldwin Wallace University" in 2012. Several buildings since its founding have been established on the National Register of Historic Places, establishing this area as the Baldwin-Wallace College North Campus Historic District. This area is the second historic district added to the campus which includes the BW's South Campus Historic district
Christine Abraham is an American mezzo-soprano. She earned her Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Patricia McCaffrey and Cynthia Hoffmann. Notable roles include Valencienne in The Merry Widow with Utah Opera, Despina in Così fan tutte with the Toledo Opera, Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites with the Palm Beach Opera and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with the Tulsa Opera.
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