Instrument and Special Collections
Oberlin's Conservatory of Music has the largest collection of Steinway pianos in the world, with the exception of the Steinway factory. In addition to 207 Steinway grand pianos, students may also borrow from a collection of more than 1,500 musical instruments, including many historical ones. Collections of the music library are among the most comprehensive anywhere. The conservatory also recently acquired three unique collections that focus on music instruments, rare publications, photography, iconography, jazz recordings, and artwork.
A large collection of viols is available for use by Oberlin's baroque ensembles and viol consorts. The baroque collection is sufficient to form a complete orchestra: 12 violins, two violas, three cellos, and a violone, as well as baroque flutes, recorders, oboes, bassoon, guitar, trumpets, and natural horns. Earlier instruments in collection include vihuela, shawms, krummhorns, vielles, harps, and cornetti.
The conservatory owns a Javanese Gamelan comprised of an heirloom set of slendro (5-tone) instruments purchased in 1970 and a custom-made set of pelog (7-tone) instruments dating from 1984. This is supplemented by a Sumatran gong ensemble owned and taught by assistant professor Jennifer Fraser.
Frank Kuchirchuk, a retired photographer who took live jazz performance photographs at Lindsay’s Sky Bar, a popular Cleveland nightclub, in 1952 and 1953, has donated his entire collection of jazz images to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Harpsichords available for instruction, practice, and performances include four French doubles (by Hill, Dowd, Kingston, and Lake), four Italian singles (by Dowd, Dupree, Clark, and Sutherland), a German double by Hill, a Flemish single and a Flemish virginal by Martin, a pedal clavichord by Spearstra, and a clavichord by Gough. Four instruments in the fortepiano collection include five-octave instruments by McNulty, Wolf and Hester, as well as a six-and-one-half octave fortepiano by McCobb.
With more than 100,000 recordings, posters, program notes, and other materials, the Neumann Collection is one the largest jazz archives in the nation. This resource, donated by James Neumann '58 and his wife, Susan, provides insights into the history of the genre and the evolution of musical styles from jazz's earliest years to the present. The collection resides in the new Bertram and Judith Kohl Building.
Students have access to the conservatory's extensive collection of orchestral instruments, including all stringed and wind instruments, and six Lyon and Healy harps. Through the generosity of the Kulas Foundation, Oberlin owns two Gagliano violins and other performance-quality stringed instruments.
Flentrop organs are the standard in the conservatory's teaching studios in Bibbins Hall. In Robertson Hall, the Kulas Organ Center has 14 practice rooms equipped with organs of various designs, both mechanical action and electro-pneumatic. Of the mechanical action tracker organs, six are Flentrops, one is a Brombaugh, one is a Paul Fritts, one is a Guibault-Thérien, and two are Noacks. Five of the electro-pneumatic organs are Holtkamps of the famous Martini design.
Oberlin has 207 Steinway pianos and is the piano maker's oldest continuous customer. Classrooms and teaching studios all are equipped with Steinway grand pianos, as are most of the conservatory's concert halls, practice rooms, and rehearsal studios. Other pianos in the collection include: acoustical vertical pianos, historical pianos, a mid-19th-century Erard grand piano rebuilt by David Winston in 1993, a Yamaha Disklavier, and two electronic pianos. Warner Hall features three Steinway Model D Concert Grands (two New York and one Hamburg) and Finney Chapel has two (New York).
Items in this collection, once nurtured and owned by noted collector and music scholar Frederick Selch, include an inventory of nearly 10,000 objects—some 700 instruments, 9,000 books (rare first editions and important primary source material among them), and a number of artworks. Patricia Bakwin Selch of New York City, widow of Selch donated her husband's entire collection to Oberlin. The collection resides in the new Bertram and Judith Kohl Building.
