This Christmas program by the Oberlin College Choir, directed by Robert Fountain, dates from the holiday season 60 years ago. The conductor programmed pieces from the 16th century composer Tomás Luis de Victoria through to his contemporaries Randall Thompson, Normand Lockwood and Herbert Howells.
Fountain was one of the best regarded college choral directors of his time, spending equally long periods at Oberlin (where he was also director of the noted Conservatory of Music for a time) and later the University of Wisconsin.
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| An Oberlin Choir tour to the Soviet Union, 1964: Fountain is flanked by students Walter Denny and Joy Blackett; his wife Clara is at right. |
My copy of the record came in a dark green cover; apparently it also appeared in the white cover shown in the picture above, which I have lifted from the web. I've transformed the back cover into a black-and-white facsimile as well, so the words can be read more easily.
There is no information on the cover about the recording location, but it was probably in Oberlin's Finney Chapel, a beautiful Cass Gilbert building dating from 1908.
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| Finney Chapel |
