Lavender Jazz and guest artist Glenn Wilson to perform spring concert, April 2

Concert: Lavender Jazz Spring Concert
Date and time: Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center's Sauder Concert Hall
Cost: $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and free for GC students with ID. Tickets available at the door only.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Lavender Jazz, Goshen College's big band, will welcome baritone saxophonist Glenn Wilson as guest artist and soloist during its spring concert on Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Center's Sauder Concert Hall. The ensemble is directed by Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun.

Wilson, a noted baritone saxophonist and jazz veteran, recently presented a jazz clinic to student members of Lavender Jazz and will join the band on two pieces during the concert. Lavender JazzÕs set list will include charts by Dizzy Gillespie, Gordon Goodwin, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and Jimmy Heath.

Wilson has been a professional jazz saxophonist for over 30 years. After completing his undergraduate degree, he moved to New York City, where he worked and recorded with The Buddy Rich Band, Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, Tito Puente, Machito, Bill Kirchner Nonet, Bob Belden Ensemble, and scores of other jazz and Latin-jazz groups. His CDs are featured in the Penguin Guide of Jazz and The Grammophone Guide to Good Jazz, and he has also received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and has been featured in the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll in the Baritone Saxophone category.

From 1991 to 2001, Wilson was an active member of the jazz community in Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. He performed numerous times at The Kennedy Center and Blues Alley Jazz Club. Wilson continues to record for Sunnyside Records and leads an active touring schedule performing in clinics, concerts and clubs around the world. He is currently a visiting lecturer in jazz at the University of Illinois in Urbana and teaches music business and jazz pedagogy as well as leading combos and teaching in the jazz saxophone studio.

An incredibly diverse and versatile conductor and performer, Fashun joined the Goshen College Department of Music in 2010. An accomplished percussionist and violist, he has several years of orchestral and chamber music experience and has enjoyed success in both areas as a soloist by winning three concerto competitions. During the past seven years, Fashun has concentrated his study of world percussion in Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian music and dance. Most notably, his teachers include Jorge Alabe, Michael Spiro, Mark Lamson, Curtis Pierre, Jorge Martins and Scott Kettner. He has also toured nationally and abroad as a jazz vibraphonist and has recorded albums with the Wisconsin Brass Quintet and the Jason Harms Quartet.

Fashun has conducted the University of Iowa Philharmonia and All-University Orchestras and was the music director of the St. Ambrose University Community Symphony Orchestra in Davenport, Iowa. In November of 2009, he conducted the Symphony String Orchestra at the IMEA Conference in Ames as part of the Iowa Junior Honors String Orchestra Festival Concert. Additionally, Fashun's conducting experience includes leading orchestras and wind bands at the high school and middle school levels and directing jazz ensembles, percussion ensembles and drumlines at the high school level. He is an active clinician with middle and high school orchestras, percussionists and jazz ensembles and frequently serves as an adjudicator for large group music festivals.

Fashun holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. He received a master of music degree in percussion performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is in the final stages of completing his doctor of musical arts in orchestral conducting from the University of Iowa.

The cost of the concert is $7 adults, $5 seniors/students. Tickets are available at the door only. Goshen College students are free with ID.

Editors: For more information about this release, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S.News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.