Goshen College Chamber Orchestra to perform April 12 concert

Concert: Goshen College Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Ensembles
Date and time: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center's Rieth Recital Hall
Cost: $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and free for GC students with ID. Tickets available at the door one hour before the concert.  

GOSHEN, Ind. – The Goshen College Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun, will perform a concert of works for small orchestra in the Music Center's Rieth Recital Hall on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.

The Chamber Orchestra, an offshoot of the larger Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, will perform selections by J.S. Bach, George Gershwin, Anton’n Dvor‡k and American composer Philip Glass.

The Chamber Orchestra will be joined by two student-led string quartets, and a string quintet, in performances of chamber works for strings by Borodin, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schubert. These ensembles feature GC music students who are enrolled in the Goshen College Chamber Music course, and are supervised by Associate Professor of Music Solomia Soroka.

An 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.

General admission tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and students, available at the door one hour before the concert.

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.