Goshen College Symphony Orchestra to perform fall concert Nov. 6

Concert: Goshen College Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert conducted by Christopher Fashun
Date and time: Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Sauder Concert Hall, Goshen College Music Center
Cost: $7 adults, $5 seniors/students. Tickets available at the door one hour before the concert. General admission. GC students free with valid ID.

GOSHEN, Ind. – The Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of newly-appointed conductor Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun, will perform a fall concert in the Music Center's Sauder Concert Hall on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Fashun will lead the orchestra in a program highlighted by a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467," featuring Professor of Music Matthew Hill, piano soloist. The orchestra also will perform Antonin Dvorak's "Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88" and Otto Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture."

This concert marks the first solo concert by the orchestra under Fashun's leadership. A diverse and versatile conductor and performer, Fashun is excited to join the Music Department at Goshen College. Since 2008, he 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, Fashun 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.

An accomplished percussionist and violist, Fashun 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 holds a bachelor of music degree in music education from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where he studied conducting with Steven Amundson and Timothy Mahr and viola with Andrea Een. He received his master's of music degree in percussion performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied with Anthony DiSanza and continued his conducting studies with David E. Becker. Mr. Fashun is in the final stages of completing his doctor of musical arts in orchestral conducting from the University of Iowa where he studies conducting with William LaRue Jones and viola with Christine Rutledge.

Tickets cost $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. General admission. GC students free with valid ID.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, 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.