GC All-Campus Band to debut alongside Lavender Jazz in Halloween joint concert
Concert: Lavender Jazz and Goshen College All-Campus Band Fall Concert
Date and time: Friday, Oct. 31, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Tickets: $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC faculty/staff/students free with valid ID.
Goshen College’s new All-Campus Band will perform alongside GC’s Lavender Jazz ensemble in a joint concert on Friday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will take place in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.
The All-Campus Band is conducted by Christopher Fashun, assistant professor of music, and features student musicians, as well as faculty and staff musicians. Their program will include works for wind ensemble by Pierre La Plante, Todd Stalter, Alfred Reed, Brian Balmages and more.
Lavender Jazz is Goshen College’s big band, and is led by Christopher French, adjunct professor of music. This student ensemble’s program will include jazz charts by Cole Porter, Oscar Pettiford, Thelonius Monk, Horace Silver, and George and Ira Gershwin.
Tickets for this concert are $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available for purchase at the door beginning one hour before the concert. GC faculty/staff/students are free with valid ID.
A versatile instrumentalist, Christopher French is an accomplished clarinetist, saxophonist and flutist. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School. While in New York, he was principal clarinetist of the National Orchestra of New York, and studied with Leon Russianoff, Joe Allard, Charles Russo and Warne Marsh. After briefly playing with the Orquesta del Estado de Mexico, he returned to his hometown of Los Angeles and pursued a career as a symphony orchestra and recording studio musician. In addition to Goshen College, French is also on the faculty of Indiana University South Bend and St. Mary’s College. He plays regularly with classical and jazz performing groups in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, and has been featured soloist with many Michiana music ensembles. French has played at the Elkhart Jazz Festival for the past 10 years.
Christopher Fashun is assistant professor of music at Goshen College, where he conducts the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra, directs the All-Campus Band, teaches applied percussion, serves as the coordinator for the music education program, and frequently conducts the orchestra for musicals and operas. 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 decade, Fashun has concentrated his study of world percussion in Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian music and dance.