Orchestra Heads South for a Spring Tour

The Westmont College Orchestra and Chapel Band will tour Southern California during spring vacation, March 12-16. The Spring Tour includes about 65 student performers, Michael Shasberger, Adams professor of Music and Worship, and Joel Patterson, director of worship and music.

The students will perform at five different locations including: Camarillo Community Church in Camarillo, Calif., Friday, March 12, at 7:30 p.m.; Skyline Church in San Diego, Calif., Saturday, March 13, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, March 14, at 8:15 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.; Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., as part of the Excellence in Entertainment Premium Workshop Monday, March 15; The Esplanade Arts Center in Hemet, Calif., Sunday, March 14, at 6 p.m.; and Temple City High School workshop at Oxnard Presbyterian Church Tuesday, March 16, at 7 p.m.

“It’s important and formative for the students as they develop a greater depth of performance discipline, strengthen their sense of community and connect to the global imperative in the college’s mission,” Shasberger says.

The orchestra has previously toured in Colorado with the Westmont College Choir in 2007, Central California in spring 2008 and Austria and Hungary in summer 2009.

The performances will include a large collection of hymns and other worship songs as well as Johannes Brahms’ “Overture,” Gustav Holst’s “Mars,” “Jupiter,” and “Venus” from The Planets suite, Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid,” Linda Robbins Coleman’s “For A Beautiful Land,” and Bedřich Smetana’s “Moldau.”

The tour is supported by student fund raising and donors who participate in the annual orchestra patron program. Students stay in homes of members of the sponsoring churches and organizations. For more information, contact Helen Park in the music department at (805) 565-6040 or hpark@westmont.edu.