Orchestral activities

Conductor: Fred Cohen, Director, Schwob School of Music

The CSU Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys an active performance schedule, presenting a rich diversity of orchestral repertoire under the direction of Dr. Fred Cohen, Director of the Schwob School of Music. The Philharmonic is comprised of student instrumentalists, the majority of whom are music majors. Participation is by audition only.

The Philharmonic has been acknowledged as one of the finest collegeate instrumental ensembles within and beyond the community of Columbus. Recent guest conductors have included Yoel Levi, Music Director Emeritus of the Atlanta Symphony, and David Lockington, Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony. Recent guest artists have included pianist Jon Kimura Parker, who joined the Schwob School of Music faculty as the Dr. E. Stephen Purdom Distinguished Visiting Artist in 2005-2008, and Charlie Vernon, Bass Trombone with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Each winter the Philharmonic hosts the CSU Concerto Competition, featuring student performers from the competition. Works performed in 2009 included compositions by Frank Martin, Maurice Ravel, Willliam Kraft, Giuseppe Verdi, Luigi Bassi, Henry Vieuxtemps, and Camille Saint-Saëns.

Repertoire for the Philharmonic ranges from the classics of the Baroque and Classical eras, to standard orchestral repertoire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to first performances of newly commissioned works. Performances in recent years have included such works as the four symphonies of Johannes Brahms, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Respighi's Pines of Rome, Dvorak's New World Symphony, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Lutoslawski's Novelette for Orchestra, Lindberg's Chick'a'Bone Checkout, and the standard works of Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart.

In 2009-10, the Philharmonic will perform Brahm's Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, the world premiere of Fred Cohen's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Gila Goldstein, and works by Bach, Mahler, Mozart, Ravel, Verdi, and others. The Philharmonic will combine forces with the Schwob School of Music's Choral Union to present Mendelssohn's Elijah, under the baton of Prof. Constantina Tsoulainou. In addition, the orchestra will appear as the pit ensemble for Gershwin's musical, Crazy for You at Theater-on-the-Park.

The CSU Philharmonic has been selected on numerous occasions to appear at the Georgia Music Educators Association and Georgia Music Teachers Association conventions. In addition to its on-campus performance schedule, the CSU Philharmonic assists in the production of operas, musicals, and various other interdepartmental productions. A number of student members of the CSU Philharmonic also perform regularly with regional orchestras, such as the Columbus, Macon, and LaGrange Symphony Orchestras.