Sonoma State University hires student orchestra director

Sonoma State University has hired Alexander Kahn, a full-time associate professor of music, to direct its fledgling Sonoma State Symphony Orchestra, a student ensemble that performs in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center.

Kahn, who plays piano, French horn and violin, earned a Ph.D. in Music History from U.C. Berkeley and a graduate performance diploma in orchestra conducting from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He was most recently a tenured professor at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.

The music department started a small string orchestra several years ago , and the ensemble was ready to advance to the next level.

“The need for a full-time director was there,” said Brian Wilson, music department chair at SSU.

This semester, there are 34 members in the student orchestra, but Kahn plans to grow it to 60 to 80 players.

“It seems obvious that Sonoma State, with a performance hall like no other in the world, attracting artists like no other university in the world, should have a top-tier symphony orchestra,” Kahn told a SSU News Center reporter. “The symphony orchestra program will expose students to the gamut of orchestral music, from pops to Baroque, spanning many centuries.”

The first performance of the University Orchestra will be held Dec. 11 in Weill Hall. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 and John Corigliano’s “Invitation to the Voyage.” SSU music professor Marilyn Thompson will be the soloist in the Mozart piano concerto.

Community members interested in playing with the orchestra can contact Kahn to schedule an audition at alexander.kahn@sonoma.edu.