C.W. Post Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music Alexander Dashnaw Conducts Farewell Concert

Sunday, March 30, 2008; Scholarship to be established in his name

Brookville, NY -- After 43 years as the director of choral activities and professor of music at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Alexander “Lex” Dashnaw will conduct his farewell concert on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 7th Annual Tilles Invitational Choral Festival.

More than 350 musicians and singers will come together to perform major works by Aleksandr Borodin and Ralph Vaughan Williams under Dashnaw’s direction. They include three Long Island high school choruses, a chorus from South Carolina, the Long Island University Chorus and the Long Island Youth Orchestra.

To honor Lex Dashnaw’s contributions, the School of Visual and Performing Arts has established the Alexander “Lex” Dashnaw Scholarship Fund to provide support to deserving music students. Proceeds from the concert will go toward the fund. Professor Dashnaw has trained thousands of students, both music majors and non-majors, during his tenure at C.W. Post. Although he is retiring, he doesn’t want to leave the students behind. “My career at C.W. Post has always been about the students,” Dashnaw said. “Nothing would make me happier than the creation of a scholarship to assist talented young musicians to study at C.W. Post for years to come.”

Dashnaw, who retired from his full-time position in 2007, leaves a great legacy. Under his leadership, the Long Island University Chorus has enriched the musical life of the Campus and the local Long Island community with hundreds of concerts, and has gained national and international recognition as one of the finest University choruses in the country. The chorus has performed in every major concert hall in New York City with internationally renowned ensembles including the National Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Long Island University Chorus, under Maestro Dashnaw’s baton, has made 16 European concert tours, two tours of Mexico, and several tours in Canada and Korea.

In addition to his work at Long Island University, Dashnaw has been artistic director of many festivals, including the Manhattan Choral Festival, the Chicago Choral Festival, the Pacific Choral Festival in San Francisco, the Atlanta Choral Festival, the Jubilee Festival in Washington, D.C., and the Strathclyde Festival in Glasgow, Scotland. He has served as president of the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association, and as president of the New York State Association of College Music Programs. He has been the guest conductor of many regional, divisional and all-state choruses throughout the United States.

Tickets for the concert and scholarship fundraiser range from $100 for two tickets to $5,000 for up to 12 tickets and includes a post-performance reception. Contributors of $100 or more will have their name inscribed on a scroll to be presented to Dashnaw at a reception following the concert.

The event is open to the public. General admission tickets are available for $10 and $15 the day of the concert at the door. Tilles Center is located on the C.W. Post Campus at 720 Northern Boulevard (Route 25A) in Brookville, New York. For reservations, information or to make a donation to the scholarship fund, call (516) 299-2396 or e-mail marisa.loria@liu.edu.