Maestro! Choral Director Lex Dashnaw Leads Farewell Concert

Alexander "Lex" Dashnaw didn't miss a beat when the dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, Rhoda Grauer, asked what he wished for upon retiring as director of C.W. Post choral activities.

"His answer was to have a scholarship in his name devoted to music students," Grauer recalled. "He has always loved his students as much as he loved music and he wanted to leave something behind that would support music students well into the future."

Dashnaw bade farewell to the choral programs he has directed since 1965 with a spectacular fundraising performance on Sunday, March 30, 2008 at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. The concert by nearly 400 members of several high school choruses, the Long Island Youth Orchestra and the Long Island University Chorus raised sufficient funds to endow the scholarship fund. More than $30,000 has been raised so far, with a goal of growing the fund to $100,000. (Those who wish to contribute to the scholarship can contact the Alumni and Development Office at 516-299-2263 or lisa.mulvey@liu.edu).

More than 250 donors signed a 30-foot scroll that was presented to Dashnaw at the reception, which was attended by scores of friends and former students - some of whom sang under his baton decades ago.

Lex Dashnaw poses with former music majors.

Dashnaw admits to "very, very mixed feelings" about retiring as director of the Long Island University Chorus after 43 years, "because I love working with the kids."

Dashnaw said many of the most memorable moments of his career have happened during rehearsal -- no audience, just conductor and choir.

"It's like a snowball," Dashnaw said, recalling a recent rehearsal of "Salve Regina" with the Long Island University Chamber Singers. "You push it along and it grows and grows. We stopped and made corrections, but eventually the momentum just built, and we just nailed that thing. By the time we got to the end of it, we were all breathless. They spontaneously broke into applause."

"That's the magic," he said. "And that's what I live for."

During Dashnaw's tenure as director, C.W. Post's choral programs have flourished. Hundreds of leaders of school choruses, church choirs and other singing groups around Long Island and throughout the country sang under his baton. C.W. Post's Department of Music earned widespread recognition as a strong vocal/choral presence in the New York metropolitan area. Non-music and music majors alike flourished in the program.

C.W. Post alumna Rene Broome presents Professor Dashnaw with a crystal figurine of a conductor.

"We were sort of the tail wagging the dog," Dashnaw recalled with a grin, but added that in recent years -- and especially since the arrival of Dr. James McRoy, professor of music and director of bands -- "we've become very strong in instrumental music as well."

Lex, as he likes to be called, is a native of Lake Placid, N.Y. He has made his home in Manhattan since completing graduate school at Northwestern University, but still has a farm in Bloomingdale, on the back side of Whiteface Mountain. These days it's a "gentleman's farm," but he did work the land for a number of years, commuting from Long Island to the northern Adirondacks every weekend, and even sold his wares in a health food store on the premises.

"For 15 years I raised all of my own meat," he said. "The math professors from Princeton (University) used to gather every summer at Loon Lake, and they were customers of mine. I knew the Rockefeller family -- they came to my little farmhouse store."

One of Dashnaw's most enduring legacies will be the 18 European concert tours, two tours of Mexico, and several tours in Canada and Korea he organized for select groups of C.W. Post singers. Under his leadership, the Long Island University Chorus has performed in every major concert hall in New York City with, among others, the National Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Sydney (Australia) Symphony Orchestra.

"Students just blossom on those tours," he said.

Stephanie Watt, chair of the C.W. Post Department of Music, pays tribute to Professor Dashnaw, pictured at far left with Long Island University President David J. Steinberg.

Dashnaw joined the faculty of C.W. Post after earning his Bachelor of Science in music education at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and his Master of Music degree at Northwestern University. He served for six years as chairperson of the Department of Music. In 2001, he was honored as one of the 75 most influential people in the history of Long Island University. He has been a recipient of the University's David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Long island University Trustees Award for Scholarly Achievement, as well as the Distinguished Service to Culture Award from the Crane School of Music.

In addition to his work for the 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.

What will he do with his time as a retiree? Travel, skiing and, one would hope, music. Even after a four-decade-plus career, Dashnaw has the energy of a person half his age.

"I can't see myself sitting around doing nothing," he said.

Posted: April 7, 2008