Mori to Conduct Fall Orchestra Concert

Alumnus Paul Mori ’77, who first garnered praise as a conductor with the Bach Ensemble of Baltimore in the 1990s, leads the Westmont Orchestra into a new season Friday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. in Westmont’s Page Multipurpose Room and Sunday, Oct. 23, at 3 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church, 21 E. Constance Ave. Tickets to the Fall Orchestra Concert, which can be purchased at (805) 565-6040, are $10 general admission; students are free.

The 57-member orchestra will showcase its diversity by performing a variety of music, including Dan Goeller’s “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus,” Claude Debussy’s “Fetes from Nocturnes,” Holst’s First Suite in E Flat, and Antonin Dvorak’s “Serenade for Strings” opus 22, which will be played solely by the strings and without a conductor. Wind instruments will be featured separately in Holst’s First Suite, conducted by Mori.

In Baltimore, Mori’s chamber orchestra performed a wide-ranging repertoire and was featured numerous times on public radio station WBJC’s prestigious “Music in Maryland” series. At the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Mori earned a master’s degree in bassoon performance Phillip Kolker and a doctorate in orchestral conducting with Frederik Prausnitz.

He has served as musical director of the Rainier Symphony (1996-2001) and as the music director of the Bainbridge Orchestra and the Rainier Youth Symphony. He has also appeared as guest conductor for various orchestras, including the Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra and the Huntington Chamber Orchestra of West Virginia. In December 2005, he conducted a concert in Baltimore with world-renown violinist Hilary Hahn and members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

At Westmont he conducts chamber ensembles and coaches the wind and brass sections for the orchestra throughout the year.