Thank you for attending this year’s Orchestra Festival!
Check back soon for more details on the 2025 Orchestra Festival!

27th Annual PLU Invitational High School Orchestra Festival

October 2025

Mary Baker Russell Music Center | Asieh Mahyar, Director

For over twenty years, the PLU Orchestras have hosted up to a dozen of the finest high school orchestras and chamber orchestras from around the region for a day of music making and sharing. The Annual PLU Orchestra Festival offers your ensemble an opportunity early in the year to hone their performance skills and get great feedback from both our faculty and the warm, generous acoustic of our world class Lagerquist Concert Hall.

Application:

High school directors or youth symphony directors, please submit your Application form for the Festival For High School Orchestras. Each organization is guaranteed participation if the application form and payment is received by the deadline of October 14th, 2024.

Please note: Due to a high volume of applicants, we are currently fully booked. However, applications will remain open until October 14 for those interested in being placed on the waitlist.

Orchestra Festival Application Form is now closed

Confirmation and Registration:

Once applications have been reviewed, directors will be notified of acceptance via email and provided access to Registration form. Once received, please complete registration and payment using the link provided by the deadline. 

Please note that no refunds will be allowed after registration has been completed, and no registration or payment will be accepted following the deadline listed below:

  • REGISTRATION DEADLINE: October 14, 2024, 2:00 pm
  • PAYMENT DEADLINE: October 21, 2024, 2:00 pm
  • REGISTRATION FEE: $200.00 per Ensemble

Schedule:

  • 8:00 am-12:00 pm – Welcome/Festival Begins
  • 12:00-12:30 pm – PLU Symphony Orchestra Performance
  • 12:30-1:00 pm – Meet and Greet with Clinicians, Q&A with Students
  • 1:00-6:15pm – Festival Resumes

Depending on the amount of attendees, an additional 5 to 10 minutes between all time slots may be added as a buffer time to allow for stage set up change.

Performance

Friday, October 25

Each ensemble will receive 30 minutes of stage time based on their preferred time frame. Please keep the total performance time to 15 minutes and save the second half for clinic and feedback.

NOTE: Please ensure your ensemble arrives at least 45 minutes before your assigned time spot. You are welcome to stay in the hall after you have finished your performance and clinic.

Benefits of Orchestras Attending:

  • A chance to perform in one of the best concert venues in Washington, Lagerquist Concert Hall
  • Positive feedback from expert PLU faculty clinicians
  • A low entry fee
  • A link to an audio/video recording of your performance and clinic session will be provided within approximately two weeks after the festival
  • The opportunity to hear other orchestras’ performances and clinics, Including PLU Symphony Orchestra

PLUSO Host, Clinician, and Conductor

Passionate about performing music from different cultures, Asieh Mahyar serves as the interim Director of Orchestral Studies at Pacific Lutheran University and Symphony Orchestra Conductor at West Seattle Community Orchestra. A Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University, Ms. Mahyar received her MM in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her BM in Choral Conducting from Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, Armenia.

Coming from Iran and one of the very few female conductors from her country, Ms. Mahyar has broad experience working with ensembles at different labels and countries. Her international experience includes roles as Assistant Conductor at MSU, MI, UMass Amherst, MA, and Tchaikovsky Music College, Armenia, as well as collaborations with professional orchestras like the Grand Rapids Symphony and Mansfield Symphony Orchestra. Her dedication to music education is evident through collaborations with high school Orchestras, festivals and conferences as a clinician and adjudicator including WMEA Conference Junior All-State Orchestra, Lake Stevens HS Solo Ensemble Competition (MPMEA), PLU Invitational High School Orchestra Festival, Mercer Island High School Festival, WA, Warner Middle School Orchestra, MI, Stadium High School Orchestra, WA, Bellevue High School Orchestra, WA, and Curtis Senior High School Orchestra. Ms. Mahyar works equally with instrumental and vocal ensembles and leads full opera productions. Selected for prestigious workshops and conferences, Ms. Mahyar continues to contribute to the global music community, fostering cultural diversity and musical excellence.

Ms. Mahyar has been selected to participate in prestigious conducting workshops and conferences including Cabrillo Music Festival with Christian Macelaru and Octavio Más-Arocas, National Music Festival with Richard Rosenberg, Eastern Music Festival with Gerard Schwarz, Conducting Institute with Miguel Hart-Bedoya, Conductors Retreat at Medomak with Kenneth Kiesler, and Choral Conducting Workshop with Antanina Kalechyts.

Past Clinicians have included...

  • Jerry Kracht, Prof. Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University
  • Don Thulean, former Music Director of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra
  • Roger Briggs, Conductor Emeritus of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra
  • Huw Edwards, Music Director of the Olympia Symphony
  • Paul Eliot Cobbs, Music Director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association
  • George Shangrow, Former Music Director of Orchestra Seattle
  • Roupen Shakarian, Music Director of Philharmonia Northwest
  • Harvey Felder, Music Director of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra
  • Stewart Kershaw, Music Director of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra
  • David Waltham, Former Music Director of the Rainier Symphony Orchestra
  • Wesley Schulz, Orchestra Director at the University of Puget Sound
  • Marcus Tsutakawa, Conductor Emeritus of the Garfield Symphony Orchestra

Guest Clinicians

Korine Fujiwara is professor of violin, viola, and composition at Pacific Lutheran University. She served for many years on the music faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University and is in great demand for master classes and clinics throughout the United States. She is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, a devoted and sought-after chamber musician and teacher, and a gifted composer and arranger.

Named as one of Strings Magazine’s “25 Contemporary Composers to Watch,” Korine has received multiple commissions including works for opera, chamber ensembles, chorus, concerti, and music for modern dance. Her works have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Australia, China, and Japan.

Critics have remarked of Ms. Fujiwara’s music, “The ear is forever tickled by beautifully judged music that manages to be sophisticated and accessible at the same time” (Fanfare Magazine); “She knows how to exploit all the resources of string instruments alone and together” (Strings Magazine). “Fujiwara beautifully meets the challenge of weaving together different emotions across generations that make sense musically while delighting the ear.” (WOSU Classical 101 by Request) “Fujiwara’s music is rich and beguiling throughout.” (The Columbus Dispatch) “Artfully layered and knitted together” (The Wall Street Journal).

Korine is a recipient of an Opera America Commissioning Grant from the Opera Grants for Female Composers program, made possible through the generosity of The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, for her award-winning composition “The Flood,” with Stephen Wadsworth, librettist, premiered in full production by Opera Columbus and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in February 2019.

Ms. Fujiwara holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University and began her orchestral career with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. She was also a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, where she held the position of Acting Assistant Principal Second Violin.

Korine performs on a 1790 Contreras violin, 2004 Kurt Widenhouse viola, and bows by three of today’s finest makers, Paul Martin Siefried, Ole Kanestrom and Charles Espey, all of Port Townsend, WA, USA. Outside of her musical endeavors, she enjoys chocolate, ramen, and geocaching.

Anna Jensen is the Executive Director of the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association where she conducts the Tacoma String Philharmonic. During the academic year, she teaches at Pacific Lutheran University as the Lecturer of Double Bass and at the University of Puget Sound as the Director of Orchestras and Instructor of Double Bass. She is also the Director of Orchestras at the Annie Wright Schools. During the summer, Dr. Jensen teaches at The Evergreen Music Festival and The Hammond Ashley Bass Workshop. In recognition of her dedication to music education, Dr. Jensen was awarded the Outstanding Master Studio Teacher Award from the American String Teachers Association, WA Chapter and the WMEA “Friend of Music” award.

As a conductor, Dr. Jensen is a frequent clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor for All-State orchestras, district festivals, contests, and workshops across the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, and Alaska.

Dr. Jensen is the assistant principal bassist of Symphony Tacoma, the principal bassist of the Tacoma Opera Orchestra, the principal bassist of the Tacoma City Ballet Orchestra, and performs with the Paramount Theater Orchestra.

For Questions:

Asieh Mahyar, Director of Orchestras
School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Pacific Lutheran University
(253) 535-7602 e-mail: asieh.mahyar@plu.edu

Abby Deskins, Coordinator of Educational Outreach Programs
College of Professional Studies; Pacific Lutheran University
(253) 535-7877 e-mail: adeskins@plu.edu

More Information: