Plateau Community Orchestra to perform June 28 at Enumclaw High School

Under the direction of its latest conductor Nathan Brown, the Plateau Community Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. June 28 at Enumclaw High School auditorium

Hired this past fall, 18-year-old Brown is a virtuoso violinist and junior at Pacific Lutheran University majoring in conducting and music performance.

Brown hails from a musical family and is the son of former Enumclaw band teacher Wayne Brown and Enumclaw alumnus Gayle Dal Santo. He grew up in and around music in Othello, Wash., where his parents taught music.

Brown started playing music early in life, learning the flute from his mother. Both of his parents were wind instrumentalists, but the younger Brown’s interest turned to violin and he started lessons at age 11.

At 15 years old, a move to Olympia connected him with a local violinist and craftsman at Ray’s Violin Shop, where he grew in his technique and also learned the skill of violin and bow making.

During his senior year of high school he began studying with Svend Rønning, current Tacoma Symphony Orchestra concertmaster and professor of violin and department chairman of strings at Pacific Lutheran University. Rønning also holds numerous positions in orchestras and universities in the United States and abroad.

Brown is pursuing a degree in music education at PLU. After completion of his degree, he plans to attend a conservatory abroad for a doctorate of music with an emphasis in conducting. He is a seven-year member of the Tacoma Youth Symphony and their freelance string quartet program, concertmaster of the Tacoma Musical Playhouse pit orchestra and a private instructor. Additionally, he does freelance conducting and private performance engagements.

His biography also notes, he has studied conducting under Joe Dyvig, music educator for the Olympia School District, John Welsh, Student Orchestras of Greater Olympia, and Paul Elliot Cobbs of the Tacoma Youth Symphony and the former Everett Symphony Orchestra.

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