John Fast and Joan Griffing Photo by Jim Bishop
The Eastern Mennonite University department of music will present a faculty recital 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.
John Fast, harpsichordist and organist, and Joan Griffing, violinist, will present a recital of baroque music, including pieces by J. S. Bach, Handel, Biber and Buxtehude. They will be assisted by Pedro Aponte, flutist, and Nathan Bontrager, cellist.
Dr. Griffing teaches violin and viola, coaches chamber music and conducts the EMU orchestra. She is also concertmaster of the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Virginia Symphony and violinist with the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C.
This past spring, she premiered a violin concerto written for her by Terry Vosbein, composer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University. She is also a founding member of Tal Consort, a chamber music group based in the Shenandoah Valley.
She earned her bachelor and master of music degrees from Indiana University, where she studied with Tadeusz Wronski, and her DMA in violin performance from Ohio State University.
Fast, a member of the EMU music faculty since 1975, teaches organ, piano, class piano, and music theory. He also teaches piano in the preparatory music department at EMU.
Fast received a BA degree from Bethel College, N. Newton, Kan., and an MM degree from Indiana University.
An active church musician, he is currently organist and choir director at Park View Mennonite church, Harrisonburg, and previously was organist at Asbury United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church, Harrisonburg.
Admission to the concert is free, but donations are welcomed for the EMU music department student scholarship fund.