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Octava Concert!!!
Sunday March 10th 6pm
Maple Park Church
17620 60th Avenue West, Lynnwood, WA, 98037


The Octava Chamber Orchestra
bringing great music to the PNW




     

Johan Louwersheimer
Conductor Emeritus

     
                         


              

Maestro Johan Louwersheimer retired as Music Director of the Octava Chamber Orchestra in the Fall of 2023 and now holds the honorary title of our Conductor Emeritus. Johan was a founding member of Octava along with our President and Concertmaster Matthew Weiss. Johan and Matt attended the University of Washington Music School in the late 1980's and early 1990's and formed Octava out of select string players that attended the UW summer music program that Johan was in charge of. We wish Johan all the best in this new stage of this life.

Maestro Johan Louwersheimer s unique musical background and training has provided him with the enviable ability to stand in front of both professional and community orchestras and choirs. Johan began his training in conducting in his late thirties, when he received an international scholarship to pursue doctoral studies in conducting at the University of Washington in Seattle. With Octava, he toured Washington and the Fraser Valley. Octava has featured renowned soloists including Bela Siki, Steven Stark, and Walter Schwede. While at the University of Washington, Maestro Louwersheimer received the Warren Babb Memorial Award.

In 1993 Maestro Louwersheimer moved back to British Columbia, to spend more time with his family, where founded the Abbotsford Symphony Orchestra and Abbotsford Symphony Orchestra Chorus. With the Abbotsford Symphony he has collaborated with outstanding Canadian musicians including; Judith Forst, Anton Kuerti, Robert Silverman, Stephen Lemelin, Jonathon Crow, Jennifer Lim and Ian Parker. There he developed the much loved educational Discovery Concerts to promote orchestra music to school age children.

In 2007, Maestro Louwersheimer received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Abbotsford Rotary club for his commitment promoting music in the community. The scope of his musical career has included an national award winning high school music program, Artistic director of the UW summer program and Artist in Residence at the University of Washington and Lee in Virginia.

Maestro Louwersheimer has been the Artistic Director with the Handel Society since 1995 in White Rock, British Columbia. Under his baton the choir has performed large scale choral orchestral masterworks including St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion by J.S. Bach, Haydn s Masses and Creation, Mozart s Masses and Requiem, Beethoven s Ninth Symphony, Schubert s great Masses, Puccini s Messa di Gloria, and the music of Benjamin Britten. For the celebration of the Handel Society s 30th Anniversary, he was instrumental in commissioning a new Canadian composition by Bruce Ruddell.

Since September 2009, Maestro Louwersheimer also served as the artistic director of the Chilliwack Metropolitan Orchestra. where he commissioned the Divertimento for Three Trombones by Canadian composer, Michel R. Edward.


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