The Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music will present the 2025 Strings at Southern Music Festival, co-directed by Drs. Steven and Larisa Elisha, on Monday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. inside the Performing Arts Center on the Georgia Southern University campus.

The Festival Orchestra Concert features the Georgia Southern Symphony, under the baton of Steven Elisha, as well as the winners of the 2024 Georgia Southern Symphony Concerto Competition. 

Collin Morgan, a first-place winner on euphonium, will perform Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, Second Place winner, Justin Fullem (clarinet) will perform Franz Krommer’s clarinet concerto and Third Place winner, Thomas Schandolph (trombone) will perform Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s trombone concerto. Honorable Mention was awarded to Max Martínez, violin,  and Kaylee Origer, trumpet. The concert concludes with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major. The performance is free and open to the public.

The Georgia Southern Symphony and String Camerata, a premier ensemble of the Gretsch School of Music, has been a recipient of an Emmy Award and featured in performances throughout the state and region, including the Georgia Music Educators Association In-Service Conferences, the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, as well as at the Performing Arts Center and Carol A. Carter Recital Hall on the Statesboro Campus, Fine Arts Auditorium (Savannah), the Dublin (Georgia) Arts Council Gala and Vidalia’s historic Pal Theater. Recently, the String Camerata was awarded a highly prestigious grant from the Halle Foundation, which funded a performance and educational tour of Germany, during May 2024. 

The Camerata performed in prestigious venues in Berlin, Leipzig, Halle and Bamberg, including the Summerhall of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, Germany, where composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, was last employed and buried.